Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of compromise and making the best of a situation when perfect outcomes are not possible.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the necessity for individuals or groups working towards a common goal to make mutual sacrifices in their opinions and desires. He acknowledges that while one may have idealistic wishes, the reality often demands practicality and cooperation, encouraging people to focus on achieving what good they can, even if it falls short of their maximum aspirations.
In practice
In a team project discussion to highlight the need for collaboration.
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 test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman β how dense! Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle.
Ah, how many luxuries has the good God prepared for his Jewish children.
The function of freedom is to free someone else.
pg.9 "In my heart there's a peaceful anguish, and my calm is made of resignation.
The purpose of prayer is emphatically not to bend God's will to ours, but rather to align our will to his.
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