Quick Quote: Thomas Jefferson on what makes good government

And now, a word from the founder of the Democratic Party:

[A] wise and frugal government...shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

– First inaugural address, 1801

Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (494)