Thomas Jefferson Quotes

An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.

The happiness of the domestic fireside is the first boon of Heaven; and it is well it is so, since it is that which is the lot of the mass of mankind.

History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny.

History, by apprising (men) of the past, will enable them to judge of the future, it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations.

Blest is the Nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.

A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

Man is fed with fables through life, and leaves it in the belief he knows something of what has been passing, when in truth he has known nothing but what has passed under his own eye.

The progress of cynicism: We start out as Americans, we end up French. We both love the people, but you love them as infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses, and I as adults whom I freely leave to self-government.

I am captivated more by dreams of the future than by the history of the past.