Thomas Jefferson Quotes

The freedom of the press is on of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by a despotic government.

It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood.

Perhaps an editor might… divide his paper into four chapters, heading the first, Truth; 2d, Probabilities; 3d, Possibilities; 4, Lies.

The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being.

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We are called by different names, brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans – we are all federalists.

Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.