Thomas Jefferson

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under his cousin's tutor.

At 9, studied Latin, Greek and French.

At 14, studied classical literature and additional languages.

At 16, entered the College of William and Mary.

At 19, studied Law for 5 years starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated "Summary View of the Rights of British America” and retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a Delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise Virginia's legal code and wrote a Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second Governor of Virginia succeeding Patrick Henry.

At 40, served in Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France and negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first Secretary of State under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President and was elected president of the American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions and became the active head of Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost single-handedly created the University of Virginia and served as its first president.

At 83, died on the 50th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence along with John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied the previous failed attempts at government. He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand today. Jefferson really knew his stuff. A voice from the past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the white House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement: "This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government." -- Thomas Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
-- Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.





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Yes, he was a great man and we must teach all we meet about Jefferson and his wisdom/knowledge or it will die with us as it is swallowed by the big black hole which is overtaking our democratic Republic. Notice, no mention of countless rounds of golf in that great list of accomplishments either. :p
 
Is there something hidden in there about a new knife coming out I'm not seeing?

BRM2752TS_s.jpg
 
Thanks, Skunk!

Jefferson certainly was a classic "Renaissance Man" if there ever was one.
 
Inspiring post, but I think we should still pay some mind to this...

"Since 2008, a list of ten purported Jefferson quotations has been passed around via email and posted in many places on the Internet..."

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/chain-email-10-jefferson-quotations

The false quotes are the minority, but there's nothing worse than misinformation in my opinion. Don't forget what Abraham Lincoln said: The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity.
 
I love this quote from the Jefferson Memorial. Wrap your head around this one:

The interior walls are engraved with passages from Jefferson's writings. Most prominent are the words which are inscribed in a frieze below the dome:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

This sentence is taken from a September 23, 1800, letter by Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush wherein he defends the constitutional refusal to recognize a state religion.
 
TJ was the man. Didn't he also re-write the Bible?

Yep, he took out all the magic and mumbo jumbo and just left the stuff that actually has a benefit on teaching morality and ethics.

Sadly it hasn't caught on.. people like their magic
 
:thumbdn: :thumbdn: :thumbdn:

It's the truth.. liking or disliking it doesn't make it untrue.
The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was a book constructed by Thomas Jefferson in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting numerous sections from various Bibles as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's composition excluded sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
 
Inspiring post, but I think we should still pay some mind to this...



The false quotes are the minority, but there's nothing worse than misinformation in my opinion. Don't forget what Abraham Lincoln said: The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity.

Thank you for that. Brilliant!
 
I wish he was the President today- It would be difficult to protect him though.


TJ was an overachiever. He would not do well today as a politician. He probably couldn't be elected. We, the people wouldn't trust anyone like that.
(Many of the upper class men of that time were highly educated.)

He would probably be the president of some prestigious university or the CEO of a large corporation.
 
Jefferson amassed a huge library of books in many different languages. Here is some fascinating information from the Library of Congress,
“I cannot live without books.” Thomas Jefferson, June 10, 1815

Throughout his life, books were vital to Thomas Jefferson’s education and well being. His books provided Jefferson with a broader knowledge of the contemporary and ancient worlds than many of his contemporaries had obtained through personal experience.

Jefferson’s library, which developed through several stages, was always critically important to him. When his family home, Shadwell, burned in 1770, Jefferson deeply lamented the loss of his books. In the midst of the American Revolution and while he was United States minister to France in the 1780s, Jefferson acquired thousands of books for his library at Monticello. By 1814, when the British burned the Capitol and with it the Congressional Library, Thomas Jefferson had acquired the largest personal collection of books in the United States.

Short of funds and wanting to see the library re-established, Jefferson offered to sell his personal library to Congress as a replacement for the collection destroyed by the British. After some controversy, Congress purchased his library for $23,950 in 1815. Although a second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851 destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6,487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson, the Jefferson books remain the core from which the present collections of the Library of Congress―the world’s largest library―developed.

In this reconstruction of Jefferson’s library, the books have been arranged in an order that Jefferson described as “sometimes analytical, sometimes chronological, and sometimes a combination of both.” Jefferson followed a modified version of the organization of knowledge created by British philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626). The books were divided into categories of “Memory,” “Reason,” and “Imagination”—which Jefferson interpreted as “History,” “Philosophy,” and “Fine Arts”—and further divided into forty-four “chapters.” Included in this re-creation are 2,000 volumes from the original Jefferson Collection—survivors of fire and time. An additional 3,000 or so volumes—editions that match those lost in the fire at the Capitol in 1851—come from other collections in the Library of Congress. Other missing works have been acquired through gifts. Several hundred volumes have been purchased since 2000. These acquisitions were made possible by the generosity of Jerry and Gene Jones.
 
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