Politics Quote by Gore Vidal

“America has always been torn between the ideal and the real, between noble goals and inevitable compromises. So was Jefferson. In his head and…

— Jon Meacham

“For Jefferson, power came before freedom. Indeed, power creates freedom, not the other way around—as the powerless are taught.”

— Ibram X. Kendi

“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…

— Jon Meacham

“Jefferson was ambivalent about executive power – until he bore executive responsibility.”

— Jon Meacham

“In politics and in his personal life, Thomas Jefferson was a complicated man, but in one thing he was consistent: the wanted the best…

— Thomas J. Craughwell

“But this does not detract from the wisdom of his faith in the people and his constant insistence that they be left to manage…

— Calvin Coolidge

“Rather than adjust his expectations in the face of disappointment, he (Jefferson) tended to bury them deeper inside himself and regard the disjunction between…

— Anonymous

“When we seek to understand liberty, equality, progress, constitutional governance, separation of church and state, and the meaning of the American Revolution, we do…

— R.B. Bernstein

“The Jefferson style – cultivate his elders, make himself pleasant to his contemporaries, and used his pen and his intellect to shape the debate…

— Jon Meacham

“I do not believe that Mr. Jefferson ever hated me. On the contrary, I believe he always like me: but he detested Hamilton and…

— John Adams

“Classing Jefferson with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, both of whom were also reluctant to speak at length in public, Adams said, “A public…

— Jon Meacham

“Jefferson is now remembered as the author of one of the English language’s most timeless passages, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that…

— Charles River Editors