Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.
Interpretation
Learning is a vital part of life, and time is our most precious resource.
This quote emphasizes the importance of continual learning and self-improvement. Jefferson suggests that each day that passes without the acquisition of knowledge is a day wasted, highlighting that time is the most valuable asset one possesses, and how we utilize it shapes our lives fundamentally.
In practice
In a motivational speech about education and self-improvement.
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.
If you come on a band tense, you're going to play tense. If you come a little bit foolish, act just a little bit foolish, and let yourself go, better ideas will come.
I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.
Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.
There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
If you make mistakes that is alright because we all make mistakes and we learn from those mistakes. You gain confidence from learning, failing and rising again.
The mind that doggedly insists on prejudice often has not intelligence enough to change.
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