Changes

* "On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was past." <ref>[https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-3562 From Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 12 June 1823]</ref>

* "On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was past." <ref>[https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-3562 From Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 12 June 1823]</ref>

==Fake quotes==

==Fake quotes and misattributions==

Many false quotations have been attributed to Jefferson.<ref>See the 28 fakes listed at [http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Spurious_Quotations Spurious Quotations]</ref>

Many false quotations have been attributed to Jefferson, as have real quotes which were stated or written by other people.<ref>See the 28 fakes listed at [http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Spurious_Quotations Spurious Quotations]</ref>

* Jefferson did NOT say, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine”.

* Jefferson did NOT say, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine”.

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "Societies exist under [...] governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep."<ref name="ReferenceA">Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787; Boyd, Julian P., Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, et al, eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-. 11:92-93</ref>

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "Societies exist under [...] governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep."<ref name="ReferenceA">Jefferson to James Madison, January 30, 1787; Boyd, Julian P., Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, et al, eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-. 11:92-93</ref>

* In the 1960s leftwing activists invented another false quote: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".  

* In the 1960s leftwing activists invented another false quote: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".  

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

* Jefferson did not like banks. He did NOT say, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."  

* Jefferson did not like banks. He did NOT say, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered."  

** Jefferson did say in 1816: "And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

** Jefferson did say in 1816: "And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

*Jefferson did NOT say, "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."  He rarely used the word "democracy".<ref>See [http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Spurious_Quotations Spurious Quotations]</ref>

*Jefferson did NOT say, "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."  He rarely used the word "democracy".<ref>See [http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Spurious_Quotations Spurious Quotations]</ref>

** Jefferson did say: "To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, —the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it." <ref>Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Albert E. Bergh, eds. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1903-0; 14:446.</ref>

** Jefferson did say: "To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, —the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it." <ref>Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Albert E. Bergh, eds. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1903-0; 14:446.</ref>

* A common misquote incorrectly attributed to Jefferson is, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty." This was first said by John Basil Barnhill.<ref>[http://debs.indstate.edu/b262b3_1914.pdf Debate on Socialism], Page 34.</ref>

* A common misquote incorrectly attributed to Jefferson is, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty." This was first said by John Basil Barnhill.<ref>[http://debs.indstate.edu/b262b3_1914.pdf Debate on Socialism], Page 34.</ref>

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, &c. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

** Jefferson did write in 1787: "Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, &c. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

* "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" is commonly attributed to Jefferson, but was said by [[John Philpot Curran]]

* "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" is commonly attributed to Jefferson, but was said by [[John Philpot Curran]]

* "The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons." A passage written by [[Cesare Beccaria]] that Jefferson quotes but did not write himself, contained in his "''Legal Commonplace Book''".

* "The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons." A passage written by [[Cesare Beccaria]] that Jefferson quotes but did not write himself, contained in his "''Legal Commonplace Book''".