Nothing is more incumbent on the old than to know when they should get out of the way and relinquish to younger successors the honors they can no longer earn, and the duties they can no longer perform.
Interpretation
Older individuals should recognize when it's time to step aside and allow younger generations to lead.
This quote emphasizes the importance of wisdom and humility among the older generation. Thomas Jefferson suggests that with age comes the responsibility to acknowledge one's limitations and to make way for the youth who have the energy, ability, and potential to take on roles that the older generation can no longer fulfill effectively. It is a call for older individuals to pass on the torch to ensure progress continues in society.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a retirement party to highlight the importance of passing on responsibilities.
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.
O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.
The wisdom of the wise is an uncommon degree of common sense.
If one takes care of the means, the end will take care of itself.
True power does not need arrogance, a long beard and a barking voice. True power strangles you with silk ribbons, charm and intelligence.
Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.
Oh, to have “the word of Christ” always dwelling inside of us;-in the memory, never forgotten; in the heart, always loved; in the understanding, really grasped; with all the powers and passions of the mind fully submitted to its control!
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