I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue and advancing the happiness of man.
Interpretation
Education and the spread of knowledge are essential for improving humanity's well-being and happiness.
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the critical role that light, symbolizing knowledge and education, plays in enhancing the overall condition of humanity. He argues that these elements are the foundation for promoting virtue and increasing happiness among people, suggesting that education empowers individuals and fosters a better society.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech at a graduation ceremony to inspire graduates about the value of their education.
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.
May I suggest that you all read? And often. Believe me, it's nice to have something to talk about other than the weather and the Queen's health. Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating.
Education without social action is a one-sided value because it has no true power potential.
We light the oven so that everyone may bake bread in it.
Someday America will have its very own commercial-free TV and radio station devoted to only one thing: to teach people, in their homes, all the essentials of personal achievement.
I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.
Teaching that impacts is not head to head, but heart to heart.
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