Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was an American statesman, philosopher, and founding father. He served as the second U.S. vice president 1797–81 and the third president 1801–09. An intellectual with wide-ranging interests, from music, law, science, painting, and architecture to political philosophy and natural history, he wielded a towering influence on the political and intellectual life of the new nation.
A Democratic-Republican from Virginia, Jefferson played a significant leadership role during the American Revolution. He was the principal drafter of the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Subsequently, President George Washington persuaded Jefferson to serve as the first secretary of state (1789–93.)
While president, Jefferson finalized the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and sanctioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–06) to survey this vast territory. He was re-elected to a second term, but his poor handling of U.S. shipping and maritime policy made a third term impossible.
After retiring from political office, Jefferson lived in his Monticello estate in Virginia. He was also famously well-read and a great lover of books; the federal government purchased his magnificent personal book collection (6,487 volumes on history, philosophy, and fine arts) after the War of 1812 to form the core of the Library of Congress.
Jefferson was responsible for the chartering of the University of Virginia in 1819. He designed the campus and its buildings and served as the first rector of the university.
Jefferson also wrote numerous pieces of legislation, reports, observations, correspondences, essays, and even books on farming and gardening.
Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, few hours before his rival and friend John Adams died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In his epitaph, composed during the last months of his life, Jefferson codified his legacy: “Author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”
Jefferson’s legacy is tainted by his ownership of slaves to support his lavish lifestyle, even if he opposed slavery in principle. He fathered at least one child with a slave.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Thomas Jefferson
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Courage, Liberty
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
I see,… and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power… It is but too evident that the three ruling branches of the Federal government are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
I have lived temperately … I double the doctors recommendation of a glass and a half of wine a day and even treble it with a friend.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Wine
A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Happiness
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Taste, Style
He who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all religions concur will never be questioned at the gates of heaven as to the dogmas in which they all differ.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Morals
The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body. 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
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Justice, America, Prayer
I cannot live without books.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Wisdom, Reading, Literature, Books, Learning
For if one link in nature’s chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish piecemeal.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Wildlife
In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Being True to Yourself, Character, Fashion, Principles, Integrity
The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Lies, Reason, Truth, Thought
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.
—Thomas Jefferson
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
In times of peace the people look
most to their representatives;
but in war, to the executive solely.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Power
I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the natural rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
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
Topics: Education
The purpose of a written constitution is to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Government
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Truth, Government
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Liberty, Freedom
The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: America
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Friendship, Friends
Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest, one can hardly find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Family
Some men are not born with saddles on their backs,
nor others booted and spurred to ride them by the grace of God.
—Thomas Jefferson
I prefer to be remembered for what I have done for others, not what others have done for me.
—Thomas Jefferson
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
—Thomas Jefferson
The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Pain
In every country where man is free to think and to speak, difference of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences, when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently, and leaving our horizon more bright and serene.
—Thomas Jefferson
Topics: Freedom, Opinions
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
George Washington American Head of State
John Adams American Head of State
John Quincy Adams American Head of State
John Marshall American Judge
James Madison American Statesman, President
Abraham Lincoln American Head of State
Andrew Jackson American Head of State
James A. Garfield American Head of State
William McKinley American Head of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton American Head of State