I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Interpretation
Jefferson expresses a preference for the challenges that come with freedom over the constraints of excessive control.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson conveys the idea that the benefits of having a considerable amount of liberty outweigh the inconveniences that may accompany it. He emphasizes the importance of freedom, suggesting that it is better to face the hardships of too much freedom than to endure the limitations imposed by too little. Jefferson advocates for a balance where liberty is prioritized, even if it comes with challenges, as it is essential for a fulfilling and autonomous life.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civil liberties, you might use this quote to highlight the importance of freedom.
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.
Our age is one of transition, in which the normal channels for utilizing the daimonic are denied; and such ages tend to be times when the daimonic is expressed in its most destructive form.
There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.
To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence.
If you will not have death unto sin, you shall have sin unto death. There is no alternative. If you do not die to sin, you shall die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.
The gods confound the man who first found out How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too, Who in this place set up a sun-dial, To cut and hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions.
It is astounding to me, and achingly sad, that with eighty thousand people on the waiting list for donated hearts and livers and kidneys, with sixteen a day dying there on that list, that more then half of the people in the position H's family was in will say no, will choose to burn those organs or let them rot. We abide the surgeon's scalpel to save our own lives, out loved ones' lives, but not to save a stranger's life. H has no heart, but heartless is the last thing you'd call her.
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