If a nation expects to be ignorant — and free — in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816


No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.
Letter to Trustees for the Lottery of East Tennessee College, May 6, 1810


Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.
Letter to Dupont de Nemours, April 24, 1816


It is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country.
Letter to Hugh P. Taylor, October 4, 1823


Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever persuasion, religious or political.
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801


I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Letter to Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800


I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
Letter to William Charles Jarvis, September 28, 1820


And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds
of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781


A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
Rights of British America, 1774


Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore,
are its only safe depositories.
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781


An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens....There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends & books.
Letter to John Melish, January 13, 1813


I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Letter to Archibald Stewart, Dec 23, 1791


I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants...I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.
December 28, 1796


No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].
Draft Constitution for the State of Virginia, June, 1776


A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.
Letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785


History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.
Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781


If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.
Letter to William Duane, 1811


All the States but our own are sensible that knowledge is power.
Letter to Joseph C. Cabell, January 22, 1820


Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.
First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801


It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.
Opinion on Debts Due to Soldiers, 1790


It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.
Letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785


Excessive taxation will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.
Letter to John Taylor, November 26, 1798


If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
letter to Thomas Cooper, Nov 29, 1802


I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
Letter to William Ludlow, September 6, 1824


I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance.
September 12, 1821


Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you... From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.
Letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785


In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail-maker.
Letter to Jean Nicolas Démeunier, April 29, 1795


It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.
Letter to John Sinclair, 1791


Newspapers… serve as chimnies to carry off noxious vapors and smoke.
Letter to Thaddeus Kosciusko, April 2, 1802


My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.
Letter to Edward Rutledge, 1788


It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
A Summary View of the Rights of British America, 1775


Is it the Fourth?
Evening July 3; Jefferson died the next morning, July 4, 1826