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)
It's not that quotes get mistakenly attributed to Jefferson that fascinates me so much as the types of quotes that do and how, in a couple of cases, the quotes already have great pedigrees. For instance, the "That government is best which governs least" is by Henry David Thoreau, not Jefferson. But you get the sense that many people would rather it were by Jefferson because of his key role in the nation's founding. What's also fairly amusing is that when I check to see what search phrases bring people to the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia site (and not just the Spurious Quotes page), two of the top ten are quotes frequently misattributed to Jefferson.