#058: “Free Argument and Debate”

“[T]ruth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate ; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”¹

“Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.” ²

“We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”³

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All sources found at https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson (Bold emphasis added.)
1. A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, Chapter 82 (1779). Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 1, pp. 438–441. Comparison of Jefferson's proposed draft and the bill enacted.
2. Notes on Religion (October 1776), published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson : 1816–1826 (1899) edited by Paul Leicester Ford, v. 2, p. 102
3. Letter to William Roscoe (27 December 1820)