Thomas Jefferson - Quotes

And back to the comfort of an American; Thomas Jefferson who has somewhat sadly dropped down a few pegs in my admiration levels, and not because he owned slaves. Still a brilliant man that was so important to the creation of our nations. 

 I do try and make sure that the quotes I list have been verified as being spoken or written by Jefferson, just like I did with other famous speakers. There are lots of quotes out there attributable to famous individuals that have been twisted or just plain made up.

"But this momentous question. Like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled with terror." On the Missouri question 1820

"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial." To Benjamin Rush 1811

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden...But though an old man, I am but a young gardener." To Charles Peale 1811

"I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." Jefferson to Adams 1815

"This institution [University of Virginia] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." to William Roscoe 1820

"I have sworn upon the alter of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." to Benjamin Rush 1800

"But as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other." to John Holmes 1820 on the Missouri question.

"This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to lace before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an express of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion." to Henry Lee 1825.

"To all of which is added a selection from the elementary schools of subjects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor to give them further education, to be carried at the public expense through the college and university. The object is to bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty in every country, for want of the means of development, and thus give activity to a mass of mind, which, in proportion to our population, shall be double or treble of what it is in most countries." to Jose Correa de Serra 1817

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men 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

A little food for thought.