# Think Tank > History >  Is this Thomas Jefferson Quote real?

## AmericasLastHope

"If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what
medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as a sorry state as
the souls who live under tyranny."

Google only has 433 hits for it, but someone told me the real quote is: ""Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."

The latter version has 25,000 hits on Google.  Anyone know?

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## Kregisen

I don't know, but the majority of quotes claimed to be from people like Jefferson are false.

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## FrankRep

The actual quote:

"Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."
--Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of Virginia: Query XVII: Religion, 1781


SOURCE:
http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/...s/jeff1310.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=9aH...%20now&f=false


*Full Context:*

The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only. Had not the Roman government permitted free enquiry, Christianity could never have been introduced. Had not free enquiry been indulged, at the aera of the reformation, the corruptions of Christianity could not have been purged away. If it be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged. *Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.* Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food. Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere: the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. This error however at length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vortex.

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## Sola_Fide

> *Full Context:*
> 
> The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them.*Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only. Had not the Roman government permitted free enquiry, Christianity could never have been introduced. Had not free enquiry been indulged, at the aera of the reformation, the corruptions of Christianity could not have been purged away. If it be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.* Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.  Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.****Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere: the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error.**** This error however at length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vortex.




What an awesome quote.



If you'll notice, Jefferson is linking three pivotal events together-

1.  the inception of Christianity in Rome

2.  the Reformation

3.  the American Revolution

-as times when freedom and the exercise of reason CONFIRMED the truth of Christianity.  He is right.  The truth will ALWAYS win in the free market of ideas...always.   The truth can only be supressed for a time by oppressive governments, but it will always win eventually.


Also, Jefferson correctly accusses GOVERNMENT of trying to supress Galileo's discovery, not "the church", since it was government force that was used to enfore a particular view ...much like how evolution is forced by our government today.

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## aGameOfThrones

> The actual quote:
> 
> "Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."
> --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of Virginia: Query XVII: Religion, 1781
> 
> 
> SOURCE:
> http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/...s/jeff1310.htm
> http://books.google.com/books?id=9aH...%20now&f=false
> ...


It also has this quote too:

*But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.*

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## JVParkour

Great stuff!

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## moostraks

> It also has this quote too:
> 
> *But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.*


That was prior to the NEA and the Department of Education and establishment of such delights such as CPS or CSB. All these little alphabet soup agencies not only pick my pockets but destroy my family values. A damn sight worse than breaking my leg.

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## heavenlyboy34

FWIW, probably the most reliable online source (that I know of) about TJ is monticello.org.

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