Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States and principal author of the Declaration of Independence has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents. There are plenty of quotes attributed to Jefferson circulating on the Internet, some of which appear to have been fabricated. The following set of quotes has been checked for verifiable attribution to Thomas Jefferson. As one reads these quotes, it is easy to see evidence of struggles that continue to this day, and yet the common sense eloquence of these statements from the early years of our nation rings truer today than ever.

On government
“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
Thomas Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801

“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.”
Confirmed in the Jeffersonian Cyclopedia

“It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.”
Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson

On the Constitution
“I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.”
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

“Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.”
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

On liberty
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.”
Letter to Archibald Stuart, 23 December 1791

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”
Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819

On taxes
“To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
The Works of Thomas Jefferson

On the news media
“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.”
Letter to John Norvell, 11 June 1807

On national debt
“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”
Confirmed in the Jeffersonian Cyclopedia

“I sincerely believe… that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
Letter to John Taylor, 28 May 1816

On firearms
“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”
Draft Constitution for Virginia, June 1776

John F. Kennedy stated at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners in 1962: “This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”


The Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Coach John Wooden of UCLA had some powerful things to say about life, achievement, and character.

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

“Our land is everything to us… I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it – with their lives.”

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability.”

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

“Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out”

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

“There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.”

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

“Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best.”

“Young people need models, not critics”

“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.”

“It is what we learn after we know it all that really counts”

“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”

“I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”

“You cannot attain and maintain physical condition unless you are morally and mentally conditioned. And it is impossible to be in moral condition unless you are spiritually conditioned. I always told my players that our team condition depended on two factors / how hard they worked on the floor during practice and how well they behaved between practices.”

“Be prepared and be honest.”

“Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”

“Ability is a poor man’s wealth.”

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

The brilliance of our nation’s founding fathers ring with startling clarity and relevance to this day.

“I say, the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison
September 6, 1789

Before disagreements were reduced to today’s four-letter epithets, clever and learned verbal jousts enlivened the conversation.

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
- Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.”
- Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”
- Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”
- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.”
- Moses Hadas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
- Groucho Marx

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
- Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
- Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend… if you have one.”
- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.”
- Winston Churchill, in reply

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.”
- Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”
- John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”
- Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.”
- Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”
- Paul Keating

“He had delusions of adequacy.”
- Walter Kerr

“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.”
- Jack E. Leonard

“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.”
- Robert Redford

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.”
- Thomas Brackett Reed

“He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.”
- James Reston (about Richard Nixon)

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”
- Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”
- Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”
- Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
- Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
- Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.”
- Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.”
- Billy Wilder