"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed
of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics
or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself.
Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.
If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there
at all."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.6260

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.
Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: letter to John Norvell, June 11, 1807
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.1154

"A strong body makes the mind strong.
As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun.
While this gives moderate exercise to the body,
it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind.
Games played with the ball, and others of that nature,
are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.
Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walk."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: in a letter written in Paris to his nephew and ward Peter Carr, Foley, ed., Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, p. 318.
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.B699

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books,
my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and
letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most
splendid post, which any human power can give."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: letter to Alexander Donald, February 7, 1788
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.115D

"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms.
The strongest reason for the people
to retain their right to keep and bear arms
is as a last resort to protect themselves
against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: The quote is not found in any of his speeches, personal correspondence, or diaries. Nor has the quote ever been cited in law journals by Second Amendment legal scholars.
http://www.guncite.com/gc2ndbog.html
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.1F65

"I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, a fact like this can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too, as an offence against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? and are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: Letter, 19 April 1814
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.21F0


"I cannot live without books."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: letter to John Adams, June 10, 1815
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.1162

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: a letter written to Benjamin Rush in 1800 in response to Rush's warning about the Philadelphia clergy attacking Jefferson. Carved at the top of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.1DE0

"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
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.B723

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it?
Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom?
Material abundance without character is the path of destruction."
-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration 
of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: in a letter to John Adams as quoted in John A. Stormer, None Dare Call 
it Treason (Florissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1964) 93. 
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.1B32

"Experience has already shown that the impeachment
the Constitution has provided is not even a scarecrow."
-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, 
drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.817A

"it is an abomination for a person's tax dollars to be used to 
further a faith to which he does not subscribe. You want to 
pray, go to church. Nobody's objecting." -- Thomas Jefferson

"We are not afraid to follow the truth where ever it may lead, nor [afraid] 
to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." -- Thomas 
Jefferson

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which
should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers
of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of
magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being
effectually checked and restrained by the others." -- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence,
3rd US President 1782; Source: Notes on Va.

"What country can preserve its liberties,
if its rulers are not warned from time to time that
this people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Let them take arms." -- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: in a letter to William S. Smith, 13 November 1787
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.A0A7

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? 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
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.EFEC

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? 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
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.EFEC

"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."
-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of 
Independence, 3rd US President
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.24FC

"...Enlightened by a benign religion,
professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms,
yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude,
and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence,
which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in
the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter --
with all these blessings, what more is necessary
to make us a happy and a prosperous people?
Still one thing more... 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, and this is necessary
to close the circle of our felicities."
-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
Source: First Inaugural Address, 1801
http://liberty-tree.ca/qb/Thomas.Jefferson.Quote.80ED