More quotes by Thomas Jefferson

"I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office."
"In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue."
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led."
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."