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His portrait is on the $2.00 Dollar Bill. 
This is amazing. There are two parts to this.

Thomas Jefferson was a very remarkable man who started  learning very early in life and never stopped.

At 5, began studying under
his cousin's tutor.

At 9, studied Latin,
Greek and French.

At 14, studied 
classical literature
and additional languages.

At 16, entered 
the College of William and Mary.
Also could write in Greek with one hand, 
while writing the same in Latin with the other.

At 19, studied 
Law for 5 years
starting under George Wythe.

At 23, started 
his own law practice.

At 25, was elected to the
Virginia House of Burgesses.

At 31, wrote the widely circulated
"Summary View of the Rights of British America," and retired from his law practice.

At 32, was a delegate
to the Second Continental Congress.

At 33, wrote the 
Declaration of Independence.

At 33, took three years to revise
Virginia's legal code and wrote a
Public Education bill and a statute for Religious Freedom.

At 36, was elected the second
Governor of Virginia, succeeding Patrick 
Henry.

At 40, served in 
Congress for two years.

At 41, was the American minister to France
and negotiated commercial treaties with 
European nations along with
Ben Franklin and John Adams.

At 46, served as the first
Secretary of State
under George Washington.

At 53, served as Vice President
and was elected President of the
American Philosophical Society.

At 55, drafted the Kentucky Resolutions
and became the active head of the
Republican Party.

At 57, was elected the third president
of the United States.

At 60, obtained the Louisiana Purchase,
doubling the nation's size.

At 61, was 
elected to a second term as President.

At 65, retired to Monticello.

At 80, helped President Monroe
shape the Monroe Doctrine.

At 81, almost 
single-handedly, created the University of Virginia and served as its first 
president.

At 83, died on the
50th Anniversary of the Signing of
the Declaration of Independence,
along with John Adams.

Thomas Jefferson knew because he himself studied, the previous failed attempts at government. 
He understood actual history, the nature of God, His laws and the nature of man. That happens to be way more than what most understand 
today.

Jefferson really knew his stuff...

A voice from the 
past to lead us in the future:

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of the brightest minds in the nation at that time. He made this statement:
"This is perhaps the assembly of the most intelligence ever to gather at one time in the White House, with the exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe." 
--
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."   
--
Thomas 
Jefferson

"It is incuмbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on, would save
one-half the wars of the world."   
-- 
Thomas 
Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them." 
-- 
Thomas 
Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that
most bad government  results from
too much government." 
--
Thomas 
Jefferson

"No free man shall ever be
debarred the use of arms." 
--
Thomas 
Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms 
is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."   
-- 
Thomas 
Jefferson

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time  with the 
blood of patriots and tyrants." 
--
Thomas 
Jefferson
 
"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes,
the propagation of ideas which he 
disbelieves and abhors,
is sinful and tyrannical."   
--
Thomas 
Jefferson

Here is a copy of the letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Ursuline nuns;

    To the Soeur Therese de St. Xavier farjon Superior, and the Nuns of the order of St. Ursula at New Orleans
I have recieved, holy sisters, the letter you have written me wherein you express anxiety for the property vested in your institution by the former governments of Louisiana. the principles of the constitution and government of the United states are a sure guarantee to you that it will be preserved to you sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to it’s own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority. whatever diversity of shade may appear in the religious opinions of our fellow citizens, the charitable objects of your institution cannot be indifferent to any; and it’s furtherance of the wholesome purposes of society, by training up it’s younger members in the way they should go, cannot fail to ensure it the patronage of the government it is under. be assured it will meet all the protection which my office can give it.
I salute you, holy sisters, with friendship & respect.

Of course you anticipate an objection along these lines but exaggerate it a bit by turning it into a straw man.  Of course one’s time is better spent learning things like this than surfing the web or whatever ... but barely. Now if someone wanted to learn Latin or Greek to study Scripture, the Fathers, and great Catholic authors ... that would be great.  Everything must remain ordered to God and His glory rather than ours.