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Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate. -- Hunter S. Thompson
Of course, Mississippi participates in federal matching programs for everything from preserving the post-Civil War home of Jefferson Davis to beaver control. -- Ronnie Musgrove
I would like Americans to make things with their hands. Thomas Jefferson and I feel that makes for a much stronger nation. -- Nick Offerman
We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's a Thomas Jefferson hiding behind some rock or a James Madison beyond one sand dune. -- Joe Biden
When Jefferson and the Republicans rallied to the Union and to the existing Federalist organization, the fabric of traditional American democracy was almost completely woven. -- Herbert Croly
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it. -- John Adams
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson hated each other so much. But that hate that they had for each other did not come before the love of their country. -- David Scott
Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying. -- Ronald Reagan
If you seek Hamilton's monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton's country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government. -- George Will
We stand in the shadow of Jefferson who believed that a society founded upon the rule of law and liberty was dependent upon public education and the diffusion of knowledge. -- Matt Blunt
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. -- John F. Kennedy
A declaration of the independence of America, and the sovereignty of the United States was drawn by the ingenious and philosophic pen of Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, a delegate from the state of Virginia. -- Mercy Otis Warren
Everyone assumes America must play the leading role in crafting some settlement or compromise between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But Jefferson, Madison, and Washington explicitly warned against involving ourselves in foreign conflicts. -- Ron Paul
After the Great Depression and after public urging, a nationwide public competition was held to determine a design for a memorial that would honor President Thomas Jefferson's bold vision for westward expansion for America. -- Russ Carnahan
What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and Jefferson's saying that he'd rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press. -- Esther Dyson
Most Americans are unaware that Thomas Jefferson was the first American president to go to war against radical Islam. Jefferson was very concerned with Islam's war-like doctrine and its inability to separate mosque and state. -- Brad Thor
It is easily and often overlooked that when Thomas Jefferson asserted that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were inalienable human rights, he did so on the ground that they had been endowed by God, our Creator. -- Tom Stoppard
Why should the Eisenhower memorial be over twice the size of WWII Memorial? Why should it be so vast as to comfortably house two Lincoln Memorials, two Washington Monuments, and two Jefferson Memorials - all six at once? -- Leon Krier
Few American presidents are held in higher esteem than Thomas Jefferson. Though historians have scrutinized every phase of his long public career and found him wanting in a number of respects, he holds an unshakable place in the pantheon of American heroes. -- Robert Dallek
In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards. -- Bertrand Russell
Hating Wall Street is an American tradition that dates back even to the days when Thomas Jefferson cursed that money lover Alexander Hamilton. And for centuries, the complaints about it have largely stayed the same: 'It does nothing! It creates chaos! It's a parasite that sucks hardworking Americans dry!' -- Adam Davidson
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson Author of the Declaration of American Independence Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom & Father of the University of Virginia. -- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson survives. -- John Adams
Thomas Jefferson?-Still surv.... -- John Adams
Thomas Jefferson basically secularized Jesus. -- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Madison loathed Hamilton and loved Jefferson above all. -- Richard Brookhiser
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Washington, not Jefferson, freed his slaves upon his death. -- Stephen Ambrose
I see dead Presidents. Lincoln, Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington. -- Nicole Fende
In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism. -- Herbert Croly
In America, Jefferson noted with approval, women knew their place. -- Stephen Ambrose
Not everyone has the survival skills of William Jefferson Clinton. -- Tina Brown
Thomas Jefferson creates the Marines for the Islamic pirates that were happening. -- Glenn Beck
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turning over in his grave. -- Bob Dylan
The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. -- Abraham Lincoln
Washington and Jefferson were both rich Virginia planters, but they were never friends. -- Stephen Ambrose
Jefferson was the rare leader who stood out from the crowd without intimidating it. -- Jon Meacham
Jefferson could strike up the band even when he was being lazy or fearful. -- Richard Brookhiser
Unfortunately, proof of a Jefferson-Hemings liaison was as fanciful as Professor Ellis' war service. -- Ann Coulter
All Americans mourn the passing of the author of the Declaration of Independence, George Jefferson. -- Andy Borowitz
Adams had gone to Harvard, Jefferson to William and Mary. Washington had gone to war. -- Joseph J. Ellis
Jesus and Lincoln, Moses and Jefferson can seem so long gone, so unbelievable, so dead. -- Sarah Vowell
Jefferson owned slaves. He did not believe that all were created equal. He was a racist. -- Stephen Ambrose
Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail. -- Benjamin Barber
If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.' -- Robin Quivers
The age of Lincoln and Jefferson memorials is over. It will be presidential libraries from now on. -- Ada Louise Huxtable
If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation. -- Rush Limbaugh
To walk into the Jefferson memorial is to be in a temple of the pure idolatry of reason -- Scot McKnight
In matters of taste, flow like the tide. In matters of principle, stand like a rock. (Thomas Jefferson) -- Beth Fine
More than any other figure in our history [Tomas] Jefferson is responsible for the idea of American exceptionalism. -- Gordon S. Wood
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt faced adversities that, in their times, seemed impregnable. Great presidents overcome great odds. -- Ron Fournier
In spite of what Thomas Jefferson wrote, all men may be created equal, but not to all women. -- Bill Cosby
Individual freedom and individual equality cannot co-exist. I dare say no one since Thomas Jefferson has really believed it. -- Katharine Fullerton Gerould
With all respect to Mr. Jefferson, I would put the pursuit of wisdom ahead of the pursuit of happiness. -- Edmund Fuller
They [Republicans] say, 'You're too conservative.' Was Thomas Jefferson too conservative? I'm tired of some people calling me wacky. -- Sharron Angle
Historically, if you look at people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, people with disposable incomes have always been agricultural innovators. -- Sandra Lerner
probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone. -- John F. Kennedy
Didn't Gandalf say "With great power comes great responsibility"? (If it wasn't Gandalf, maybe it was Thomas Jefferson. Or Spider-Man's uncle.) -- Tom Angleberger
[Tomas] Jefferson believed that the United States was a chosen nation with a special responsibility to spread democracy around the world. -- Gordon S. Wood
Thomas Jefferson was a real poet. He was slick with that 'pursuit' of happiness because the 'pursuit' puts it back on you. -- Will Smith
I find it more than a little disingenuous to act as if this were something that set Jefferson apart from all mankind. -- Annette Gordon-Reed
Thomas Jefferson spoke of certain truths as self-evident. He did not say that these truths were self-explanatory or that they were self-operating. -- J. Martin Klotsche
Men of Virginia, countrymen of Washington, of Patrick Henry, of Jefferson, and of Madison, will ye be true to your constitutional faith? -- Caleb Cushing
We know Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin as politicians, but they felt that science was something everyone should have a knowledge of. -- Rush D. Holt, Jr.
We also worked with Marshall Jefferson for Groovy, Laidback and Nasty. So we were lucky to work with some really great people. -- Stephen Mallinder
After [Tomas] Jefferson's defeat of [John] Adams in the presidential election of 1800, they didn't communicate with one another for more than a decade. -- Gordon S. Wood
Thus the right of nullification meant by Mr. Jefferson is the natural right, which all admit to be a remedy against insupportable oppression. -- James Madison
I believe that Thomas Jefferson said: 'If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?' -- Glenn Beck
No society has gone the way of gulags or concentration camps by following the path of Spinoza and Einstein and Jefferson and Thomas Paine -- Christopher Hitchens
So now it turns out that Thomas Jefferson was having sex with Sally Hemings while serving in the 101st Airborne during the Vietnam War. -- Ann Coulter
It is false to suggest that Thomas Jefferson or any other Founding Father believed in a legal barrier to God in the public square. -- Newt Gingrich
The 1947 Court (Everson v. Board of Education) for the first time had used only Jefferson's metaphor - completely divorced from its context and intent. -- David Barton
In seeking an empire of liberty, Jefferson wished not only to expand the country's territorial holdings, but also to extend American institutions around the globe. -- Robert Dallek
Broadly put, philosophers think: politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power. -- Jon Meacham
I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote that he would support the death penalty only when the infallibility of human judgment had been demonstrated. -- Paul Jacob
The myth that John Locke was the philosopher behind the American Republic, is easily refuted by examining how Locke's philosophy steered Thomas Jefferson, for example. -- Robert Trout
No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read."(The Course of Human Events, NEH Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities 2003) -- David McCullough
Contrary to popular belief, there are lots of actions on the part of Jefferson and Hemings that "speak" about the basic nature of their relationship. -- Annette Gordon-Reed
To say that we have to surrender to judicial supremacy is to do what Jefferson warned against, which is, in essence, surrender to judicial tyranny. -- Mike Huckabee
Maybe the Jefferson case will give members of Congress second thoughts the next time they get ready to legislate away the rights of ordinary Americans. -- Helen Thomas
Thomas Jefferson declared, stating that he was speaking on behalf of the other founding fathers, ...(that) we should build a wall between the church and state. -- Jimmy Carter
I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine. And believe me, you are no Thomas Jefferson. (at 1992 Republican party convention, referring to Bill Clinton) -- Ronald Reagan
[John Adams] is impressed with [Tomas] Jefferson's learning, but noted his silence during the debates in the Congress: "I never heard him utter three Sentences together." -- Gordon S. Wood
The sight of one man standing up to challenge God and country is something that Madison, Jefferson and Franklin would cheer, and every American can celebrate. -- Kenneth C. Davis
The relationship between [John] Adams and [Tomas] Jefferson was extraordinary. They differed on every conceivable issue, except on the Revolution and the love of their country. -- Gordon S. Wood
Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition that was written by Jefferson in 1776. We are really founded on an argument about what that proposition means. -- Joseph J. Ellis
From the 12th Congressional District Hopeful William Jefferson Clinton during the Nixon investigations. I wanted to share some information I've turned up regarding two of your Clinton quotes. -- Keith Richards
The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. -- Gutzon Borglum
I think Jefferson and George Washington would strongly discourage you from growing marijuana, and their tactics to stop you would be more violent than they would be today. -- Newt Gingrich
It was Thomas Jefferson who said that we should not allow the courts to have a monopoly on the interpretation of what is constitutional and what is not. -- Walter E. Williams
I don't want to call it audacity, it's too good a term, to appoint Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as attorney general should damn well be respectful of John Lewis. -- Katrina vanden Heuvel
The English are no nearer than they were a hundred years ago to knowing what Jefferson really meant when he said that God had created all men equal. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton
If you read our Founding Fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson - what we're doing now in this country is making them roll over in their graves. -- Rick Santelli
I do not suspect that Jefferson or Madison ever envisioned Congress honoring the 2,560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius or supporting the designation of National Pi Day. -- Eric Cantor
We've become slaves to words like 'local,' 'fresh,' and 'seasonal.' We all want to be Thomas Jefferson's agrarian hero, but sustainable food is a difficult beast. -- Barton Seaver
People have always said - those words, 'too conservative,' is fairly relative. I'm sure that they probably said that about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. -- Sharron Angle
Every White House has had its intellectuals, but very few presidents have been intellectuals themselves - Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Woodrow Wilson, the list more or less stops there. -- Jonathan Raban
Life in cyberspace seems to be shaping up exactly like Thomas Jefferson would have wanted: founded on the primacy of individual liberty and a commitment to pluralism, diversity, and community. -- Mitch Kapor
I like Thomas Jefferson, though he intimidated me. I thought he would have been very tough to be around. I don't know if he had such a sense of humor. -- Maira Kalman
Our greatest leaders are neither dreamers nor dictators: They are, like Jefferson, those who articulate national aspirations yet master the mechanics of influence and know when to depart from dogma. -- Jon Meacham
Thomas Jefferson said, The tree of liberty must be fertilized from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Yeah and I heard that and thought, I'm out! -- Christopher Titus
How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked. -- Burl Ives
Freedom has been privatized - it is how you dress, what your sexual orientation is, choosing your own life. That's fine. But that is not what Thomas Jefferson was talking about. -- Eric Foner
[John] Adams was the best and most colorful stylist among the Founders. Although [Tomas] Jefferson is widely regarded as the smoothest writer, Adams is by far the most engaging and imaginative. -- Gordon S. Wood
The adoption by Jefferson and the Republicans of the political structure of their opponents is of an importance hardly inferior to that of the adoption of the Constitution by the states. -- Herbert Croly
Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Declaration [of Independence] was a committee report, and [Tomas] Jefferson was simply the draftsman. [John] Adams's crucial role in bringing about independence in the Continental Congress has tended to get forgotten. -- Gordon S. Wood
[John Adams] always felt that his contribution to bringing about independence went unappreciated, especially after the 1790s when [Tomas] Jefferson began to be lauded as the "author" of the Declaration of Independence. -- Gordon S. Wood
CBGB represents a lot to New York City and to underground rock and to new wave and post-punk and whatever. But, you know, it's like tearing down the Jefferson Memorial or something. -- Dave Grohl
We went on stage with the Jefferson Airplane, Jim started singing with Grace Slick and hugging her. Then he danced off the stage, went back into the dressing room and passed out cold. -- Ray Manzarek
I love the example of Jefferson because he's willing to murder his government and then he becomes a president and then his face is in a mountain. Just because he exercised his power. -- Cody Wilson
In the New Testament, Thomas Jefferson cut out everything that was mystical, magical, miracle - physically with scissors - and then pasted in all that remained, such as Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. -- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thomas Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations of our nation, we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow citizens, this is our time. Let us embrace it. -- William J. Clinton
A declaration of the independence of America, and the sovereignty of the United STates was drawn by the ingenious and philosophic pen of Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, a delegate from the state of Virginia -- Mercy Otis Warren
I can't hang out as loose as I used to, but I can still go down Jefferson Avenue and look in the faces of winos, pimps and junkies, all the things I'm made of. -- Rick James
Presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Jackson, presidents have understood that the Supreme Court cannot make a law. They cannot make it. The legislature has to make it, the executive branch has to sign it and enforce it. -- Mike Huckabee
But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake. -- Pat Robertson
In the middle of Hillary Clinton's push for national healthcare in 1993, Bill Clinton cited Thomas Jefferson's concern for health issues as, somehow, apparently indicative of a need for federal management of the nation's healthcare system. -- Paul Kengor
Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. -- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
I had done a lot of rock 'n' roll photography when I was in college. I was one of many photographers who worked for The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and all of these rock 'n' roll bands. -- John Dykstra

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