But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake.

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn't anticipate.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution.

We make no saint of Thomas Jefferson—we leave the mindless business of canonization and the worship of humans to the fanatics—but aware as we are of his many crimes and contradictions we say with confidence that his memory and example will endure long after the moral pygmies who try to blot out his name have been forgotten.

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it, we respect that of others, without fearing it.