Thomas Jefferson Day: 10 Quotes On Religion, Freedom And Democracy On Ex-President's Birthday

National Thomas Jefferson Day is marked annually on April 13 to honor the birth of the third President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743. During the 83 years of his life, Jefferson helped write the Declaration of Independence, served as the nation's third president and founded the University of Virginia. He also served as a minister to France and the Secretary of State in President George Washington’s Cabinet.

Here are some quotes, courtesy Goodreads, by Jefferson to share on this day.

1. "Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."

2. "History, in general, only informs us what bad government is."

3. "I may grow rich by art I am compelled to follow, I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment, but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor."

4. "He who knows best knows how little he knows."

5. "I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."

6. "On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock."

7. "He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."

8. "The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

9. "Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time."

10. "On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock."