Of the few men who held libertarian ideals and governed a nation accordingly (and there are only a few), Thomas Jefferson was perhaps among the greatest. Why was he so great? For timeless quotations like this:

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

-Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address