Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power - Jon Meacham

So much awesome in this portrait of the most human of founding presidents.

on religion:

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

on argument:

I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument

on knowledge:

Knowledge was a desirable, indeed a lovely, possession

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