Neither believe nor reject any thing because any other person, or description of persons have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven.
Interpretation
Trust your own reasoning and judgment rather than simply following others' beliefs.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of independent thinking. It urges individuals to make their own decisions based on personal reasoning rather than being swayed by the opinions or beliefs of others, highlighting the value of one's own judgment as the ultimate guide in life.
In practice
During a philosophy class discussion on critical thinking.
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.
Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not... We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.
Alas, we think of ourselves as unique entities-minds unlike any others-and thus we often reject the lessons that the emotional experience of others has to teach us.
We should not bear it with bad grace if the answer to our prayer is long delayed. Rather, let us, because of this, show great patience and resignation. For He delays for this reason: that we may offer Him a fitting occasion of honoring us through His divine providence.
God gives us not only the truth but also the ability to believe it; not only the new thing to see but also the new eye to see it with.
Lack of time is actually lack of priorities.
It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.