Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.
Interpretation
Coercion in belief systems leads to ignorance and hypocrisy rather than true understanding.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson reflects on the negative consequences of using force to impose beliefs, particularly through religious coercion. He argues that despite centuries of oppression under the guise of promoting a singular belief system, humanity has not progressed toward genuine unity or understanding; instead, it has fostered ignorance in many and hypocrisy in others, ultimately perpetuating error and deceit globally.
In practice
In a discussion about religious freedom.
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.
How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past?
You don't need a Harvard MBA to know that the bedroom and the boardroom are just two sides of the same ballgame.
People have a right to get stoned. They have a right to think and explore their own minds. This is as intimate a part of their being as their sexuality. Any culture which mitigates that is clearly afraid of a full and fair and open dialogue about what reality is and what real human values ought to be.
The dream of the news is that it makes us care about other people and situations. But we cannot identify with people to whom we haven't been introduced. Humans will only respond to art, to people who are skilled in making you care.
If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped.
Our life is an endless journey; it is like a broad highway that extends infinitely into the distance. The practice of meditation provides a vehicle to travel on that road. Our journey consists of constant ups and downs.
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