Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal." He was a philosopher, and a successful president. Unfortunately, he was also a slave holder.

“Jefferson was not ashamed to call the black man his brother and to address him as a gentleman.”
    Frederick Douglass

“Sir:
I thank you sincerely for your letter and the almanac it contains. Nobody more than I do, wishes to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given our black brethren talents equal to those of other colors of men, and that the appearance of the want of them, is owing mainly to the degrading conditions of their existence in Africa and America...
I am, with great esteem, sir,
Your most obedient servant,
THOMAS JEFFERSON.”
[Jefferson's letter to Benjamin Bannecker, quoted by Frederick Douglass in “Self-Made Men”]

On the Declaration of Independence: “I sought to place before mankind the common sense of the subject in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”

“May our Declaration be to the world what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), -- the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.”

“There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us.”

“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.”

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”

“I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

“The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed.”

“To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.”

“A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”

“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.”

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”

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

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”

“I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.”

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

“Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.”

“Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.”

“Never spend your money before you have it.”

“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.”

“Take things always by their smooth handle.”

“When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.”

“We never repent of having eaten too little.”

“Delay is preferable to error.”

“Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable. The minority possess their equal rights, which law must protect. And to violate those rights would be oppression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.”


“Thomas Jefferson Philosopher of Freedom” | Biography 44:55

“No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.”

“In fact the Athanasian paradox that one is three, and three but one is so incomprehensible to the human mind that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea. He who thinks he does only decieves himself. He proves also that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder is the sport of every wind. With such persons gullability which they call faith takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.”

“The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.”

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

“Religious freedom is the most effectual anodyne against religious dissension.”

“He who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.”

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

“Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.”

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”

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

“Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself... Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.”

“We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

“Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them.”
[This is an amazing quote. Jefferson understood the job of philosophy in the same way as Wittgenstein:
“Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.”
“It is terrible to see how a single unclear idea, a single formula without meaning, lurking in a young man’s head, will sometimes act like an obstruction … in an artery, hindering the nutrition of the brain, and condemning its victim to pine away in the fullness of his intellectual vigor and in the midst of intellectual plenty.”
    C. S. Peirce]

“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”

“He who steadily observes the 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.”

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never will be.”

“I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision.”

“The clergy believe that any power confided in me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And, they believe rightly.”

“It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.”

“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

“[I]t does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

“Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves.”

“Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons: free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”