Thomas Jefferson Quotes
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
Jefferson, Thomas. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8: 25 February 1785 to 31 October 1785. Edited by Julian P. Boyd, Princeton UP, 1953, p. 405.
The President’s State of the Union Message had contained invalid claims that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa. The press was attempting to determine who put the information into the draft of the President’s speech.
It is not clear that L’Estrange actually originated the phrase that politicians use so frequently. It may have been a common aphorism of the day and place. However, this is the earliest English written use of the statement that we have yet found.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels.