"We have counted the cost of this..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

“It has been thought that the people are not competent electors of judges learned in the law. But I do not know this to be true, and, if doubtful, we should follow principle.”

“Anarchy [is] necessarily consequent to inefficiency.”

“If... many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.”

“Excessive liberty leads both nations and individuals into excessive slavery.[Lat., Nimia libertas et populis et privatis in nimiam servitutem cadit.]”

“The essence of Vanderbilt is still learning, the essence of its outlook is still liberty, and liberty and learning will be and must be the touchstones of Vanderbilt University and of any free university in this country or the world. I say two touchstones, yet they are almost inseparable, inseparable if not indistinguishable, for liberty without learning is always in peril, and learning without liberty is always in vain.”

“The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.”

“You have escaped the cage. Your wings are stretched out. Now fly.”

“While the Soviet Union has imposed its rule on its neighbours and drawn an iron curtain between east and west, we in Great Britain have given freedom and independence to more than forty-eight countries whose populations now number more than a thousand million - a quarter of the world's total.”