you see I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. but it is an enthusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as it’s object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world & procure them it’s praise.

—Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 20 Sept. 1785  {More}

Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry.

—Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782  {More}

no occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable to that of the garden. but tho’ an old man, I am but a young gardener.

—Thomas Jefferson to Charles Willson Peale, 20 August 1811  {More}

do not neglect your music, it will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you.

—Thomas Jefferson to Martha Jefferson Randolph, 4 April 1790  {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}

from Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman grandeur. . .Roman taste, genius & magnificence excite ideas. . .

—Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Tessé, 20 March 1787  {More}