81+ Thomas Jefferson Quotes About Strength to Inspire Courage & Inner Power

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. – Thomas Jefferson

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

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. – Thomas Jefferson

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. – Thomas Jefferson

Everything yields to diligence. – Thomas Jefferson

I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. – Thomas Jefferson

Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time. – Thomas Jefferson

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair. – Thomas Jefferson

If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. – Thomas Jefferson

Delay is preferable to error. – Thomas Jefferson

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. – Thomas Jefferson

Follow truth wherever it may lead you. – Thomas Jefferson

Never spend your money before you have it. – Thomas Jefferson

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong. – Thomas Jefferson

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. – Thomas Jefferson

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred. – Thomas Jefferson

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. – Thomas Jefferson

One man with courage is a majority. – Thomas Jefferson

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way. – Thomas Jefferson

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear. – Thomas Jefferson

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery. – Thomas Jefferson

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. – Thomas Jefferson

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. – Thomas Jefferson

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

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. – Thomas Jefferson

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. – Thomas Jefferson

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

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

It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape. – Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it. – Thomas Jefferson

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. – Thomas Jefferson

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens. – Thomas Jefferson

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. – Thomas Jefferson

Every generation needs a new revolution. – Thomas Jefferson

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. – Thomas Jefferson

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time. – Thomas Jefferson

Be polite to all, but intimate with few. – Thomas Jefferson

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. – Thomas Jefferson

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. – Thomas Jefferson

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do. – Thomas Jefferson

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. – Thomas Jefferson

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it. – Thomas Jefferson

Power is not alluring to pure minds. – Thomas Jefferson

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. – Thomas Jefferson

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. – Thomas Jefferson

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle. – Thomas Jefferson

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes. – Thomas Jefferson

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

Nobody is better than you and remember, you are better than nobody. – Thomas Jefferson

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. – Thomas Jefferson

Walking is the very best exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. – Thomas Jefferson

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. – Thomas Jefferson

Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise. – Thomas Jefferson

We never repent of having eaten too little. – Thomas Jefferson

But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise with the sun. – Thomas Jefferson

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. – Thomas Jefferson

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness. – 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

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. But though an old man, I am but a young gardener. – Thomas Jefferson

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened. – Thomas Jefferson

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. – Thomas Jefferson

Half a loaf is better than no bread. – Thomas Jefferson

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family. – Thomas Jefferson

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

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. – Thomas Jefferson

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. – Thomas Jefferson

When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. – Thomas Jefferson

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

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. – Thomas Jefferson

No people who are ignorant can be truly free. – Thomas Jefferson

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. – Thomas Jefferson

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. – Thomas Jefferson

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. – Thomas Jefferson

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. – Thomas Jefferson

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. – Thomas Jefferson

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. – Thomas Jefferson

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be. – Thomas Jefferson

Freedom, the first-born of science. – Thomas Jefferson

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. – Thomas Jefferson

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. – Thomas Jefferson

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. – Thomas Jefferson

Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. – Thomas Jefferson