Happy Birthday to Thomas Jefferson

jefferson_thomasThomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, among the hills of Virginia, on this day in 1743.   By far one of my favorite founding fathers, he is also one of my favorite authors of quotes.

Jefferson distinguished himself as a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author and inventor.  I could easily fill three pages or more on the amount of trivia that is available on Jefferson; however one thing I enjoyed learning was that he is the only two-term US President to never veto an act of Congress.

He has been quoted so much, that it’s difficult to pick a favorite; however I would have to say that his, ”The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.“ ranks among my all-time favorites.  I have personally used this in speeches from time to time.

Some others that deserve mentioning mainly due to the economic situation we are in right now are:

“I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.”

“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers…. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.”

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.”

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness.”

All from Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826.

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James A. Restucci is the author of this blog. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internal License.

5 Responses to Happy Birthday to Thomas Jefferson

  1. TVNews says:

    He was wise beyond his time. Don’t be surprised if you see a couple of those quotes pop up in my posts.

  2. jimr says:

    I agree wholeheartedly Jason, I often tell people that everywhere I look I see the ghost of Hamilton and it scares me.  Not that Hamilton wasn’t someone who I look up to; on the contrary, his military leadership, skill and prowess demonstrated while he was a member of Washington’s Staff will always be one of his strong points in my book.  However, his support of a Central Bank and a strong federal government was wrong in my opinion.

    I believe that one of the reasons our Republic has lasted as long as it has, is mainly due to the fact that our States have automony, to some extent, when it comes to dealing with the Federal goverment.

    Unfortunately, today, that automony is slowly being undermined, when the Federal goverment offers a state “federal funding” it always comes with a caveat that says if you want this money, you have to follow these rules.

  3. Jason Raines says:

    Thomas Jefferson was a great statesman. He would surely freak if he saw how government was taking over banking and other industries. He was, after all, opposed to a national bank on the grounds that it is not Constitutional. More leaders should read up on his views of things.

    http://www.civil-liberties.com/cases/nat_bank1.html

  4. jimr says:

    Here is a blog I did about a movie, I liked, I think you will get a kick out of it, I know I did.

    http://myaxcess.com/blogs/jimr/archive/2008/06/01/times-people-and-places-et-al.aspx

  5. EagleWatch says:

    Also one of my favorites! Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin, in their everday conversatons, endlessly demonstrated their prescience. It amazes me how easily their body of work is kicked to the curb by those who feign their ideals during campaigns.