At 07:15 PM 5/28/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello...I am an admirer of Thomas Jefferson and I remember hearing a
>quote about him when I toured Monticello.  I know the gist of the quote
>but could you help me find the actual quote and more complete
>information about its origin?
>
>As I remember it, John F. Kennedy was hosting a dinner of Nobel
Peace
>Prize Winners in the White House and told them that he didn't think
that
>there had ever been a greater collection of minds/thoughts at one time
>in the White House with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson,
>dining alone.

You're pretty close.  It is cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations as
follows:

"I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of
human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White
House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined
alone." J.F.Kennedy (Address to Nobel Prizewinners, 4/62)

Best wishes,

Eyler Coates