Thomas Jefferson Republic Quotations

Governments are republican only in proportion as they employ the will of the people and execute it

A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible

The best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.

If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form let them stand undisturbed as monuments to the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it

...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans.

The people are not always well-informed, but is better that they have misconceptions that make them restless than that they be lethargic-for lethargy in the people means death for republics.

Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic.

The only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion.

[A]lthough a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.