I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial.
Interpretation
Friendship matures and deepens over time, much like wine that improves with age.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson compares friendship to wine, suggesting that it begins as something raw and unrefined but grows richer and more rewarding with time. Just as quality wine develops its character and complexity through aging, true friendships flourish, providing comfort and rejuvenation as they endure life's challenges.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of relationships, one might say, 'As Thomas Jefferson wisely noted, friendship is like wine, ripening with age.'
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.
Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.
All I required to be happy was friendship and people I could admire.
Service cannot be expected from a friend in service; let him be a freeman who wishes to be my master.
No birth certificate is issued when friendship is born. There is nothing tangible. There is just a feeling that your life is different and that your capacity to love and care has miraculously been enlarged without any effort on your part. It's like having a tiny apartment and somebody moves in with you. But instead of becoming cramped and crowded, the space expands, and you discover rooms you never knew you had until your friend moved in with you.
Too few rejoice at a friend's good fortune.
Once you are my friend, I am responsible for you.
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