Thomas Jefferson Quotes

I don't mind anybody coming after me as long as they're coming with facts.

I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent that he welcomes opinions which he condemns.

The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate.

It is not the least service which a college or university may render to those under its instruction, to habituate them to looking not only patiently but methodically on both sides, before adopting any conclusion upon controverted issues.

There is nothing wrong with intellectual differences flowing from freedom of thought as long as such differences remain confined to intellectual debates.

Critics reach that age when it is as valuable and daring to hold a negative opinion as it is for a positive. We learn and understand from both.

The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.

The long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has the right to be wrong in his facts.

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

We don’t need to ban bad ideas. We just need to criticize bad ideas.

The doctrine of toleration requires a positive as well as a negative statement. It is not only wrong to burn a man on account of his creed, but it is right to encourage the open avowal and defense of every opinion sincerely maintained. Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions.

… if freedom of speech means anything, it means a willingness to stand and let people say things with which we disagree, and which do weary us considerably.

When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the publick.

I think most people like a bit of freedom and hearing things that they might not agree with, rather than just having everybody shutting their mouths.

I think there are different ways of being rigorous, and I am asking people to be as rigorous in their pleasure as in their criticism.

I enjoy being around people who disagree with me; and I enjoy being in non-political contexts and activities.

If something is wrong, it'll prove to be wrong in the wash, and if it's right, you don't want to not expose yourself to it - so I read everything, no matter how horrible it gets. You listen and take it in and if it doesn't sway you, you'll know you considered it.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

Debate and divergence of views can only enrich our history and culture.

I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there are discoverable truths, and some things that are closer approximations to the truth than others.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

Well, first of all, no professor should be able to say, I refuse to defend my position. I refuse to debate my position.

Of course there are always exceptions, but opinions are not to be feared.