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>I recently read a quote by Thomas Jefferson and cannot find where he said it. >The quote is something like: "The best way to know your own language is to >study another." > >Would you possibly know where and when this quote was used by Jefferson? Did >I quote it accurately? I am an educator who would really like to know. > >If you cannot help me, please let me know who else I can ask. I'm sorry, but I cannot give you a source for the above quotation. I just finished reading through the 20 volume set of the Memorial Edition of Jefferson's writings, and I feel fairly certain it is not in that collection. Of course, the Memorial Edition (ME) does not contain every word Jefferson wrote, so it is entirely possible that the quote exists somewhere. The closest thing I could find to the above quote is in his "Essay on the Anglo-Saxon Language." In that he writes: "If, as I believe, we may consider [the Anglo-Saxon language] as merely an antiquated form of our present language... then I am persuaded its acquisition will require little time or labor, and will richly repay us by the intimate insight it will give us into the genuine structure, powers and meanings of the language we now read and speak." ME 18:390 Jefferson had a lot to say about the study of languages, such as: "It may be truly said that the classical languages are a solid basis for most, and an ornament to all the sciences." --Thomas Jefferson to John Brazier, 1819. ME 15:211 That and several others can be found on my Jefferson Quotes website under the section "Publicly Supported Education." The quote about which you inquire is not in Jefferson's style, in my opinion. But that could be merely a result of inaccurately recalling it. The substance could easily be Jefferson; however, there is a rather lengthy passage where he discusses the value of learning the classical languages, but does not mention their value in helping us better understand our own: "[As to] the extent to which classical learning should be carried in our country... The utilities we derive from the remains of the Greek and Latin languages are, first, as models of pure taste in writing. To these we are certainly indebted for the rational and chaste style of modern composition which so much distinguishes the nations to whom these languages are familiar... Second. Among the values of classical learning, I estimate the luxury of reading the Greek and Roman authors in all the beauties of their originals. And why should not this innocent and elegant luxury take its preeminent stand ahead of all those addressed merely to the sense?... Third. A third value is in the stores of real science deposited and transmitted us in these languages, to wit: in history, ethics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, natural history, etc." --Thomas Jefferson to John Brazier, 1819. ME 15:208 This raises the suspicion that the quotation in question may not be a genuine Jefferson quotation (there are MANY spurious ones around), but I would not hazard such a conclusion at this point. I don't know anyone who could likely help you on this. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Boyd, ed.) will be the definitive source when they are complete, but they are only half complete now, and most of Jefferson's thoughts on education and languages were written in the latter part of his life. Your best bet would probably be contacting the author of the publication where you read the quote originally. Best wishes, Eyler Coates