How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the unnecessary suffering caused by worrying about potential troubles that never materialize.
Thomas Jefferson reflects on the profound impact of imagined troubles, suggesting that the pain and anxiety we experience over things that never occur can often be greater than the actual hardships we face in life. It prompts us to consider how much of our mental anguish is self-inflicted by worrying about hypothetical scenarios instead of focusing on present realities.
In practice
Use the quote in a discussion about mental health and the impact of stress.
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.
Each time I free a child, I feel it is something closer to God.
What gets in our way is history and culture and religion and economic conditions. It is part of the hypnosis of our social conditioning.
Every phenomenon on earth is symbolic, and each symbol is an open gate through which the soul, if it is ready, can enter into the inner part of the world, where you and I and day and night are all one.
Liberty consists in doing what one desires.
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
It should not be surprising if people believe easily in a God who makes no demands, but this is not the God of the Bible. Satan has cleverly misled people by whispering that they can believe in Jesus Christ without being changed, but this is the Devil's lie. To those who say you can have Christ without giving anything up, Satan is deceiving you.
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