Thomas Jefferson / Seite 4

Autorfunktion: Rechtsanwalt, Architekt, Staatstheoretiker von 1801 - 1809 dritter Präsident der USA, formulierte die Unabhängigkeitserklärung vom 4. 7. 1776, war einer der Gründer der Demokratisch-Republikanischen Partei (USA, 1743 - 1826).

Geboren am: 13.4.1743

Geburtsort: Shadwell

Gestorben am: 4.7.1826

Sterbeort: Monticello

Sternzeichen: Widder

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183 Zitat(e) verfügbar


  • If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves.

  • If some period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective, will, in fact, be for life, and that will soon degenerate into an inheritance.

  • If the principle were to prevail, of a common law [i.e. a single government] being in force in the U.S . . . it would become the most corrupt government on the earth.

  • Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

  • Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

  • In every country where man is free to think and to speak, difference of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences, when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently, and leaving our horizon more bright and serene.

  • In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or in principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe and the opinions on which they will act.

  • Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

  • Information is the currency of democracy.

  • It appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercises of their natural rights . . . yet experience hath shown, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny, and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this, would be to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large.

  • It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty Gods, or no God.

  • It is a very dangerous doctrine to consider the (Supreme Court) judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions. It is one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.

  • It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquillity and occupation, which give happiness.

  • It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate - to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.

  • Kaufe nie unnütze Sachen, weil sie billig sind.

  • Keinem Volk ist es gestattet, ungestraft in Unwissenheit zu leben. Wenn ein Volk erwartet, unwissend und frei zu sein, erwartet es etwas, was es nie gab und nie geben wird.

  • Krieg bestraft Strafende und Bestrafte.

  • Le peuple est le seul sur lequel nous puissions compter pour préserver notre liberté.

  • Les petites annonces contiennent toute la vérité que l'on puisse trouver dans un journal.

  • Man is fed with fables through life, and leaves it in the belief he knows something of what has been passing, when in truth he knows nothing but what has passed under his own eyes.

  • Man muß jedem Hindernis Geduld, Beharrlichkeit und eine sanfte Stimme entgegenstellen.

  • Men are disposed to live honestly, if the means of doing so are open to them.

  • Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity [of opinion]. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.

  • Mit äußerster Toleranz akzeptiere ich das Recht anderer Menschen, anderer Meinung zu sein.

  • Mit dem, was du selbst tun kannst, bemühe nie andere.

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