Quotation: "Without God, liberty will not last."
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted:
Earliest known appearance in print: 1996[1]
Other attributions: None known.
Status: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson.
Comments: This quotation seems to have originated in a 1996 article by Thomas G. West, "The Conservatism of the Declaration of Independence." West writes, "Jefferson said, without God, liberty will not last." This was probably intended as a paraphrase of Jefferson, not a direct quotation, although it seems to have been understood as such by many readers. It is possible that it is a reference to Jefferson's comment in Notes on the State of Virginia: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of god? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?"[2] It could also be a paraphrase of another (also spurious) quotation, "The Bible is the source of liberty."
-Anna Berkes, 3/30/10
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