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.
We have been basically persuaded that we should not talk about racism.
Money is really worth no more than as it can be used to accomplish the Lord's work. Life is worth as much as it is spent for the Lord's service.
Helping others isn't a chore; it is one of the greatest gifts there is.
Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion.
She was here on earth to make sense of its wild enchantments.
I'm tired of saying, "How wonderful you are!" to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got, and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it.
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