Jean-Antoine Houdon (20 March 1741 – 15 July 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor. Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers as a result of his staunch promotion of republicanism in the United States.

A polymath, Jefferson achieved distinction as, among other things, a horticulturist, political leader, architect, archaeologist, philosopher, paleontologist, inventor, and founder of the University of Virginia.

Jefferson has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of U.S. presidents.

The source for the quote “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” is referenced as Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819. ME 15:180 see http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/ - Thomas Jefferson On Politics & Government, Quotations from the Writings of Thomas Jefferson

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