Quote #201
A little revolution now and then is a good thing; the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. (1787)
More from Thomas Jefferson
- Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself ... She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.
- I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past,-so good night!
- War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
- There is not a truth existing which I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.
- We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, self-preservation in the other.
- It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.
- The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us the experien…
- As pure a son of liberty as I have ever known.