Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Those who seek always to limit the power of government are of good heart and conscience. Those who seek to expand the power of government are base tyrants.

I do not subscribe to the doctrine that the people are the slaves and property of their government. I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

People don't seem to understand that the separation of powers is not about the power of these branches; it's there to protect individual liberty - it's there to protect us from the concentration of power.

Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

I suppose this [Watergate] is an example of the dangers of letting down your guard against increased executive powers–no matter what the circumstances. Not that the danger was not real, but in this case the risk of the remedy was as great as the disease. There was a willingness to accept without challenge the Executive's claim to increased power. That's why we acted as we did, and it was a mistake.

My fundamental axiom of government is never to trust the lamb to the wolf.

Power intoxicates men …. The Supreme Court must be curbed.

The greatest threat to our freedom is an all powerful federal government.

It must never be forgotten ... that the liberties of the people are not so safe under the gracious manner of government as by the limitation of power.

All history shows the necessity, in order to the preservation of liberty, of every subjects having a watchful eye on the conduct of Kings, Ministers, and Parliament, and of every subjects being not only secured, but encouraged in alarming his fellow subjects on occasion of every attempt upon public liberty.

Our devotion to individual freedom limits our readiness to give central government the power to override our traditional power structure.

The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of Government. But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests. That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

I do believe that it was through divine providence that the Founding Fathers drafted a document that created a government that didn't trust each other - hence the separation of powers. And then, to close the deal, the Bill of Rights was added to continue to protect individual rights and freedoms.

And I think we as a people need to stop being disingenuous about what the Constitution provides for. It does not provide for this all-encompassing power that we've seen exercised over the last several decades. It's what's gotten us into this bankrupt position.

It is a natural impossibility for any man to make a binding contract, by which he shall surrender to others a single one of what are commonly called his 'natural, inherent, inalienable rights.'

Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.

The backlash against Big Government is an encouraging sign of a growing resistance to the mission creep of federal power.

If you read our Founding Fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson - what we're doing now in this country is making them roll over in their graves.

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy.

I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care.