Ten inspiring and thought provoking Thomas Jefferson quotes, including information and when and to whom he said them.

1. Compiled and Edited by
Spencer W. McBride
Editor, U.S. History Weekly

2. “I never considered a difference
of opinion in politics, in religion,
in philosophy, as cause for
withdrawing from a friend.”
From a letter to William Hamilton,
April 22, 1800

3. “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.”
From the Declaration of
Independence

4. “I have seen enough of
one war never to wish to
see another.”
From a letter to John Adams,
April 25, 1794

5. “There is a natural
aristocracy among
men. The grounds
of this are virtue
and talents.”
From a letter to John Adams,
October 28, 1813

6. From a letter to Edward
Rutledge, December 27,
1796

7. “I cannot live in a world
without books.”
From a letter to John Adams
June 10, 1815

8. “I set out on this ground
which I suppose to be self
evident, ‘that the earth
belongs in usufruct to the
living;’ that the dead have
neither powers nor rights
over it.”
From a letter to James Madison
criticizing the new Constitution,
September 6, 1789

9. “I have sworn upon
the altar of god eternal
hostility against every
form of tyranny over
the mind of man.”
From a letter to Benjamin Rush
September 23, 1800

10. “Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God
and myself alone. Its evidence before the world
is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest
and dutiful to society the religion which has
regulated it cannot be a bad one.”
From a letter to biographer Joseph
Delaplaine, December 25, 1816

11. “Determine never to be idle. No person will have
occasion to complain of the want of time who
never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be
done if we are always doing.”
From a letter to his daughter, Martha
May 5, 1787

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