"When young any composition pleases which unites a little sense, some imagination, and some rhythm, in doses however small. But as we advance in life these things fall off one by one, and I suspect we are left at last with only Homer and Virgil, perhaps Homer alone." - Thomas Jefferson, Thoughts on English Prosody

"[So much] has my relish for poetry deserted me that at present I cannot read Virgil with pleasure." - Thomas Jefferson to John Daly Burk, 21 Jun. 1801 [PTJ 34:400-401]

"and what finer specimens could [the teacher of Latin and Greek] produce & comment on ... in Belles lettres than Homer, Anacreon, Theocritus, Virgil, Horace, Terence & the Greek tragedians, all of them school books?" - Thomas Jefferson to Jason Chamberlain, 1 Jul. 1814 [PTJ:RS 28:447-448]

"I would advise you to undertake a regular course of history & poetry in both languages ... in Latin read Livy, Caesar, Sallust Tacitus, Cicero’s Philosophies, and some of his Orations, in prose; and Virgil, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Horace, Terence & Juvenal for poetry." - Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 Oct. 1820