University of Virginia: Jefferson 
Quotations
1820 Dec. 26. "This institution of my native state, the hobby of my old age, will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind, to explore and to expose every subject susceptible of it's contemplation." (to Destutt de Tracy, Ford.12.181)
1820 Dec. 27. "This institution will be based on the illimitable
freedom of the human mind. For here we are not 
afraid
to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it." (to William Roscoe,
L&B.15.303)
1820 Aug. 14. "...an establishment which I contemplate as the future bulwark of the human mind in this hemisphere." (to Thomas Cooper, L&B.15.264)
1821 Feb. 15. "I had hoped...that we should open with the next year an institution on which the fortunes of our country may depend more than may meet the general eye. The reflections that the boys of this age are to be the men of the next; that they should be prepared to receive the holy charge which we are cherishing to deliver over to them; that in establishing an institution of wisdom for them, we secure it to all our future generations; that in fulfilling this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation of seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of high promise." (to Gen. James Breckinridge, L&B.15.314)
1821 Mar. 9. "It is the last act of usefulness I can render, and could I see it open I would not ask an hour more of life." (to Spencer Roane, L&B.15.326)
1825 Mar. 25. "I hope [the University of Virginia] will prove a blessing to my own state, and not unuseful perhaps to some others." (to Edward Livingston, L&B.16.115)
--Monticello Research Department, September 1989. Revised February 1996.
Pictured: The Rotunda at the University of Virginia.