Thomas Jefferson, inaugural address, March 4, 1801.—The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Andrew A. Lipscomb, vol. 3, p. 321 (1904). This thought had been similarly expressed earlier in his letter to Edward Carrington, December 21, 1787: "I know too that it is a maxim with us, and I think it a wise one, not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of Europe."—The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 12, p. 447 (1955). George Washington did not use any form of "entangle," but sharedhttps://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Foreign_policy