I have been long sensible that while I was endeavoring to render our country the greatest of all services, that of regenerating the public education, and placing our rising generation on the level of our sister states (which they have proudly held heretofore), I was discharging the odious function of a physician pouring medicine down the throat of a patient insensible of needing it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the challenge of improving public education for a society that may not recognize its need.
Thomas Jefferson expresses the frustration of attempting to enhance public education in a nation that is apathetic or unaware of the benefits it would bring. He likens his efforts to a physician administering medicine to a patient who is unaware of their ailment; this illustrates the difficulty of fostering necessary change when it is not actively sought or appreciated by the populace.
In practice
During a speech on educational reform, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of advocating for better educational systems.
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
We 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 best educated human being is the one who understands most about the life in which he is placed.
A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.
How can I teach my boys the value and beauty of language and thus communication when the President himself reads westerns exclusively and cannot put together a simple English sentence? (John Steinbeck, in a private letter written during the Eisenhower administration)
It is commonly said that a teacher fails if he has not been surpassed by his students. There has been no failure on our part in this regard considering how far they have gone.
The education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success.
We think of speaking as something we do naturally, without any effort. But like playing music, it requires attention and knowledge and practice.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.