The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend to all the happiness of man.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the teachings of Jesus are straightforward and ultimately aim to promote human happiness.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the simplicity of Jesus's teachings and emphasizes their focus on the well-being and happiness of humanity. He implies that understanding and embracing these doctrines can lead to a more fulfilling and joyful life, suggesting a universal truth in the moral guidance provided by these teachings.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics, one could quote Jefferson to highlight the moral foundations of happiness.
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 me be the child in the story and declare that the Emperor is naked β or that America is culturally bankrupt.
An image of thought called philosophy has been formed historically and it effectively stops people from thinking.
Even as one and the same person is called by different names according to the different functions he performs, so also one and the same mind is called by the different names: mind, intellect, memory, and egoity, on account of the difference in the modes - and not because of any real difference.
Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating reality itself.
Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.
War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.
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