Requests for Information Related to Thomas Jefferson Quotations

======================================================



> Hello! I have been browsing your excellent collection of Jeffersonian
> quotes, but have not found what I am looking for. There is a 
> quote that I would like to know if it (or something similar) is
> attributed to Jefferson, and if not, who said it. Perhaps you could
> help me out. The quote is:
>
> "The cure for the ills of freedom is more freedom."

I believe the quote you are seeking was about democracy, not "freedom."  I
understand it was social reformer Jane Addams (1860-1935) that said, "The
only cure for the ills of Democracy is more Democracy."

I feel compelled to suggest to you that freedom and liberty are never
without limitations.  Jefferson wrote:

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is
unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is
unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by
the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,'
because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates
the right of an individual." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.

Rightful liberty, or rightful freedom, must always be limited "by the equal
rights of others," and this limitation is ordinarily effected by the law,
although as Jefferson points out, not every law is a rightful limitation.



======================================================

Table of Contents