Thomas Jefferson
Men are born equal and have rights that no government grants and every government must secure.
Life
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), born in Virginia, was the principal author of the US Declaration of Independence (1776) and the country's third president (1801-1809). Shaped by the Enlightenment, he also wrote Notes on the State of Virginia (1785) and the Virginia bill for religious freedom (drafted in 1777, passed in 1786). On the big questions he matters for the idea that rights belong to a person before any government.
Main works
Proclaims that all men are created equal with unalienable rights, and that governments exist to secure them.
A book on Virginia that also contains his defence of freedom of conscience in religion.
A law forbidding compulsion of anyone in matters of religion; Jefferson drafted it in 1777.
In his own words
« We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. »
« it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe tells a young man to bring every opinion, even about God, before the judgment of reason.
Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr (10 August 1787)