The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
Interpretation
The positive regard of others can significantly influence change in the world.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson suggests that the collective approval and good opinion of people can serve as a powerful force for change, much like Archimedes' lever, which can lift heavy objects with the right fulcrum. It emphasizes the importance of public perception and support in achieving transformative actions and movements.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about social change and activism to emphasize the importance of public support.
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 truly holy person welcomes all that is earthly.
There should be weeping at a man's birth, not at his death.
If the universe is running down like a clock, the clock must have been wound up at a date which we could name if we knew it. The world, if it is to have an end in time, must have had a beginning in time.
Melancholia is the beginning and a part of mania. The development of a mania is really a worsening of the disease (melancholia) rather than a change into another disease.
I can't count the times that upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responded by pointing out an inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made. (I have often felt that my vegetarianism matters more to such people than it does to me.)
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
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