Thomas Jefferson Quote On Education

Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers, was a strong advocate for education. He believed that education was essential for the success of a democracy and the advancement of society. Here are the top 99 quotes by Thomas Jefferson on education:

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
“I cannot live without books.”
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.”
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
“Educate the children of the poor, for in them lies the future of the nation.”
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
“I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.”
“The only security of all is in a free press.”
“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”
“I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”
“An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.”
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
“I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”
“I never did, or countenanced in any way, an opposition to the laws of the country.”
“The man who fears no truths has nothing to fear from lies.”
“If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.”
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.”
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.”
“The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes, should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.”
“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.”
“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
“When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”
“It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.”
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time.”
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
“Happiness is not being pained in body, or troubled in mind.”
“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”
“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”
“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.”
“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
“If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.”
“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
“A well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy.”
“Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.”
“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits which favor that theory.”
“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will.”
“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government.”
“Ignorance, superstition, and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.”
“In a government founded by and for the people, there should be no secrets.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
“The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large.”
“The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property, and in their management.”
“The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.”
“I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.”
“Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
“The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to.”
“I cannot live without books.”
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”
“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.”
“The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded so long in vain.”
“I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.”
“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”
“The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.”
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
“The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best that the states are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations.”
“The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.”