Here's a Wall Street Journal article from 2012: "To Quote Thomas Jefferson, 'I Never Actually Said That'/Librarian Tracks Sayings Misattributed to Founding Father; 'A Fine Spiced Pickle.'"
Ms. Berkes acknowledges she has her work cut out for her. "Jefferson is a figure that just is ever present in the American mind," she says.
Jefferson might agree. "If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed," he supposedly said.
Actually, he didn't.
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I've got a copy of S*($ Jefferson Said, Volume III sitting on my bookshelf. Right next to Lincoln's Discourses on Parallel Processing.
Damn, he's toast now.
Does this mean he has no speeding tickets?
It is difficult to prove Jefferson never said something. You would have to have access to everything he ever wrote as well as everything written by anyone who met him. Possibly this could include even people who met people who met jefferson or were present at a speech that wasn't transcribed, etc.
I would be very careful about making claims about what someone didn't do or say.
Jefferson warned us not to trust what we read on the Internet.
And with Jefferson you need to keep in mind that he tended to write to each man what he thought they wanted to hear.
Maybe Jefferson said all those things in private emails and then had his slaves wipe Monticello's server clean.
Are they fake or are they commonly misattributed? There is a difference.
"At this point, what difference does it make?"
You can fool some of the people all of the time... oh, never mind.
If the political opposition is going after our candidates for printing bad quotes from a guy dead nearly 200 years, can we go after their Hillary for lying out loud to our faces, repeatedly, in the last 12 months?
Let's not forget that Kaczynski is the guy who pointed out Rand Paul plagiarized Wikipedia's entry on the movie "Stand and Deliver" for a speech. Kaczynski also showed that Rand Paul plagiarized Wikipedia's "Gattaca" entry for another speech. Finally, it was Kacyznski who reported that Rand Paul lifted 1,300 words from a 2003 Heritage Foundation study for his book.
The point is Kacyznski clearly has it in for Rand Paul, and we should treat this latest report with the proper skepticism.
Lessons learned from the aqua buddha.
Cool a politician’s book that is actually vetted for factual accuracy! Now, does Buzzfeed have links to any other current politicians' books where they are vetted? Oh, wait; I see what they did there....
I read the Ellis book on Jefferson. The Jefferson we know isn't anywhere near the real Jefferson. Many facets of Jefferson's character were quite scurrilous. And, now, centuries after his death, all these sage remarks get attributed to him. He's got some kind of posthumous spin machine working for him........Most of Ambrose Bierce's best remarks get attributed to Mark Twain. Ambrose Bierce is kind of legendary but the Mark Twain legend has more mass and magnetism and thus attracts the loose filings.
I listened to a CD lecture series on Benjamin Franklin.
He was quite the asshole.
My guess is he would fully embrace some of the nastier aspects of today's internet discourse.
Well, hey, if Jefferson were alive today he'd be saying...
"Oi! It's damn dark in this coffin. Someone let me out!" Sorry; old joke. But if the spew fits. -CP
John Lennon and Einstein, too. Ridiculous what gets attributed to them. (As long as it has a pastoral scene behind it, all quotes are true!)
One of the better comments threads here on Althouse in recent months.
"I didn't really say everything I said." -- Yogi Berra
I may not agree with what you didn't say, but I will fight to the death for your right to not say it.
Let me get this straight. There's an article in Buzzfeed saying that Rand Paul didn't sufficiently check the quotes in his book. In Buzzfeed ....... about accuracy .....
Here's a real Rand Paul quote:
"But I would sometimes spread misinformation. This is a great tactic. Misinformation can be very important."
"So, that's my advice," he concluded. "Misinformation works."
Is there anything funnier than garage chiming in on an accuracy-in-quoting discussion?
Rand Paul thinks outside the box. I don't care for his views on foreign policy, but we're overdue for a lot of new thinking. As to Andrew Kaczynski, the phrase to describe him is "petty sophistry."
People who want to trash Rand Paul are often the same people who want to trash Jefferson.
Coincidence?
Slaves forced to service him sexually?
It looks like the Paul campaign and the publisher have, so far, declined to comment.
Imho, this accusation requires some sort of response.
PBandJ
The appropriate response would be a fuzzy EMail of a PDF of Paul's birth certificate.
Can you plagiarize Wikipedia?
"People who want to trash Rand Paul are often the same people who want to trash Jefferson.
Coincidence?"
Nope. They're the usual gang of State-f*ckers.
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