I love Jefferson I just took out a book from the library that’s an anthology of some of the Founding Fathers’ letters, diaries, works, etc. and it’s simply astounding how lucky we were to have such lucid, level-headed, and brilliant men to lead our revolution. It is unfortunate that most countries have not had a similar privilege, or I suspect the world would be a much better place.

Jefferson had so many good quotes and ideas. For the amount of work that he did, I think that he’s often overlooked for other prominent personalities. It’s too bad, too.

What prompted this quote post?

Rabindranath Tagore, from the late 1800s wrote these lines that are very pertinent in this context:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

I like:

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

better, though that can only be attributed to Jefferson. No real proof that he ever wrote or said it…but it’s something he could’ve well said.

People don’t talk like that any more. Being a ‘patriot’ is something very different these days.

I don’t think people know who Jefferson was these days either. I don’t think I’ve heard a reference to him in various media recently (this blog being the exception) that didn’t somehow identify him as “that guy who had sex with slaves”.