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
We 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.
the size of a misfortune is not determinable by an outsider’s measurement of it but only by the measurements applied to it by the person specially affected by it.
I always felt the true test of a man's character is how he treats people he can't use.
Our particular problem in America at this point in history is the widespread loss of the sense of individual significance, a loss which is sensed inwardly as impotence.
In the poetic tradition, the heart's affections are indeed holy, and if organizations are asking for people's hearts and minds, they are asking in a way for their holy and hidden affections at the same time.
What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan.
Everything trends towards catastrophe & collapse. I am interested, geared up & happy. Is it not horrible to be built like that?
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