In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Interpretation
Adapt your approach to style while remaining steadfast in your principles.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of flexibility in superficial matters while maintaining firm convictions in core beliefs. It suggests that one should be adaptable and in tune with changing circumstances regarding style, but resolute and unyielding when it comes to fundamental principles and ethics.
In practice
This quote could be used during a leadership seminar to discuss the importance of adapting to trends.
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.
It is certainly true that reason is the most important and the highest rank among all things and, in comparison with other things of this life, the best and something divine. It is the inventor and mentor of all the arts, medicines, laws, and of whatever wisdom, power, virtue, and glory men possess in this life.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
A Christian's freedom from anxiety is not due to some guaranteed freedom from trouble, but to the folly of worry and especially to the confidence that God is our Father, that even permitted suffering is within the orbit of His care.
A man of honour should never forget what he is because he sees what others are.
He had mittens, Minjekahwun, Magic mittens made of deer-skin; When upon his hands he wore them, He could smite the rocks asunder, He could grind them into powder.
No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing.
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