Quotes of Thomas Jefferson!!!

In reading the writings of our nations Founding Fathers, it saddens me to reallize in how little regard our society holds their views. We pay them lip service by celebrating Presidents Day and the Fourth of July and such, then chose to ignore almost all that they believed in. The rights and freedom for which they fought to secure, we throw away. In modern America, their views are considered antiquated. Washinton, Jefferson, Franklin, Hancock, Adams, Revere, Paine, and such. Great men, great leaders of their time. But their way no longer applies to us.

We study the warriors of ancient China, the philosphers of ancient Greece, many of us adhere to Biblical concepts written millennia ago. Yet the political wisdom of 200 years ago is antiquated.

So here is some political wisdom from 200 years ago from the pen of Thomas Jefferson

-Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

-I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

-We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

-The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

-There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people

-Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%

-If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

-The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

-I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another

-That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves

-Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

-We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate

-Never spend your money before you have it.

-I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

-I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

We all should spend more time reading the writings of the men who Founded this nation, and then practice applying their wisdom to our world. If we don't, we will continue down the road of less freedom, less property and less rights.