I can lumber my way through Latin, but Greek is completely out of my reach.Hopefully someone here at TPM Cafe can offer some insight.

In a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814 is found a two word phrase in Greek. Here is a direct link to the page in the Writings of Jefferson (ME): Volume XIV, Page 140.

My transcription of the phrase is:

Το κυλον

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

I've been seeing the following quote passed around frequently since the election, falsely attributed to Thomas Jefferson:

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

This is very unlike Jefferson both in style and in content. I could not find it in my Jefferson references, and went looking about on the web.

From The Thomas Jefferson Foundation's Jefferson Encyclopedia:

The democracy will cease to exist

No evidence has been found that Jefferson ever wrote this. The concept of taxing income was not unknown to Jefferson, but his writings on the topic of taxation indicate that he viewed taxation generally as a source of revenue for the government.

Feel free to brutally flog anyone who uses this apocryphal cite in your vicinity,