Social media users shared a quote about freedom online and attributed it to Thomas Jefferson. However, this quote does not belong to the third president of the United States.
Examples can be seen here, here and here.
The quote reads: “Freedom is gradually being lost to disinterested, uninformed and uninvolved people – Thomas Jefferson”.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation provides a list of false citations attributed to Jefferson on its website Monticello.org here. Among the falsely attributed or fabricated quotes is the one that is spreading on Facebook.
Anna Berkes, a research librarian at the Jefferson Library and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, confirmed by email to Reuters that the quote was not written by Jefferson. On Monticello.org, Berkes said the quote “appeared online at least as early in 2011” and “was first attributed to Jefferson on Twitter in January 2012”. (here)
The quote also does not exist in the National Archives database, which contains thousands of records of the founding members here.
Fact Checks USA Today, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org and others have dropped various, other quotes incorrectly attributed to Jefferson here, here, here, here and here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Thomas Jefferson never said he ever said, “Freedom is gradually being lost to uninterested, uninformed, and uninvolved people.”
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.