Word: jefferson
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...somewhat unappetizing career, and not only in America. Historian Henry Steele Commager notes that "talent grows in whatever channels are available and are popular. It goes where the public rewards are." Thus the birth of the U.S. was attended by a breathtaking array of intellectual talent?Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin?because public service was the ideal and one of the few outlets for talent in late 18th century America. But in the 20th century, says Commager, talent is best rewarded in private enterprise, and the better leaders leave politics to the mediocre. He might also have mentioned that...
Winston Churchill, Thomas Jefferson, or almost any of the founding fathers -Adams, Madison, Washington. Perhaps Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson as well...
...have always had mixed feelings about their press. In folklore, the reporter is Superman's alter ego, but he is also the Front Page cynic who would trade in his grandmother for a scoop. By way of a more elevated example, almost everybody (at least among journalists) remembers Jefferson's famous remark that if he had to choose between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he would pick the latter. But few recall that Jefferson also wrote on another occasion: "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper...
...have drifted. Almost all of our national political leaders are totally consumed by the pursuit and exercise of power. Few of them ultimately translate their efforts into the small increments that give life the special depth that Jefferson perceived. One wonders about the Watergate criminals and whether things would have been different had these men had other interests with which to soften and better interpret the purpose of power...
...Thomas Jefferson, An Intimate History, Brodie...