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.
Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.
For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit.
A man who goes forth to take the life of another whom he does not know must believe only one thing: that by his act he will change the course of history.
The first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.
You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.
The rocks are where they are- and this is their will. The rivers flow- and this is their will. The birds fly- this is their will. Human beings talk- this is their will. The seasons change, heaven sends down rain or snow, the earth occasionally shakes, the waves roll, the stars shine- each of them follows its own will. To be is to will and so is to become.
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