The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson

As the final days of the primary elections wrap up around our country, I find myself reflecting back on the great leaders of the past. I'm going to run a series of articles over the next couple of weeks that mainly consist of thoughtful quotes from leaders of our country in the past. You'll recognize most of the names, but in many cases not the quotes. Take some time to think about them and what they mean. How can you apply them in your chapter and take control of you organization?


The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson

• The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
• Power is not alluring to pure minds.
• What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
• Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
• A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
• I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.