Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 77
“I know that inner wisdom is more precious than wealth. The more you spend it, the more you gain.”
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”
Often attributed to Jefferson, no original source for this has been found in his writings, and the earliest established source for similar remarks are those of John Philpot Curran in a speech upon the Right of Election (1790), published in Speeches on the late very interesting State trials (1808):
: "It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
*In a biography of Major General James Jackson published in 1809, author Thomas Charlton wrote that one of the obligations of biographers of famous people is
:"fastening upon the minds of the American people the belief, that 'the price of liberty is eternal vigilance' " (in Thomas Usher Pulaski Charlton, The life of Major General James Jackson https://books.google.com.br/books?id=cEcSAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA85&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false; F.Randolph, & Co., 1809, p. 85).
Misattributed
Variant: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few" (from a speech by Wendell Phillips at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society on January 28, 1852; quoted by John Morley, ed., The Fortnightly https://books.google.com.br/books?id=VfjRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%E2%80%9CEternal+vigilance+is+the+price+of+liberty.%E2%80%9D+phillips+speech+anti-slavery&source=bl&ots=H2f8ckIw9o&sig=EukDrduBdK-oQSeY_Gf-VFQ6M54&hl=en&ei=SaxmTN-0H4P98AbioIi0BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CEternal%20vigilance%20is%20the%20price%20of%20liberty.%E2%80%9D%20phillips%20speech%20anti-slavery&f=false, Volume VIII, Chapman and Hall, 1870, p. 67).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay the price.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty — power is ever stealing from the many to the few….”
Speech in Boston, Massachusetts (28 January 1852), Speeches Before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1853), p. 13. The memorable and oft-quoted phrase, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," was not in quotation marks in the printed edition of this speech. The Home Book of Quotations, ed. Burton Stevenson, 9th ed., p. 1106 (1964), notes that "It has been said that Mr. Phillips was quoting Thomas Jefferson, but in a letter dated 14 April, 1879, Mr. Phillips wrote: '"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" has been attributed to Jefferson, but no one has yet found it in his works or elsewhere.' It has also been attributed to Patrick Henry."
1850s
Context: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty — power is ever stealing from the many to the few…. The hand entrusted with power becomes … the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.
“Nothing is more precious than Independence and Liberty.”
Political slogan, quoted in Ho Chi Minh and His Vietnam : A Personal Memoir (1972) by Jean Sainteny, p. 172
Variant translation: Nothing is more valuable than freedom and independence.
World Marxist Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism (1979), p. 91
1950s, The Chance for Peace (1953)
“Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things.”
It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased; and its value, to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it for some new productions, is precisely equal to the quantity of labour which it can enable them to purchase or command.
Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter V, p. 38.
"The Tallest Tale", p. 315
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998)
