It is a part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate; to surmount every difficulty by resolution and contrivance.
ATTRIBUTION:
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, March 28, 1787, to his daughter, Martha Jefferson. The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, p. 35, eds. E.M. Betts and J.A. Bear, Jr. (1966).
