The Quotable Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson (1743-1826) authored the Declaration of Independence and later served as the first U. S. secretary of state, the second vice president, and the third president (1801-1809). He also founded the Republican Party, which evolved into today's Democratic Party, and which is the world's oldest continuous political party. He wrote this first statement when he was age 80.

"[T]he States can best govern our home concerns and the general
government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore...never to see
all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn
from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought
and sold at market."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Judge William Johnson, 12 June 1823)

Reference: Original Intent, Barton (261); original Memoir,
Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas
Jefferson

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Jefferson was a farmer...

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it
be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers,
whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, & talk
by the hour? That 150 lawyers should do business together ought
not to be expected."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Autobiography, 1821)

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson, editor, Library of America
(53)

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"For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy
among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Adams, 28 October 1813)

Reference: Jefferson Writings, Lemay, editor, 1305.

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He was 33 years old when he wrote the Declaration.

"The Declaration of Independence...[is the] declaratory charter
of our rights, and the rights of man."

-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Samuel Adams Wells, 12 May 1821)

Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition,
Lipscomb and Bergh, editors, volume 15 (200)