George w Quote by Jon Meacham

[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…

— Gordon S. Wood

“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

“Some talked,some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all”

— Benjamin Rush

“The issue concerned a minor matter of etiquette: How should the president be addressed by members of Congress? While hardly an earthshaking question, it…

— Anonymous

“It was of course Jefferson’s gift at one time or another to put with eloquence the “right” answer to every moral question. In practice,…

— Gore Vidal

“Adams lay peacefully, his mind clear, by all signs. Then late in the afternoon, according to several who were present in the room, he…

— David McCullough

“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

Every answer he [President John Adams] gives to his addressers unmasks more and more his principles and views. His language to the young men…

— James Madison

“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

“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

[Benjamin] Franklin may be a great philosopher, [John Adams] told his diary in 1779, but "as a Legislator in America he has done very little."

— Gordon S. Wood

I think [John's Adams] descriptions of the personalities of [Benjamin] Franklin and [Tomas] Jefferson and others were pretty accurate. It is only when he…

— Gordon S. Wood