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Fake Jefferson on Courage

Rudulph Evans’s statue of Thomas Jefferson with excerpts of the Declaration of Independence seen behind, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., USA, March 1985.
Rudulph Evans’s statue of Thomas Jefferson with excerpts of the Declaration of Independence seen behind, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., USA, March 1985. Photo: Barbara Alper (Getty Images)

“One man with courage is a majority,” is a pithy quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson. But he never wrote those words, according to the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia.

This quote is most often attributed to Andrew Jackson, but that’s also incorrect. The 7th president didn’t say it either, according to an expert on Jackson writing in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times.

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