Quotation: "Without God, liberty will not last."

Variations: None known.

Sources consulted:

1. Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition
2. Retirement Papers
3. Lipscomb-Bergh Edition (via Google Books)
4. Ford edition
5. Quotable Jefferson, ed. Kaminski (index under "God" and "liberty")

Earliest known appearance in print: 1996[1]

Other attributions: None known.

Status: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

Comments: This quotation seems to have originated in a 1996 article by Thomas G. West, "The Conservatism of the Declaration of Independence." It is possible that it is a reference to Jefferson's comment in Notes on the State of Virginia, "Can the liberties of a nation be though secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of god? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?"[2] It could also be a paraphrase of another (also spurious) quotation, "The Bible is the source of liberty."

Footnotes

• 1. Thomas G. West, "The Conservatism of the Declaration of Independence," Precepts, May 10, 1996.
• 2. Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (Richmond, Va.: Randolph, 1853), 174.