…man…feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day; when there shall not be a man in the state who will not be a member of some one of it’s councils, great or small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his power be wrested from him by a Caesar or a Bonaparte.

—Thomas Jefferson to Joseph C. Cabell, 2 Feb. 1816  {More}

…every difference of opinion, is not a difference of principle.

—Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801  {More}

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

—Thomas Jefferson, Summary View of the Rights of British America, July 1774  {More}

…we can surely boast of having set the world a beautiful example of a government reformed by reason alone without bloodshed.

—Thomas Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 18 July 1788  {More}

. . .a government of reason is better than one of force.

—Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 20 Oct. 1820  {More}

. . .no one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in it’s effect towards supporting free & good government.

—Thomas Jefferson to the Trustees of the Lottery for East Tennessee College, 6 May 1810  {More}

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

—From Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801  {More}