“Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.”

Source: The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson (1948), Ch. 4, Part 1: Natural History and Political Science, p. 178.

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Daniel J. Boorstin 39
American historian 1914–2004

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