Music...This is the favorite passion of my soul.
Interpretation
Music is a profound and cherished part of one's identity and emotional expression.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson expresses his deep affection for music, suggesting that it is not just a pastime but an essential aspect of his being. Music serves as an emotional outlet and a source of joy, highlighting its importance in the human experience and its ability to resonate with the soul.
In practice
During a speech on the importance of the arts, one could quote Jefferson to emphasize musicβs vital role in society.
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.
I have always wished I could learn to be a potter. I love collecting ceramics; it would be so fulfilling to create something lovely.
I have wasted the greater part of my life looking for money and trying to get along, trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paintbox, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with making a movie. It's about two percent moviemaking and ninety-eight percent hustling. It's no way to spend a life.
From my earliest years I had always wanted to be a writer. It was not that I had any particular message for humanity. I am still plugging away and not the ghost of one so far, so it begins to look as though, unless I suddenly hit mid-season form in my eighties, humanity will remain a message short.
Death is imposed only on creatures, not their creations, and has therefore always appeared in art in a broken form: as allegory.
To be a poet in a destitute time means: to attend, singing, to the trace of the fugitive gods. This is why the poet in the time of the world's night utters the holy.
The most important thing about creativity is that you honor your creativity and you don't ever ignore it or go against what that creative image is telling you.
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