"A man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane, separately; may he not combine their uses on the same piece of wood? He has a right to use his knife to cut his meat, a fork to hold it; may a patentee take from him the right to combine their use on the same subject? Such a law, instead of enlarging our conveniences, as was intended, would most fearfully abridge them, and crowd us by monopolies out of the use of the things we have."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Presidents of the United StatesUnitarians from the United StatesFounding Fathers of the United States of AmericaUnited States Secretaries of StatePoliticians from Virginia
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Letter to Oliver Evans (16 January 1814); published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1905) Vol. 13, p. 66
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Thomas Jefferson
1743 – 1826
US-amerikanischer Politiker und der dritte Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten (1801–1809).
489 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Thomas Jefferson →
Related Quotes
"...the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence …"
"It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate…"
"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."
"The law books abound with similar instances of the care the judges take of the public integrity, Laws, moreover, abri…"
"Widespread poverty and concentrated wealth cannot long endure side by side in a democracy"
"I have ever deemed it more honorable and profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one."
"Let the eye of vigilance never be closed."
"Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see."
"The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated …"
"It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected."