For years I fear I have been misquoting a minor historical figure named Thomas Jefferson. I often enjoy yelping the quote, “Any civilization three generations away from revolution is no civilization at all.†Do I have that quote even close to right and did Jefferson even say it? Thanks to Google, I can only maintain four minutes of online skulking before I start yelling at the screen like a microwave having the nerve to take fourteen seconds. HELP!
I don't know about that quote. If Jefferson said it I'd like to know the context. Consider the following Jefferson quote, which calls for something less than continuous revolution:
"More than a generation will be requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent security of person and property, before they will be capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for preservation."
There is a good podcast about American history called Backstory with the American History Guys (they have a website, too). Maybe if you write to them they can answer your question.
Thanks for the "Backstory" tip. I have over forty podcasts and had never heard of that one. Finding a great new podcast with a backlog of shows tends to loose me sleep for a few days. Still, thank you. I am willing to bet that my quote was not a Jefferson quote. Every squeak from good ol' Tommy is ripe for the Googlin'. Closest I have found is, “Every generation needs a new revolution.â€
I am sure I didn't make it up however, and I don't want to be quoting some whack-job (even if I only quote it to prod good friends and incite good arguments.) I could never say, "Well, Himmler once said..."
(Fingers crossed for somebody pre-enlightenment, maybe something in a recluse.)
Hypnerotomachia, I find no record of that quote or variants being said by Jefferson nor by anyone else, for that matter. Where did you learn it?
Finding a great new podcast with a backlog of shows tends to loose me sleep for a few days.
Tell me about it! I never get a full night's sleep anymore! Gone are the days when drooping eyes stopped reading; I can now listen in the dark with eyes closed. Kids don't need flashlights under the bed covers. And we were already a sleep-deprived nation! Can you imagine all the podcasts that our Founding Fathers would have put out if they had it back then? There would be "The Podcast of Independence," and "The Federalist Podcast," for starters.