The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson

Statesman. Diplomat. Politician. Scholar. Inventor. Architect. President. Few men exemplify the Enlightenment ideal more than Thomas Jefferson. In this comprehensive collection of quotations from Thomas Jefferson’s letters, official communications, and other writings, the dynamic personality and insatiable curiosity of this brilliant man jump off the page and draw us into the young country he so greatly influenced. Whether writing about the right to freedom or the future of Native Americans, the westward expansion or the political climate in France, his personal impressions of historical luminaries or his architectural preferences, his financial troubles or his feelings about religious freedom, Jefferson’s convictions are brilliantly explained and often ahead of their time. With seventeen chapters arranged chronologically to highlight the evolution of his thought, as well as a timeline and a cross-section of his finest works, The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson paints a detailed and revealing portrait of this great man.

Statesman. Diplomat. Politician. Scholar. Inventor. Architect. President. Few men exemplify the Enlightenment ideal more than Thomas Jefferson. In this comprehensive collection of quotations from Thomas Jefferson’s letters, official communications, and other writings, the dynamic personality and insatiable curiosity of this brilliant man jump off the page and draw us into the young country he so greatly influenced. Whether writing about the right to freedom or the future of Native Americans, the westward expansion or the political climate in France, his personal impressions of historical luminaries or his architectural preferences, his financial troubles or his feelings about religious freedom, Jefferson’s convictions are brilliantly explained and often ahead of their time. With seventeen chapters arranged chronologically to highlight the evolution of his thought, as well as a timeline and a cross-section of his finest works, The Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson paints a detailed and revealing portrait of this great man.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was born in Virginia. A founding father of the United States, Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and served as a delegate to the Continental Congress. After the Revolutionary War, Jefferson influenced the early years of the nation as a diplomat in France, the secretary of state under Washington, and finally as the third president of the United States. Among his many accomplishments are the Louisiana Purchase, the founding of the University of Virginia, dozens of inventions, and his role as the author of many of the core principles of American democracy.