My father was riding one evening with Mr Jefferson and had been commenting upon the character of George Washington in a tone which elicited the following from Mr Jefferson who stopping his horse and pointing to the heavens exclaimd “Yes Sir, when names now great are gone & forgotten, His ...
My father read law under Mr Jefferson’s direction, and once became uncertain in his own mind whether the practice of law was compatible with perfect truthfulness, he once asked Mr Jefferson “do you believe in he once said to Mr Jefferson “I have made up my mind never to utter a word with my lips,...
The contradictions in Jefferson’s character have always rendered it a fascinating study ... A few broad strokes of the brush would paint the portraits of all the early Presidents with this exception, and a few more strokes would answer for any member of their many cabinets; but Jefferson could be...
The intellect of the negro was then, as now, the subject of learned inquiry. Mr. Jefferson, among other statesmen and philosophers, while he considered slavery an evil, entertained a rather low estimate of the negro’s mental ability. He thought that the negro might become learned in music and in...
Gov. Wilson of New Jersey, speaking to the toast, “What Would Jefferson Do?” ... declared that had Jefferson lived to-day he would, with clear-sightedness, have acted on the facts as they actually are ... Monopoly, private control, the authority of privilege, the concealed mastery of a few men...
The immortality of Thomas Jefferson does not lie in any one of his achievements, or in the series of his achievements, but in his attitude towards mankind and the conception which he sought to realize in action of the service owed by America to the rest of the world ... one of the things which...
Jefferson had many charms; Was democratic; still—and yet What should one do? The family arms On coach and spoon he wisely set Against historical alarms: For quality not being loath, Nor quantity, nor the fame of both.
Thomas Jefferson? Were that gentleman alive today he would be the first to condemn the stupid erudition mistaken in his honor. I imagine I see the sarcastic smile with which his shade must receive this fashionable design proposing to drag his mortal remains to the surface of the present ... in...
Thomas Jefferson is a hero to me despite the fact that the theories of the French Revolutionists at times overexcited his practical judgment. He is a hero because, in his many-sided genius, he too did the big job that then had to be done–to establish the new republic as a real democracy based on...
With the gaining of our political freedom you will remember that there came a conflict between the point of view of Alexander Hamilton, sincerely believing in the superiority of Government by a small group of public-spirited and usually wealthy citizens, and, on the other hand, the point of view...
In this historic year, more than ever before, we do well to consider the character of Thomas Jefferson as an American citizen of the world. As Minister to France, then as our first Secretary of State and as our third President, Jefferson was instrumental in the establishment of the United States...
in youthful presumptuousness I flattered myself that sometime I would fully comprehend and encompass him. I do not claim that I have yet done so, and I do not believe that I or any other single person ever can. Nobody can live Jefferson’s long and eventful life all over again, and nobody in our...
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Someone once said that Thomas Jefferson was a gentleman of 32 who could calculate an eclipse,...
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,...
The pursuit of science, the study of the great works, the value of free inquiry, in short, the very idea of the living the life of the mind–yes, these formative and abiding principles of higher education in America had their first and firmest advocate, and their greatest embodiment, in a tall,...
it’s not just students and Presidents, it is every American–indeed, every human life ever touched by the daring idea of self-government–that Mr. Jefferson has influenced.
“In every Pole there is Jefferson more than anyone else, a love of freedom, free expression—and having a house of one’s own,” he said with a laugh. He predicted all Poles will “pick up Monticello as a symbol of what is needed in Poland—a fruitful place, because it has the land—but also a place...
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...
When Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, it was a simple and important act of the human spirit. What gave meaning to that act, however, was the fact that the author backed it up with his life. It was not...
Gorbachev advisor Shakhnzarov ... keeps a copy of the Federalist Papers on his desk, and he says that both he and Gorbachev have read and admire Alexander Hamilton’s essay on the need for a federal taxation system ... But Russian republic Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev cites a different American...
Jefferson was a childhood hero of mine, not because of his science, but because he, more than anybody else, was responsible for the spread of democracy throughout the world. And the idea, breath-taking, radical, revolutionary at that time—and some places in the world, it still is today—is that...
Clinton said he opened the bus trip at Monticello “not only because Thomas Jefferson was one of our greatest presidents and perhaps our most brilliant president ... but also because he believed in the power of ideas which have made this country great ... Jefferson believed in public service.”