We never repent of having eaten too little.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that moderation in consumption leads to satisfaction, while overindulgence often leads to regret.
Thomas Jefferson highlights the importance of moderation in our lives, specifically pertaining to eating habits. He implies that people typically do not look back and regret having eaten less, while they are more likely to regret overindulgence or poor choices related to excessive consumption. This underscores the value of self-control and the happiness that comes from making balanced choices.
In practice
In a health seminar discussing dietary habits.
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.
Happiness does not come about only due to external circumstances; it mainly derives from inner attitudes.
Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.
Of mortals there is no one who is happy. If wealth flows in upon one, one may be perhaps luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy.
Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.
Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.
Happiness implied a choice, and within that choice a concerted will, a lucid desire.
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