On Slavery

"My opinion has ever been that, until more can be done for them, we should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed and clothe them well, protect them from all ill usage, require such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, & be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them. The laws do not permit us to turn them loose, if that were for their good: and to commute them for other property is to commit them to those whose usage of them we cannot control."

Jefferson quote source: Letter to Edward Coles, Monticello, August 25, 1814

On Self Worth

"I have sometimes asked myself whether my country is the better for my having lived at all?  I do not know that it is.  I have been the instrument of doing the following things; but they would have been done by others; some of them, perhaps a little better."

A selection from his list of accomplishments:

"The Declaration of Independence."
"I proposed the demolition of the church establishment, and the freedom of religion."
"The act prohibiting the importation of slaves."

Jefferson quote source: A Memorandum (Services to My Country). 1800.

On Hamilton's Desire for Monarchy

"Conversation began on other matters and, by some circumstance, was led to the British constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed 'purge that constitution of it's corruption, and give to it's popular branch equality of representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever devised by the wit of man.'  Hamilton paused and said, 'purge it of it's corruption, and give to it's popular branch equality of representation, & it would become an impracticable government: as it stands at present, with all it's supposed defects, it is the most perfect government which ever existed.'"

Jefferson quote source: The Anas. 1791-1806: Miscellany.

On Replacing Gold and Silver with Paper Money

"That a system had there [the Treasury Department] been contrived, for deluging the states with paper money instead of gold & silver, for withdrawing our citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, & other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves & their capitals in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, & which had introduced it's poison into the government itself."

Jefferson quote source: The Anas. 1791-1806: Conversations with the President.

Individual Punishments For Individual Acts

"Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other times, taken place, but in nowise implicating the will of the nation."

Jefferson quote source: Eighth Annual Message.  November 8, 1808.

War Impoverishes Nations

"A nation at war cannot buy so many goods as when in peace."

Jefferson quote source: To Brother John Baptist de Coigne. Charlottesville, June 1781.

On Courtiers (Lobbyists)

"A slight acquaintance with them will suffice to show you that, under the most imposing exterior, they are the weakest and worst part of mankind."

Jefferson quote source: Travelling notes for Mr. Rutledge and Mr. Shippen. June 3, 1788.

On The Central Bank (Now known as the Federal Reserve)

"Hamilton's financial system had then past.  It had two objects. 1st as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding & inquiry.  2dly, as a machine for the corruption of the legislature."

Jefferson quote source: The Anas. 1791-1806. February 4, 1818.

On The Right to Sell

"The right to sell is one of the rights of property.  To forbid you the exercise of that right would be wrong to your nation."

Jefferson quote source: To Brother Handsome Lake. Washington, November 3, 1802.

On Taxes. Estate, Death, and Otherwise

"When a man has enclosed and improved his farm, builds a good house on it and raised plentiful stocks of animals, he will wish when he dies that these things shall go to his wife and children, whom he loves more than he does his other relations, and for whom he will work with pleasure during his life.  You will, therefore, find it necessary to establish laws for this.
When a man has property, earned by his own labor, he will not like to see another come and take it from him because he happens to be stronger, or else to defend it by spilling blood."

Jefferson quote source: To the Chiefs of the Cherokee Nation.  Washington, January 10, 1806.

On Life and Error

"Error is the stuff of which the web of life is woven and he who lives longest and wisest is only able to weave out the more of it."

Jefferson quote source:  Thoughts on English Prosidy: To Chastellux. October 1786.

On The Inconveniences of Small Government

"It has been said too that our governments both federal and particular want energy; that it is difficult to restrain both individuals & states from committing wrong.  This is true, & it is an inconvenience.  On the other hand that energy which absolute governments derive from an armed force, which is the effect of the bayonet constantly held at the breast of every citizen, and which resembles very much the stillness of the grave, must be admitted also to have it's inconveniences.  We weight the two together, and like best to submit to the former.   

Compare the number of wrongs committed with impunity by citizens among us, with those committed by the sovereign in other countries, and the last will be found most numerous, most oppressive on the mind, and most degrading of the dignity of man."

(Emphasis added by Double Birds)

Jefferson quote source: Answers to Demeunier's Queries. January 24, 1786

On The Hypocrisy of The Revolution

"What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him thro' his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose."

Jefferson quote source: Answers to Demeunier's Queries. June 26, 1786.

On Why They Didn't Free The Slaves

"But they saw that the moment of doing it with success was not yet arrived, and that an unsuccessful effort, as too often happens, would only rivet still closer the chains of bondage, and retard the moment of delivery to this oppressed description of men."

Jefferson quote source: Answers to Demeunier's Queries. June 26, 1786

On Pre-emptive War

"Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible on our horizon, we never should have been without them.  Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take place."

Jefferson quote source: Sixth Annual Message. December 2, 1806.

On Immigration

"Shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land?  Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe?"

Jefferson quote source: First Annual Message. December 8, 1801

On The IRS

"It may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?"

Jefferson quote source: Second Inaugural Address. March 4, 1805

On Old Age

"It is objected, indeed, in the remonstrance, that he is 77 years of age; but at a much more advanced age, our Franklin was the ornament of human nature."

Jefferson quote source: Letter To Elias Shipman and Others, a Committee of the Merchants of New Haven.  July 12, 1801.

On Regulating Free Trade

"Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of regulating laws, duties, and prohibitions, could it be relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the world, could every country be employed in producing that which nature has best fitted it to produce, and each be free to exchange with others mutual surplusses for mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be produced of those things which contribute to human life and human happiness; the numbers of mankind would be increased, and their condition bettered."

(Emphasis added by Double Birds)

Jefferson quote source: Report on the Privileges and Restrictions on the Commerce of the United States in Foreign Countries. December 16, 1793

Arbitrary Power vs. Absolute Despotism

Jefferson's original wording in the Declaration of Independence was altered by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin before it was published for the masses.

Whereas Jefferson thought "arbitrary power" sufficient cause for rebellion, Franklin changed it to "absolute despotism."

Source

when a long train of abuses & usurpations pursuing

  invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject reduce them 

 under absolute Despotism [FRANKLIN]
  ^to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off

  such government, & to provide new guards for their future security