Thomas Jefferson Quotes

You have to ask yourself, 'Who owns me? Do I own myself or am I just another piece of government property?'

I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men's rights.

In England, your life is your life.

Personal liberty is not personal license.

Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is of right, absolute.

The individual is greater than the state.

Self-determination, the autonomy of the individual, asserts itself in the right to race his automobile, to handle his power tools, to buy a gun, to communicate to mass audiences his opinion, no matter how ignorant, how aggressive, it may be.

The human's being right to do as he pleases without interfering with someone else's rights is a formula defining rights prior to social legislation.

There is a sacred realm of privacy for every man and woman where he makes his choices and decisions-a realm of his own essential rights and liberties into which the law, generally speaking, must not intrude.

Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.

Liberty, then, is the sovereignty of the individual, and never shall man know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time, and property, each living and acting at his own cost.

Man’s rights can be violated only by the use of physical force. It is only by means of physical force that one man can deprive another of his life, or enslave him, or rob him, or prevent him from pursuing his own goals, or compel him to act against his own rational judgment.

Every person's life is theirs by right. An individual's life can and must belong only to to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave.

For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have they have right to hold.

The Conservative knows that to regard man as part of an undifferentiated mass is to consign him to ultimate slavery.

Liberal Democracy is all about extending choice. Give people the option to decide their retirement age, and you immediately extend their freedom in a very significant way.

The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience?

My freedom is more important than your good idea.

I have a right to nothing which another has a right to take away

The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right, to choose his own surroundings.

I believe everybody got the right to live their own life the way they want to.

Why shouldn't I do what I want to do... I'm an American citizen.

I can't believe people think they need permission to drive. Or permission to do anything.

As a human being, I do feel like it's my right to be able to stand up for and speak on whatever I want.