Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

Our greatest leaders are neither dreamers nor dictators: They are, like Jefferson, those who articulate national aspirations yet master the mechanics of influence and know when to depart from dogma.

It did not speak well of the power of God, in other words, if He needed a human government to prop him up.

“Their leaders are a hospital of incurables, and as such entitled to be protected and taken care of as other insane persons are.”