Extract from George H. W. Bush

When he first charted the ground on which we gather today, there was just a field of grass, a horizon limited only by the blue mountains beyond. But Jefferson surveyed a horizon that no one else could see. He saw the graceful dome of the Rotunda, the elegance of the Lawn and its pavilions. He saw meeting rooms and libraries and lecture halls teeming with professors, students yet unborn. Jefferson set out to fashion his rarified vision into solid reality, brick by brick, book by book. And it is his university, and his dream, that inspires us today to follow in his footsteps.

Published in the “Public Papers, 1989, September,” George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, accessed 2014.