1820, December 27:

Thomas Jefferson wrote, during the years while he and Spencer Roane and the other initial Board of Visitors were still planning the University, “this institution [University of Virginia] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

—Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, 27 Dec. 1820

via Jefferson Today | Archive for Reason.