Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.
Interpretation
Education is essential for public welfare, even if most education is better managed by private institutions.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the role of public education in serving the needs of society. He acknowledges that while private enterprise successfully handles many educational concerns, only public institutions can provide certain necessary sciences that contribute to the overall improvement and preservation of the country, highlighting the importance of a balanced educational system that addresses both common and specialized needs.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech advocating for increased funding for public 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
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.
As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else for us to learn, except possibly algebra.
For 300 years, higher education was not disruptable because there was no technological core.
I learn something not because I have to, but because I really want to. That's the same view I have for performing. I'm performing because I really want to, not because I have to bring bread back home.
I know that books seem like the ultimate thing that's made by one person, but that's not true. Every reading of a book is a collaboration between the reader and the writer who are making the story up together.
I think the cardinal rule of learning to write is learning to read first. I learned to write by learning to read.
Education in the true sense, of course, is an enablement to serve-both the living human community in its natural household or neighborhood and the precious cultural possessions that the living community inherits or should inherit.
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