Clergyman's

“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“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.”
– Thomas Jefferson