Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude... (Spurious Quotation)

Find out more about a fake quote misattributed to Thomas Jefferson that begins, "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal..."

A modern-day portrait of Thomas Jefferson in early 19-century attire with a speech bubble next to his head that says, "I said what?!"

Quotation: "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

Variations:

  1. "Nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help a person with the wrong mental attitude."
  2. "Nothing can stop someone with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help someone with the wrong mental attitude."

Sources consulted:

  1. Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition
  2. Retirement Papers
  3. Google/Google Books
  4. Hathi Trust
  5. Access Newspaper Archive

Earliest appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: 19881

Status: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It is also frequently attributed to W. W. Ziege, and while Ziege did write an article that appeared in Rosicrucian Digest in December 1945, "The Magic Word," in which he essentially makes the same point, he did not use these exact words. No other writings of his in which this quotation may have appeared have yet been located.

- Anna Berkes, 4/30/10; revised 4/25/18

Footnotes

  1. Profile: A Guide to Military Careers 32, no. 2 (Dec. 1988): [back cover].