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Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the author of the American Declaration of Independence and has been called the Father of American Architecture so it is important to understand what he believed. On this page are a lot of quotes from Jefferson. I have these quotes here to study, not because I agree with them all. Three major areas I disagree with are:
For example I disagree with this quote from Jefferson: "It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine well his own opinion." I believe almost the exact opposite. I believe new, better ideas come from individuals first. The majority of the people may or may not ever come to agree with a better idea - this is especially true if they have been raised to be insecure and feel threatened by new ideas. If we substitute the word "nature" where Jefferson uses "Creator" or "God", and if we replace the words "right" and "rights" with "need" and "needs" then his ideas come mucch closer to the EQI.org type beliefs. S. Hein -- Google Search What if Thomas Jefferson was wrong? - 0 Results - April 9, 2012 (Same for What if Thomas Jefferson were wrong?) I did find this one
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Other EQI.org Topics: Emotional Intelligence | Empathy |
| We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator
with inherent and inalienable 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."
--Declaration of Independence as originally written by
Thomas Jefferson, 1776. "The principles on which we engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the laws of our being, and we but obeyed them in pursuing undeviatingly the course they called for. It issued finally in that inestimable state of freedom which alone can ensure to man the enjoyment of his equal rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Georgetown Republicans, 1809. "The God who gave us life gave
us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may
destroy, but cannot disjoin them." --Thomas
Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
"Nothing... is unchangeable but the inherent and
inalienable rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Cartwright, 1824. "Man [is] a rational animal,
endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of
justice." --Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson,
1823. "Questions of natural right are triable by
their conformity with the moral sense and reason of
man." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on French
Treaties, 1793. |
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| Quotes Showing Jefferson's Belief In "God"
or a "Creator" - (References found below)
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights -- I believe that justice is instinct and innate, that the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise Creator must have seen to be necessary in an animal destined to live in society. -- 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 of the gift of God? - God has formed us moral agents... - The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.
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On Rights
"To secure these [inalienable] rights [to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness], governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...
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." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence,
1776.
"The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society
we give up any natural rights." --Thomas Jefferson to
Francis Gilmer, 1816.
"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 of the gift of God?"
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at
all." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois D'Ivernois, 1795.
"All... natural rights may be abridged or modified in
[their] exercise by law." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on
Residence Bill, 1790.
"Laws abridging the natural right of the citizen should be
restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest
limits." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson, 1813.
"Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most
unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy." --Thomas
Jefferson to William Short, 1791.
"The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we
must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and
eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to
persuade men to do even what is for their own good."
--Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 1790.
"It had become an universal and almost uncontroverted
position in the several States, that the purposes of society do
not require a surrender of all our rights to our ordinary
governors; that there are certain portions of right not necessary
to enable them to carry on an effective government, and which
experience has nevertheless proved they will be constantly
encroaching on, if submitted to them; that there are also certain
fences which experience has proved peculiarly efficacious against
wrong, and rarely obstructive of right, which yet the governing
powers have ever shown a disposition to weaken and remove. Of the
first kind, for instance, is freedom of religion; of the second,
trial by jury, habeas corpus laws, free presses." --Thomas
Jefferson to Noah Webster, 1790.
"If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater
are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed
ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than
one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This
would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights
has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our
government has been charged." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Monroe, 1782.
"No one has a right to obstruct another exercising his
faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part
of his nature." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont
de Nemours, 1816.
"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 to Francis Gilmer, 1816.
"We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with
a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but
none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants
of another country." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wayles
Eppes, 1813.
"Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only
as we have submitted to them." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on
Virginia, 1782.
"The equal rights of man and the happiness of every
individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects
of government." --Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823
"I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the
intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means,
and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors
of the many." --Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1804
=Moral Principles=
"Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was
to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right
and wrong, merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part
of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is
the true foundation of morality." --Thomas Jefferson to
Peter Carr, 1787.
"God has formed us moral agents... that we may promote the
happiness of those with whom He has placed us in society, by
acting honestly towards all, benevolently to those who fall
within our way, respecting sacredly their rights, bodily and
mental, and cherishing especially their freedom of conscience, as
we value our own." --Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, 1814.
"Nature [has] implanted in our breasts a love of others, a
sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts
us irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses."
--Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, 1814.
"The true fountains of evidence [are] the head and heart of
every rational and honest man. It is there nature has written her
moral laws, and where every man may read them for himself."
--Thomas Jefferson: French Treaties Opinion, 1793.
"I believe that justice is instinct and innate, that the
moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of
feeling, seeing, or hearing; as a wise Creator must have seen to
be necessary in an animal destined to live in society."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1823.
"Men are disposed to live honestly, if the means of doing so
are open to them." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois de
deMarbois, 1817.
"Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very
important one to society." Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law,
1814.
"A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every
member of it is personally responsible for his society."
--Thomas Jefferson to George Hammond, 1792.
"Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right,
turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular
delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in
the end be with us." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Breckenridge, 1822.
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction,
that with nations as with individuals, our interests soundly
calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral
duties." --Thomas Jefferson: 2nd Inaugural, 1805
"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human
beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws
which bind each of them separately." --Thomas Jefferson to
George Logan, 1816.
"When we come to the moral principles on which the
government is to be administered, we come to what is proper for
all conditions of society. Liberty, truth, probity, honor, are
declared to be the four cardinal principles of society. I believe
that morality, compassion, generosity, are innate elements of the
human constitution; that there exists a right independent of
force." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de
Nemours, 1816.
"Principle will, in... most... cases open the way for us to
correct conclusion." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval,
1816.
"A departure from principle in one instance becomes a
precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till
the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of
misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sin and
suffering." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
"Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a
nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free."
--Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, 1789.
"I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to
law in the government of man." --Thomas Jefferson to
Augustus B. Woodward, 1824.
"Political interest [can] never be separated in the long run
from moral right." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1806.
"It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or
unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to
distrust and examine well his own opinion." --Thomas
Jefferson to William Findley. 1801.
=Moral Degeneracy=
"When [the moral sense] is wanting, we endeavor to supply
the defect by education, by appeals to reason and calculation, by
presenting to the being so unhappily conformed, other motives to
do good and to eschew evil, such as the love, or the hatred, or
the rejection of those among whom he lives, and whose society is
necessary to his happiness and even existence; demonstrations by
sound calculation that honesty promotes interest in the long run;
the rewards and penalties established by the laws; and ultimately
the prospects of a future state of retribution for the evil as
well as the good done while here. These are the correctives which
are supplied by education, and which exercise the functions of
the moralist, the preacher, and legislator; and they lead into a
course of correct action all those whose depravity is not too
profound to be eradicated." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas
Law, 1814.
"The human character, we believe, requires in general
constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from
right by the seductions of self-love." --Thomas Jefferson to
Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816.
"In every government on earth is some trace of human
weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning
will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and
improve." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
xx"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being
could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power
over others." --Thomas Jefferson to A. L. C. Destutt de
Tracy, 1811.
xx"Force [is] the vital principle and immediate parent of
despotism." --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Inaugural, 1801
"Those characters wherein fear predominates over hope may
apprehend too much from...instances of irregularity. They may
conclude too hastily that nature has formed man insusceptible of
any other government than that of force, a conclusion not founded
in truth nor experience." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Madison, 1787.
"Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do
not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the
timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the
people." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
"Experience declares that man is the only animal which
devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to...the
general prey of the rich on the poor." --Thomas Jefferson to
Edward Carrington, 1787.
"When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be
borne, resistance becomes morality." --Thomas Jefferson M.
deStael, 1807.
"If ever there was a holy war, it was that which saved our
liberties and gave us independence." --Thomas Jefferson to
John Wayles Eppes, 1813.
"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 to Francois D'Ivernois, 1795.
"It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils
which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some
other." --Thomas Jefferson to John Sinclair, 1791
=The Power of the People=
"All power is inherent in the people." --Thomas
Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824.
"From the nature of things, every society must at all times
possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation."
--Thomas Jefferson: Rights of British America, 1774.
"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the
people." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1816.
"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed." --Thomas
Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
"Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in
mass. They are inherently independent of all but moral law."
--Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1819.
"The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when
permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must
be submitted to." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823.
"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are
not warned from time to time that their people preserve the
spirit of resistance?" --Thomas Jefferson to William
Stephens Smith, 1787.
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on
certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It
will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be
exercised at all." --Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams,
1787.
"I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good
thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms are in
the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally
establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which
have produced them. An observation of this truth should render
honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of
rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is medicine
necessary for the sound health of government." --Thomas
Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.
"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established, should not be changed for light and transient
causes... 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 [the people's] right, it is
their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new
guards for their future security." --Thomas Jefferson:
Declaration of Independence, 1776.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural
manure." --Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787.
=The Safest Depository=
"Democrats consider the people as the safest depository of
power in the last resort; they cherish them, therefore, and wish
to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are
competent." --Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 1825.
"The mass of the citizens is the safest depositary of their
own rights." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816.
"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the
rich, are our dependence for continued freedom." --Thomas
Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
"Aristocrats fear the people, and wish to transfer all power
to the higher classes of society." --Thomas Jefferson to
William Short, 1825.
"There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and
birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial
aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and
provision should be made to prevent its ascendency."
--Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813.
"The people...are the only sure reliance for the
preservation of our liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to James
Madison, 1787.
"No government can continue good, but under the control of
the people." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1819.
"No other depositories of power [but the people themselves]
have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to
their own profit the earnings of those committed to their
charge." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.
"I know no safe depositary 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." --Thomas Jefferson to
William C. Jarvis, 1820.
"The people, especially when moderately instructed, are the
only safe, because the only honest, depositaries of the public
rights, and should therefore be introduced into the
administration of them in every function to which they are
sufficient; they will err sometimes and accidentally, but never
designedly, and with a systematic and persevering purpose of
overthrowing the free principles of the government."
--Thomas Jefferson to A. Coray, 1823.
"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day." --Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816
"If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.
"I am convinced that, on the good sense of the people, we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787.
"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"The cement of this Union is in the heart-blood of every
American. I do not believe there is on earth a government
established on so immovable a basis." --Thomas Jefferson to
Lafayette, 1815.