Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.
Interpretation
Innovations are best adopted when they reflect the will of a significant majority rather than being pushed upon a reluctant minority.
Thomas Jefferson's quote suggests that great innovations should emerge organically from societal consensus rather than being imposed upon people who do not support them. It implies that for an innovation to be truly successful and accepted, it must resonate with a larger section of society instead of being forced upon a small, potentially resistant group. This highlights the importance of widespread acceptance and understanding in the process of progress.
In practice
In a discussion about community projects, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for community support before implementing changes.
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.
Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types⦠Did we get to where we are today via a slippery slope that was entirely within our control to stop? Or was it a relatively instantaneous sea change that sneaked in undetected because of pervasive government secrecy?
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all.
According to the law that governs the universe,all sufferings are your labor of love to unveil your real self.
If you listen to the political discourse in America today, you would think that all our problems have been caused by the Mexicans of the Chinese or the Muslims. The reality is that we have caused our own problems. Whatever has happened has been caused by isolating ourselves or blaming others.
The universe unfolds in the body, which is its mirror and its creature.
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