“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”

“Without books, I would certainly die.”

“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”

“I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay capital [Paris].”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be.”

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

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

“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” 

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...” 

“[Christianity is] the most ... perverted system that ever shone on man.”

“I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”

“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”