Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1562
AUTHOR:
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
QUOTATION:
When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
ATTRIBUTION:
Attributed to THOMAS JEFFERSON.—B. L. Rayner, Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 356 (1834).
Rayner says the remark was made during a conversation in the president’s office with Baron Alexander von Humboldt, the celebrated naturalist and traveler.
