Quotes About Jefferson

a modern-day conservator of Monticello says that Woodmont Jefferson as an amateur architect rather than a professional was that he made things more complicated than they needed to be for any practical purpose.

Jefferson, incidentally, was also a great adventurer with foods. Among his many other accomplishments, he was the first person in America to slice potatoes lengthwise and fry them. So as well as being the author of the Declaration of Independence, he was also the father of the American French fry.

In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism.

Lincoln is distinguished from every other president, with the exception of Jefferson, in that we can be certain that he wrote every word to which his name is attached.

The president was not the most important political player in the 19th century. Besides Jefferson at the beginning, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, the center of politics was Congress.

People don't have any confidence in Jefferson City. There's incredible anger in the political establishment, and one of the reasons is special interests dominate the Capitol in our state.

The same year, both the Russian and the French governments adopted a plan to rifle all of their old smoothbore muskets. And of course, during Jefferson Davis's tenure as secretary of war (1853-57) the Americans produced what today might be termed an unauthorized knockoff in the form of the Springfield rifle.

Few men have dared to legislate as though eternal peace were at hand, in a world torn by wars and convulsions and drowned in blood; but this was what Jefferson aspired to do. Even in such dangers, he believed that Americans might safely set an example which the Christian world should be led by interest to respect and at length to imitate.

On the coming of that tremendous storm which for eight years desolated our country, Mr. Jefferson hesitated not, halted not.

Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death.

Jefferson could write, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army," Jefferson wrote in 1803. "To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.

Jefferson acquired arms in the same manner as he sought learned books and fine wines. His memorandum books kept between 1768 and 1823 show numerous references to the acquisition of pistols, guns, muskets, rifles, fusils, gun locks, and other gun parts; the repair of firearms; and the acquisition of shot, gunpowder, powder flasks, and cartridge boxes.40 Included were a pair of "Turkish pistols . . . so well made that I never missed a squirrel at 30 yds. with them.

In retirement at Monticello, Jefferson again had ample time for hunting, and he was a true sportsman. His servant Isaac recalled: Mr. Jefferson used to hunt squirrels and partridges; kept five or six guns. Oftentimes carred Isaac wid him. Old Master wouldn't shoot partridges settin'. Said "he wouldn't take advantage of 'em"—would give 'em a chance for thar life. Wouldn't shoot a hare settin', nuther; skeer him up fust.

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.

But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.

The Jefferson is such a dignified hotel / There is no such thing.

Louisiana looked like a bonanza to people anxious to unload their slaves at high prices--and it looked that way precisely because Jefferson excluded slave importations from abroad.

As an ambassador and an American, Jefferson recognized it was a fear no citizen of a free nation embarking on an oceanic voyage should have to endure.

Jefferson's personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died).

Essentially, social education is moral education, and moral education is preparation for citizenship... When Jefferson and others advocated public education, it was to prepare for citizenship in a new, constitutional, democratic society.

I said I would be part of the solution in Jefferson City, not part of the problem. And I said I'd take on the culture of corruption.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.