Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
Interpretation
Without personal initiative and the ability to make our own decisions, we would struggle to fulfill our basic needs.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of personal freedom and self-reliance in achieving success. It suggests that if individuals were solely reliant on external direction for their actions, such as when to plant and harvest crops, they would inevitably face failure and lack basic necessities like food. The underlying message advocates for individual initiative and the ability to make choices, as these are essential for personal and societal prosperity.
In practice
During a commencement speech to inspire graduates to take initiative in their careers.
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.
Literary Experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege of individuality.. .Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.
There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.
You need to understand things in order to invent beyond them.
I understand the law through the operation of which my own character is developed from my own acts and thoughts; therefore, I will guard with care all that goes into its development.
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.
Resting in Awareness, we transform all the 'stuff' of our lives.
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