Certain teachings in the Bible are as diamonds in a dung-heap.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that while there may be valuable insights in religious texts, they can often be overshadowed by flawed or undesirable elements.
Thomas Jefferson's quote reflects a critical perspective on religious teachings, implying that amidst various doctrines and beliefs, there are profound truths akin to precious diamonds. However, these truths can be difficult to appreciate fully due to the surrounding confusion or misguided teachings that he metaphorically refers to as a 'dung-heap'. This highlights a philosophical approach that values discernment and the search for wisdom within larger, more complex systems of thought.
In practice
In a speech about reform in religious education, this quote can highlight the need for discernment.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
'Useful,' and 'necessity' was always 'the tyrant's plea'.
Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility with regard to everything that has life.
If you see your path laid out in front of you - Step one, Step two, Step three - you only know one thing . . . it is not your path. Your path is created in the moment of action. If you can see it laid out in front of you, you can be sure it is someone else's path. That is why you see it so clearly.
There's a demon in me, and he's still around. Without the dope, we have a bit more of a chat these days.
Power is a trick. It lies where we believe it lies.
Racism is a much more clandestine, much more hidden kind of phenomenon, but at the same time it's perhaps far more terrible than it's ever been.
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