Extract from Matthew Lee’s and Bob Gibson’s Interview with Bill Clinton at Inaugural Journey Kick-off at Monticello, 17 Jan. 1993 [Quote]

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.”

Extract from David McCullough’s Address at the Independence Day Ceremony at Monticello, 4 July 1994 [Quote]

All honor to Jefferson in our own world now, in 1994. We can never know enough about him. Indeed we may judge our own performance in how seriously and with what effect we take his teachings to heart. When he wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was speaking to the world then, but speaking to...

Extract from Lady Margaret Thatcher’s Remarks at the Presentation of the First Thomas Jefferson Medal for Statesmanship at Monticello, 13 Apr. 1996 [Quote]

in the history of liberty he’s a great figure everywhere in the world. One always wonders what makes the difference between someone who has the tenacity to pursue his ideals and his beliefs against all opposition and a person who is just a politician. I think the great politicians and statesmen...

Extract from Ken Burns’s Address “Puzzled and Prospering: Searching for Thomas Jefferson,” given at Monticello, 7 June 1996 [Quote]

I am struck by how much the life and mysteries of Thomas Jefferson have animated, have confounded, and may ultimately reconcile our national life. He is a kind of Rosetta Stone of the American experience, a massive, tectonic intelligence that has formed and rattled the fault lines of our history...

Extract from Sam Waterston’s Remarks at the Independence Day Ceremony at Monticello, 4 July 2007 [Quote]

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The words are so familiar, so potent, so important, so grand and fine, it’s hard to believe that a person, any single person, actually wrote them, picked up a pen, dipped it in ink, and, on a blank white sheet, made appear...

Extract from George W. Bush’s Remarks at the Independence Day Ceremony at Monticello, 4 July 2008 [Quote]

The principles that Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration became the guiding principles of the new nation. And at every generation, Americans have rededicated themselves to the belief that all men are created equal, with the God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....

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