The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the teachings of Jesus are straightforward and ultimately aim to promote human happiness.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the simplicity of Jesus's teachings and emphasizes their focus on the well-being and happiness of humanity. He implies that understanding and embracing these doctrines can lead to a more fulfilling and joyful life, suggesting a universal truth in the moral guidance provided by these teachings.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics, one could quote Jefferson to highlight the moral foundations of happiness.
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.
Not because Socrates said so, but because it is in truth my own disposition β and perchance to some excess β I look upon all men as my compatriots, and embrace a Pole as a Frenchman, making less account of the national than of the universal and common bond.
Angels and ministers of grace defend us.
I was wrong, however, to suppose that Sellers thought the world revolved around him. He thought the cosmos did too, and history, and the fates... Like every egomaniac, he behaved as if everybody else spent their day being as interested in him as he was.
Both life and death manifest in every moment of existence. Our human body appears and disappears moment by moment, without cease, and this ceaseless arising and passing away is what we experience as time and being. They are not separate. They are one thing, and in even a fraction of a second, we have the opportunity to choose, and to turn the course of our action either toward the attainment of truth or away from it. Each instant is utterly critical to the whole world.
Long before the awakening of thought on earth, manifestations of cosmic energy must have been produced which have no parallel today.
There are plenty of laws to protect guys' money even in war time but there's nothing on the books says a man's life's his own.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.