Jack Winter > Jack's Quotes

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
― Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Volume 10: 1 May 1816 to 18 January 1817

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency first by inflation then by deflation the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
― Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

“The only security of all is in a free press.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit of the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
― 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

“If you want something you've never had
You must be willing to do something you've never done.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. --”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrant. It is its natural manure.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, & talk by the hour? That 150 lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come. The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Democracy in America

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
-Thomas Jefferson”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“A Man's management of his own purse speaks volumes about character”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The policy of the American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the principal studies and endeavours of our lives.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I'd prefer to have dangerous freedom,
than have peaceful slavery”
― Tomas Jefferson

“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.”
― Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America