…the more ignorant we become the less value we set on science, & the less inclination we shall have to seek it.

—Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 27 May 1795  {More}

…and I am for encouraging the progress of science in all it’s branches…

—Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 26 Jan. 1799  {More}

…every son of science feels a strong & disinterested desire of promoting it in every part of the earth…

—Thomas Jefferson to Marc Auguste Pictet, 3 Feb. 1803  {More}

no body can desire more ardently than myself to concur in whatever may promote useful science, and I view no science with more partiality than Natural history.

—Thomas Jefferson to Jean de la Coste, 24 May 1807  {More}

…nature intended me for the tranquill pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. but the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.

—Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 2 Mar. 1809  {More}

. . .I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom & happiness of man.

—Thomas Jefferson to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, 26 Feb. 1810  {More}

But even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of Man. science had liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example had kindled feelings of right in the people. an insurrection has consequently begun, of science, talents & courage against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. … science is progressive, and talents and enterprize on the alert.

—Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 28 Oct. 1813  {More}

when I contemplate the immense advances in science, and discoveries in the arts which have been made within the period of my life, I look forward with confidence to equal advances by the present generation; and have no doubt they will consequently be as much wiser than we have been, as we than our fathers were, and they than the burners of witches.

—Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 3 Mar. 1818  {More}