Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1065 |
| AUTHOR: | Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) |
| QUOTATION: | The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | A related idea was later expressed by Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac in a speech to the French national assembly, January 16, 1793: “L’arbre de la liberté… croît lorsqu’il est arrosé du sang de toute espèce de tyrans (The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants),” Archives Parliamentaires de 1787 à 1860, vol. 57, p. 368 (1900). And much earlier Tertullian had said: “Plures efficimur quotiens metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis Christianorum (We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed),” Apology, trans. T. R. Glover, pp. 226–27 (1931). |
| SUBJECTS: | Liberty |