Category Archives: Free Thinking

Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Thomas Jefferson was born on 13 April 1743. Here are some quick quotes from the Goodreads quotes page.

“I cannot live without books.” ― 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 “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” ― Thomas Jefferson “I know 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 by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.” ― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Artist Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930) oil on canvas dated 1900 titled Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776. It currently resides at  The Virginia Historical Society. The image includes Thomas Jefferson (right), Benjamin Franklin (left), and John Adams (center) meet at Jefferson’s lodgings, on the corner of Seventh and High (Market) streets in Philadelphia, to review a draft of the Declaration of Independence. The painting was reproduced as a postcard published by The Foundation Press, Inc., 1932. Reproduction of oil painting from series: The Pageant of a Nation.