Thomas Jefferson Quotes: 15 Sayings On Religion, Freedom And Democracy On The President's 272nd Birthday

Monday marks the 272nd birthday of Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became the third president of the United States. The founding father was born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, his family's Virginia plantation.

Jefferson's birthday is listed as April 2 on his tombstone at Monticello, but the mid-April date is in the Old Style of the Julian calendar. The colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar when Jefferson was 9, so his birthday is now celebrated on April 13.

He died July 4, 1826, only a few hours before John Adams. On Monday, honor Jefferson's legacy with some of his most famous quotes, collected from Goodreads and Wikiquote.

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Delay is preferable to error."

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

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

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

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

"Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold."

"When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it."

"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial."

Correction: This article originally misidentified John Adams.