Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.
Interpretation
Truth can stand on its own and often doesn't require help from powerful individuals to be acknowledged.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the resilience of truth, suggesting that it inherently has the capacity to be recognized and accepted by individuals without needing validation from influential figures. He notes that truth is often unwelcomed by those in power, and that it possesses its own means of penetrating human consciousness regardless of external endorsement or force.
In practice
During a debate about integrity in leadership, one might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of truth.
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.
The profound thinker always suspects that he is superficial.
We have a habit of turning to scientists when we want factual answers and artists when we want entertainment, but where are the facts about the nature of the self? Neurologists peering at PET scans and fMRIs know they aren't seeing the soul in there.
Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.
America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity - the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
If you truly believe in the brotherhood of man, then you must believe that blacks are just as capable of being racists as whites are.
The mill wheel turns, it turns forever, though what is uppermost remains not so.
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