The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as
reason is left free to combat it.
Letter to William Roscoe, 27 December 1820
To attain all this [universal republicanism], however, rivers of blood must yet flow, and years
of desolation pass over; yet the object is worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation.
Letter to John Adams, 4 September 1823, in Thomas Jefferson Randolph (ed.) ‘Memoirs, Correspondence and
Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson’ (1829) vol. 4, p. 387
If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by
death are few; by resignation none.
Letter to John Adams, 4 September 1823 (usually quoted, ‘Few die and none resign’), in Thomas Jefferson
Randolph (ed.) ‘Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson’ (1829) vol. 4, p. 387
Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have
been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity
[of opinion]. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the
other half hypocrites.
‘Notes on the State of Virginia’ (1781-5) Query 17
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
‘Notes on the State of Virginia’ (1781-5) Query 18 ‘Manners’
No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.
In J. B. MacMaster ‘History of the People of the U.S.’ (1883-1913) vol. 2, ch. 13, p. 586
We have the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in
one scale, and self-preservation in the other.
On slavery in the United States, 1820, in J. C. Miller ‘The Wolf by the Ears’ (1977)
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
Remark to Baron von Humboldt, 1807, in Rayner ‘Life of Jefferson’ (1834) p. 356
10.16 Francis, Lord Jeffrey 1773-1850
This will never do.
On Wordsworth’s ‘The Excursion’ (1814), in ‘Edinburgh Review’ November 1814, p. 1
10.17 David Jenkins 1925—
The withdrawal of an imported, elderly American to leave a reconciling opportunity for some
local product is surely neither dishonourable nor improper.
Referring to Ian MacGregor, Chairman of the Coal Board, in ‘The Times’ 22 September 1984
A conjuring trick with bones.
On the Resurrection
10.18 Roy Jenkins (Baron Jenkins of Hillhead) 1920—
The politics of the left and centre of this country are frozen in an out-of-date mould which is
bad for the political and economic health of Britain and increasingly inhibiting for those who live
within the mould. Can it be broken?