Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, I suppose, is the other founding father of "Knowledge for Development" in the United States of America. He was, in addition to a statesman and diplomat, an architect, naturalist, and linguist. In the Virginia House of Delegates he introduced bills to create a free system of tax-supported elementary education for all except slaves, to create a public library and to modernize the curriculum of the College of William and Mary -- all of which failed to pass into law. He experimented with a new plow and other ingenious inventions on his farm, Monticello. He was one of the founding fathers of the Patent Office, and held the post as examiner of American patents. He conceived University of Virginia at Charlottesville, planned it, designed it, and supervised both its construction and the hiring of faculty. As President, he sponsored the Lewis and Clark expedition, which advanced scientific knowledge of the western United States greatly. By 1814 Jefferson had acquired the largest personal collection of books in the United States, which sold to Congress as a replacement for the collection destroyed by the British during the War of 1812. It formed the permanent basis of the Library of Congress. And he was author of the Declaration of American Independence and of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom.

Quotations:

"it (liberty) is the great parent of science & of virtue: and that a nation will be great in both, always in proportion as it is free."
Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Willard, March 24, 1789

"our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."
Thomas Jefferson to Dr. James Currie, January 28, 1786

"nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."
Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, June 11, 1807

"The expedition of Messrs. Lewis & Clarke for exploring the river Missouri, & the best communication from that to the Pacific ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected."
Thomas Jefferson's Sixth Annual Message to Congress, December 2, 1806

"I agree with you that it is the duty of every good citizen to use all the opportunities, which occur to him, for preserving documents relating to the history of our country."
Thomas Jefferson to Hugh P. Taylor, October 4, 1823

"I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give."
Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald, February 7, 1788

"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."
Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789

"I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country under regulations as would secure their safe return in due time."
Thomas Jefferson to John Wyche, May 19, 1809

"I cannot live without books."
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, June 10, 1815

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from anybody...(letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813 as cited in Kock & Peden, 1972).