23 quotes
No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as of duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad ones the former only.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.
A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and in their management.
Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval) (1816)
It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.
If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
Letter to A. Coray (1823)
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
The mother principle [is] that 'governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it.'".
Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval) (1816)
An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.
The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
The policy of American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.
Letter to M. L'Hommande (1787)
I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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.
I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. They are the result of habit and long training, and for these they will require time and probably much suffering.
The best government is that which governs least.
Misattributed