Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only... If [free enquiry] be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.
Interpretation
Reason and free inquiry are essential tools for combating mistakes and misconceptions.
This quote speaks to the importance of reason and the freedom to inquire as fundamental methods for identifying and correcting errors. Jefferson emphasizes that without these tools, existing wrongs are maintained and new errors may arise, suggesting that a society that stifles critical thinking and open questioning risks perpetuating ignorance and corruption.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of education in promoting critical thinking.
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.
Pride is founded not on the sense of happiness, but on the sense of power.
You wake up one day and suddenly realize that your youth is behind you, even though you're still young at heart.
Part of spiritual and emotional maturity is recognizing that it's not like you're going to try to fix yourself and become a different person. You remain the same person, but you become awakened.
I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty
You've got to get out and pray to the sky to appreciate the sunshine; otherwise you're just a lizard standing there with the sun shining on you.
To choose suffering makes no sense at all; to choose God's will in the midst of our suffering makes all the sense in the world.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.