The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Interpretation
Success in conflict often comes at a high cost that may outweigh the benefits.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson suggests that while a war may be won, the losses incurred during the conflict can overshadow any gains achieved. It highlights the idea that the consequences of war—such as loss of life, destruction, and long-term repercussions—often outweigh any temporary victories or successes. The wisdom here is a caution against pursuing conflict recklessly, as the cost of success in war can be devastating and sometimes unjustifiable.
In practice
In a discussion about the implications of military action, you can quote Jefferson to emphasize the high costs of war.
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.
Listen, my dear Cors, why don't you forgive God for allowing pain? If He didn't allow it, human courage, bravery, nobility, and self-sacrifice would all be meaningless things.
Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.
Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
Most people are perpetually locked in the present. Their decisions are overly influenced by the most immediate event; they easily become emotional and ascribe greater significance to a problem than it should have in reality.
As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.
For most of us, for almost all of us, truth can be attained, if at all, only in silence. It is in silence that the human spirit touches the divine.
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