It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia

The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves. – James A. Garfield

The important thing today is not what we say of Lincoln but what Lincoln would say of us if he were here in this hour and could note the drift and tendency in American life and American politics. – Stephen Samuel Wise

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone. – John F. Kennedy, to his Nobel Prize-winning guests