Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.
Interpretation
Learning is a vital part of life, and time is our most precious resource.
This quote emphasizes the importance of continual learning and self-improvement. Jefferson suggests that each day that passes without the acquisition of knowledge is a day wasted, highlighting that time is the most valuable asset one possesses, and how we utilize it shapes our lives fundamentally.
In practice
In a motivational speech about education and self-improvement.
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.
Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.
Instead of fretting about getting everything done, why not simply accept that being alive means having things to do? Then drop into full engagement with whatever you're doing, and let the worry go.
It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.
On the day I swore to uphold the Hippocratic oath, the small hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I waited for lightning to strike. Who was I, vowing calmly among all these necktied young men to steal life out of nature's jaws, every old time we got half a chance and a paycheck?... I could not accept the contract: that every child born human upon this earth comes with a guarantee of perfect health and old age clutched in its small fist.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
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