It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of religious tolerance and the idea that one's beliefs should not harm others.
Thomas Jefferson's quote reflects the principle of religious freedom and tolerance. He implies that the beliefs of others, whether they believe in many gods, one god, or none at all, do not injure or affect his own beliefs. This statement champions the idea that individuals should respect varying perspectives on spirituality and coexist peacefully in a diverse society.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of respecting different religious beliefs at a community meeting.
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 gods envy us. They envy us because weβre mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because weβre doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.
Intellectually, human beings and animals may be different, but it's pretty obvious that animals have a rich emotional life and that they feel joy and pain. It's easy to forget the connection between a hamburger and the cow it came from. But I forced myself to acknowledge the fact that every time I ate a hamburger, a cow had ceased to breathe
I myself shall continue living in my glass house where you can always see who comes to call, where everything hanging from the the ceiling and on the walls stays where it is as if by magic, where I sleep nights in a glass bed, under glass sheets, where who I am will sooner or later appear etched by a diamond.
The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.
What can any one person do?' he said. 'Each person does a little something,' I said, 'and there you are.
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