Thomas Jefferson

"The true foundation of theology is to ascertain the character of God."

"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error."

"There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world."

"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."

"I own that I am not a friend to energetic government. It is always oppressive."

"The wind of change blows through every heart."

"Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind."

"Nature has given us in our nature means of physical enjoyment."

"As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also."

"The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions."

"Passion is a necessary ingredient of all great thoughts."

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

"Money is a matter of functions and form, but that's not important. What's important is that gold and money have been physically replaced by their need."

"I find that the harder I work, the more I have a capacity to work."

"Delay is preferable to error."

"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."

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe."

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

"When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred."

"He who fears God, need fear nothing else. What earthly power or principality can daunt one who puts his trust in the Creator of all things?"

"Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state."

"No nation was ever ruined by trade."

"We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed."

"I cannot live without books."

"A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."