Unconfirmed Quotations by David Barton is at: http://www.wallbuilders.com/resources/search/detail.php?ResourceID=20 > Jon--could you provide info on the disavowal of bogus quotes by founders > on > religion that you mention?--Mick Nicholls > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jon Kukla" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 12:19 PM > Subject: quotations and bogus quotations > > >> For what its worth, I too suspect its a bogus quote. It is amazing how >> many of those are in circulation. >> About a dozen bogus quotes in which various of the founders spoke >> about >> Christianity - Henry included - have been disavowed by one of the >> right-leaning sites that had promoted them in the 90s. >> More recently we've seen a scholastic poster marketed by a mainstream >> educational company that attributes to Henry a "quotation" from Voltaire >> - well actually another author's SUMMARY of something Voltaire wrote: >> The familiar version ("I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend >> to >> the death your right to say it") attributed to the great French >> philosophe >> Voltaire was another writer's summary of Voltaire's whose actual words >> in >> a letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770: "I detest what you write, but >> I >> would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." >> >> As others have noted, the quotation in question sounds a bit formulaic >> and >> aphoristic for Jefferson - but it could well be somebody else's summary >> of >> an attitude he might have expressed. The advice itself, for example, is >> not far off Jefferson's comment in a letter of 1803 to John Randolph of >> Roanoke about "the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among >> those who are to act together, for any common object, and the expediency >> of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish." >> >> By the way: my searches for the words "swim" and "principle" in the UVA >> e-text center's online text of TJ's autobiography turn up no matches >> with >> the quote. >> >> Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President >> Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial >> 1250 Red Hill Road >> Brookneal, Virginia 24528 >> www.redhill.org >> >> > I was recently at a presentation where the speaker used an unfamiliar >> > Jefferson quotation and I have had no luck tracking down its citation. >> A >> > Google search led to 359,000 sites, but alas none of them on the first >> 5 >> > pages gives me a citation. I have also checked the Jefferson >> Cyclopedia >> > and >> > staff at Monticello. >> > >> > Does anyone recognize this quotation and can you tell me from where it >> > comes: >> > >> > "In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim >> > with >> > the current." >> > >> > Thanks, >> > Robin Gabriel >> > Director of Education >> > Monticello >> > >> >> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the >> instructions >> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html >> > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html > > Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial 1250 Red Hill Road Brookneal, Virginia 24528 www.redhill.org Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463 Fax 434-376-2647 - M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager - Karen Gorham-Smith, Associate Curator - Edith Poindexter, Curator To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html