As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.
Interpretation
Jefferson suggests that falsehoods are prevalent in print media, especially newspapers.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson highlights the idea that the media, particularly newspapers, is often filled with untruths and misinformation. This reflects his belief in the importance of critical thinking and discerning truth from falsehood in the information we consume, emphasizing that one should be wary of accepting everything presented as fact in public discourse.
In practice
During a lecture on media literacy, one could include this quote to emphasize the necessity of questioning sources.
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.
To think and to be fully alive are the same.
The greatest good that can come to anyone is forming within them an absolute certainty of themselves, and of their relationship to the Universe, forever removing the sense of heaven as being outside of them.
What I say about myself, black footballers or black pop stars is that we have been 'elevated out of blackness.' Because when people see us, they don't see us as being black. These are the issues that we should address.
Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way.
'Men don't cry!' 'Women can't handle money!' What limiting ideas to live with.
An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.
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