Thomas Jefferson Education Quotes

I would recommend it to you to reflect, and remark on, and digest what you read; to enter into the spirit and design of your author; to observe every step he takes to accomplish his end; and to dwell on any remarkable beauties of diction, justness or sublimity of sentiment, or masterly strokes of true wit which may occur in the course of your reading. ~ Dumas Malone

Books are better than television, the internet, or the computer for educating and maintaining freedom.
Books matter because they state ideas and then attempt to thoroughly prove them. They have an advantage precisely because they slow down the process, allowing the reader to internalize, respond, react and transform. The ideas in books matter because time is taken to establish truth, and because the reader must take the time to consider each idea and either accept it or, if he rejects it, to think through sound reasons for doing so. A nation of people who write and read is a nation with the attention span to earn an education and free society if they choose. ~ Oliver DeMille

We often repent of what we have said, but never, never, of that which we have not. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Historically, if you look at people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, people with disposable incomes have always been agricultural innovators. ~ Sandra Lerner

Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a certain degree. ~ Thomas Jefferson

If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God. ~ Thomas Jefferson

We exist, and are quoted, as standing proofs that a government, so modeled as to rest continually on the will of the whole society, is a practicable government. ~ Thomas Jefferson

War ... is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Never put off your massage until tomorrow if you can get it today. ~ Thomas Jefferson

But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State. ~ Thomas Jefferson

For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum ~ Thomas Jefferson

It will be said that great societies cannot exist without government. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The United States has already passed on as the world's economic leader. Having flouted Thomas Jefferson for too long, America has succumbed to public debt, the 'fore horse for oppression and despotism,' after which 'taxation will follow, and in its train wretchedness and oppression. ~ Ilana Mercer

[T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established ... are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Opinion, and the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The constitution of most of the states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The days of life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present moment; ever flying from the ennui of that, yet carrying it with us; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before us. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by the next morning. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The earth belongs always to the living generations. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Big banks are more dangerous than standing armies, and the practice of borrowing and spending money to be paid back by the next generation is stealing from their future. ~ Thomas Jefferson

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The application requisite to the duties of the office I hold [governor of Virginia] is so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign. ~ Thomas Jefferson

May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion. ~ Thomas Jefferson

With earnest prayers to all my friends to cherish mutual good will, to promote harmony and conciliation, and above all things to let the love of our country soar above all minor passions, I tender you the assurance of my affectionate esteem and respect. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Power is not alluring to pure minds. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I have lived temperately ... I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half wine each day and even treble it with a friend. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments of both body and mind. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Is it less dishonest to do what is wrong because it is not expressly prohibited by written law? Let us hope our moral principles are not yet in that stage of degeneracy. ~ Thomas Jefferson

We have forgotten what Thomas Jefferson told us in 1776: that we are endowed by the Creator "with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Not happiness, mind you, but its pursuit. By implication Jefferson warned that if you pursue happiness for someone else, you deny him the right to pursue it on his own. ~ John Rosemond

[The Federal Convention] is really an assembly of demigods. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The most uninformed mind with a healthy body is happier than the wisest valetudinarian. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It is unfortunate that the efforts of mankind to recover the freedom of which they have been so long deprived, will be accompanied with violence, with errors, and even with crimes. But while we weep over the means, we must pray for the end. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Against us are all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty We are likely to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by unremitting labors and perils. ~ Thomas Jefferson

A room without books is like a life without meaning. ~ Thomas Jefferson