I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of focusing on future possibilities rather than being burdened by past events.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the value of aspiring towards a hopeful future and the potential it holds, suggesting that it is more beneficial to dream and envision what could be, rather than getting weighed down by historical events and past experiences. This perspective advocates for optimism and motivation to create a better tomorrow.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage young people to pursue their aspirations.
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.
The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
[A]nother important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to his liking.
We must be convinced that abundance is the natural state of the Universe. To experience and accept abundance in our life, we must be convinced that as we conceive and believe, the Universe handles the details.
The only attitude (the only politics--judicial, medical, pedagogical and so forth) I would absolutely condemn is one which, directly or indirectly, cuts off the possibility of an essentially interminable questioning, that is, an effective and thus transforming questioning.
Old things are always in good repute, present things in disfavor.
What we call truths are just those errors that we cannot give up.
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