We never repent of having eaten too little.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that moderation in consumption leads to satisfaction, while overindulgence often leads to regret.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the importance of moderation in our lives, specifically pertaining to eating habits. He implies that people typically do not look back and regret having eaten less, while they are more likely to regret overindulgence or poor choices related to excessive consumption. This underscores the value of self-control and the happiness that comes from making balanced choices.
In practice
In a health seminar discussing dietary habits.
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.
Pay close attention to the particular thoughts you use to deprive yourself of happiness.
Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful. Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life.
Live every day with an attitude of gratitude.
Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.
One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won't solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
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