Today At Monticello
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58°
Sunny
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Sun
70°
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49°
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Mon
77°
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55°
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Tue
80°
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55°
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Wed
76°
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56°
Today’s Hours
Gates are open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. First tour, 9 a.m.; last tour, 6:40 p.m.
TJE Original Title:
Spurious Quotations
- All tyranny needs to gain a foothold...
- Bad government results from too much government
- The beauty of the Second Amendment... (Quotation)
- The Bible is the source of liberty (Quotation)
- The Christian god is a three headed monster
- Democracy is nothing more than mob rule...
- The democracy will cease to exist...(Quotation)
- Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
- Do you want to know who you are?
- An educated citizenry...
- Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
- Every man has two countries - his own and France
- Few die, none resign
- Government big enough...
- If a law is unjust...
- If we are to guard against ignorance...
- I would rather be judged by 12 farmers than 12 scholars
- In matters of style, swim with the current...
- Information is the currency of democracy
- Jewel among the states
- Making this wine vine known to the public
- Museum of our soul
- The nation was clothed with ample powers...(Quotation)
- Near-perfect republic
- No duty the Executive had to perform...
- No nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion...
- Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude...
- The office of citizen
- Private Banks
- Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp...
- Spell a word only one way
- Strongest reason for the people to...keep and bear arms...
- Superstition of Christianity
- That goverment is best which governs the least. (Quotation)
- The two enemies of the people...(Quotation)
- Those who hammer their guns into plows...(Quotation)
- Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government
- The web of mutual obligations between generations...(Quotation)
- When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on (Quotation)
- Without God, liberty will not last (Quotation)
Comments
Is this a new spurious attribution? "The greatest danger to american freedom is a government that ignores the constitution."
This is the most recent dubious Jefferson quotation I have seen on Facebook:
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
Some sources say that it actually dates to the Civil War and was a Confederate saying.
I've read this several places, though I've found three different attributions as to where or to whom it was said... is this indeed a real quote, and to whom was it addressed? Cheers in advance!
"...or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed [...]"
I've seen this one floating around:
"In a free society with a government based on reason, it is inevitable that there will be no uniform opinion about important issues. Those accustomed to suppression and control by governmental authority see this as leading only to chaos. But a government of the people requires difference of opinion in order to discover truth and to take advantage of the opportunity that only understanding brings."
As yet I have been unable to locate an actual cite for the quotation. Even on the old UVa quotations site, it was provided with no reference, and any place I find it the people link back to that source as opposed to indicating a letter or speech or something.
The only other place I've seen anything close was a speech during executive session in the Senate on May 23, 2005, by Diane Feinstein wherein she alludes to Jefferson, but does not appear to actually quote him.
This one is spreading around the Internet; I think it is spurious. Can you confirm that?
"When asked to read between the lines to find implied powers, Thomas Jefferson responded that he had done that, and he 'found only blank space.'"
Is this quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson accurate? "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must (choose) between economy & liberty or profusion & servitude."
If accurate, it is ironic, given in how much debt Jefferson lived most of his life.
Hello Robert, yep this one's real, tho slightly different than the version you cite. In a letter to H. Tompkinson (pseudonym for Samuel Kercheval),12 July 1816, Jefferson wrote: "I am not among those who fear the people. they and not the rich, are our dependance for continued freedom. and, to preserve their independance, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. we must make our election between economy & liberty, or profusion and servitude." Other quotes from the same letter can be found here: http://retirementseries.dataformat.com/Document.aspx?doc=150954811, and the entire letter will be published in Volume 10 of the Retirement Series.
FOX News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow cites the following today - is it spurious?
As Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew Peter Carr in 1785, "A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the Body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind . . . "
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/12/psychological-and-public-healt...
Carloz, see our article on firearms for the full citation for this quote. http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/firearms
Hello Carloz, Jefferson did indeed write this in a letter to Peter Carr, 19 Aug. 1785. Jefferson was advocating walking as the best possible exercise and urging Carr to do so daily, gun in hand (presumably for hunting), for "There is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without fatigue." Jefferson suggested this same exercise in 1815 as a restorative for his troubled grandson-in-law Charles Bankhead.