Thomas Jefferson Quotes

Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them.... In every country these two parties exist.... Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, republicans and federalists, aristocrats and democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same party still and pursue the same object.

The division into Whig and Tory is founded in the nature of men; the weakly and nerveless, the rich and the corrupt, seeing more safety and accessibility in a strong executive; the healthy, firm, and virtuous, feeling confidence in their physical and moral resources, and willing to part with only so much power as is necessary for their good government; and, therefore, to retain the rest in the hands of the many…

In truth, the parties of Whig [Liberal] and Tory [Conservative] are those of nature. They exist in all countries, whether called by these names, or by those of Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles, and Liberals.

…to make a commonwealth is to divide it into parties, which setteth them at perpetual variance, the one party endeavouring to preserve their eminence and inequality, and the other to attain their equality.

Party divisions, whether on the whole operating for good or evil, are things inseparable from free government.

The division of Whig and Tory... is the most salutary of all divisions and ought, therefore, to be fostered instead of being amalgamated; for take away this, and some more dangerous principle of division will take its place.

As soon as laws are necessary for men, they are no longer fit for freedom.

We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.

And government's only role is to secure our rights for us.

A Whig [Liberal] may be a fool, a Tory [Conservative] must be so.

Liberal institutions soon cease from being liberal the moment they are soundly established.

The end of all political associations is, the preservation of the rights of man, which rights are liberty, property, and security; that the nation is the source of all sovereignty derived from it...

Parties must ever exist in a free country.

Liberty unregulated by law becomes anarchy.

Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence; Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.

Men have differed in opinion and been divided into parties by these opinions from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time.

The sickly, weakly, timid man fears the people and is a Tory [conservative] by nature. The healthy, strong and bold, cherishes them, and is formed a Whig [liberal] by nature.

No free country has ever been without parties.

A party of order and stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.

On my conservative days I’m a Democrat.

To abolish all distinctions of party may not be practicable, perhaps not desirable, in a free government

Freedom Party International believes that the purpose of government is to protect every individual's fundamental freedoms, not to restrict them.

A government must govern, must prescribe and enforce laws within its sphere or cease to be a government. Moreover, the individual must be independent and free within his own sphere or cease to be an individual. The fundamental question ... is now, and always will be through what adjustments, by what actions, these principles may be applied.

The conservatives see man as a body freely roaming the earth, building sand piles or factories—with an electronic computer inside his skull, controlled from Washington. The liberals see man as a soul freewheeling to the farthest reaches of the universe—but wearing chains from nose to toes when he crosses the street to buy a loaf of bread.

The lamentations of good men on the subject of party are vain; parties are inseparable from every free government; and you must either have parties with all their good and bad effects, or no freedom of thought or speech, as in Turkey, or any other state where parties are not to be found.