|
|
======================================================
>My name is James, and I like to collect quotes. I'm writing this >letter to ask you if you could verify a quote for me that I think was >Thomas Jefferson, but am not sure. I searched through your website >but I didn't find it anywhere and my eyes eventually got sore from >looking. Anyways, the quote is something along the lines of: > >"It's better to debate an issue without settling it, than to settle an >issue without debate." > >I remember reading this quote somewhere, but I can't remember who said >it. The name that comes to mind is Thomas Jefferson, but, like I >said, I'm not sure if it was him. Could you verify this for me, >please? You obviously know a lot about Jefferson, judging from the >amount of info in your website. While the idea expressed does sound "Jeffersonian" as you suggest, the style is not Jefferson's, in my opinion. It does not have his elegant use of words, and the substance seems to leave more questions unanswered than it resolves. It just does not go to the heart of the issue as thoroughly as Jefferson usually did. I have not run across this quote in my search of authentic sources. It is difficult, and usually impossible, to prove a negative, so I always warn inquirers that I could be wrong. But it my opinion, this is not an authentic Jefferson quote. Sorry I can't help more than that. Eyler Coates