#om

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#government #hesitate #i #latter #left

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#answer #cannot #form #found #govern

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#avoid #brought #defend #duty #endeavor

Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#bodily #body #decay #gloomy #human

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#find #good #happiest #i #least

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#civilized nations #commerce #money #morality #nations

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

#disposed #evils #forms #mankind #more

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#errors #free #left #may #opinion

I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#consider #containing #doctrines #everything #genuine

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#favor #forms #his #imagination #moment