I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happines

s to himself from the exercise of power over others. -- 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.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstr
ucted action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action
according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of other
s. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyr
ant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual. -- Thomas
Jefferson
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time t
o time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? -- Thomas Jefferson
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. -- Thoma
s Jefferson
That government is best which governs least. -- Thomas Jefferson
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans,
and must be that of every free state. -- Thomas Jefferson
It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected toge
ther, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately. -- T
homas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is
, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. -- Thom
as Jefferson
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such nature. They disarm o
nly those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... such laws
serve rather to encourage than to prevent homocides, for an unarmed man may be a
ttacked with greater confidence than an armed man. -- Thomas Jefferson
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and
to protect its free expression should be our first object. -- Thomas Jefferson
The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against
the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks discoun
ting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow private
banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive
the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up homeless on
the continent their Fathers conquered.ÊÊ -- Thomas Jefferson
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain gr
ound. -- Thomas Jefferson
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be r
efreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its nat
ural manure.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson
When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the governm
ent, there is tyranny.Ê -- Thomas Jefferson
The federal government is our servant, not our master! -- Thomas Jefferson
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 be
tter so than not to be exercised at all. -- Thomas Jefferson