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>I'm trying to find the quote about an informed citizenry being essential to
>the success of a democracy to use in a paper for grad school.
>
>At another site, the following quote was attributed to Thomas Jefferson:
>
>"A democratic society depends on an informed and educated citizenry."
>
>But no date or source was given (other than the name), so I turned to your
>website for those details, and could find no such quote! Do you know if
>Thomas Jefferson indeed said or wrote the quote as I have it above, or in
>some other form, or is it wrongly attributed to him?
I doubt very seriously if Jefferson made that statement. Although the
substance agrees with his thoughts on the need for an educated citizenry,
the style is not his. In fact, it sounds to me like a modern-day summary
of his ideas. If you will go to the following webpage at my site, you will
find a dozen or more quotations that make the same point as the attributed
quote above, but in different words or forms:
Educating the People
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1350.htm
For example:
"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society
but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened
enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the
remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion
by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of
constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Jarvis,
1820. ME 15:278
In Jefferson's usage, democracy or democratical almost always refers
to government in which the people themselves are the ultimate sovereign.
If you will check over that webpage listed above, I feel sure you will
be able to find a genuine quote that will serve your purposes.