Thomas Jefferson

3rd President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, 1743–1826. 1 explained quote.

✓ Verified · Start here

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Thomas Jefferson · 1776

✓ Verified

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Thomas Jefferson · Declaration of Independence · 1776 · Politician

The founding claim of the United States, drafted by Thomas Jefferson. Its authors applied it narrowly, but later generations used its own words to demand freedom and equal rights.

Read the full explanation →

No quotes match these filters yet. New quotes are added every week.

About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809, and the founder of the University of Virginia. A lawyer, architect and writer, he arranged the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the country.

Jefferson’s words about equality and liberty became some of the most quoted in American history, and they sit uneasily beside his life: he enslaved more than six hundred people over his lifetime. Historians now widely accept that he fathered children with Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved. That contradiction is part of the story whenever his most famous lines are explained.

More lines by Jefferson

Short quotes checked against their sources.

“I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800