The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
Interpretation
People's opinions are shaped by the evidence they encounter.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson highlights the idea that human beliefs and opinions are not formed in isolation, but are instead influenced by the evidence and information presented to them. It suggests that our understanding and viewpoints are shaped by external stimuli, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and the evaluation of evidence in forming our opinions.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate about the importance of evidence in shaping public opinion.
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.
...our eyes locked in one of those looks that sometimes happen between strangers, when both wordlessly agree that reality contains sinkholes whose depths neither can ever hope to fathom.
Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky.
Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.
Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever.
No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind.
Enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil before the worst amongst you are given authority over you and then when even the best of you make dua against them, their duas will not be accepted.
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