“ If this period be suffered to pass in idleness, the mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the body it inhabits if unexercised during the same time. ”
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1785). copy citation
| Author | Thomas Jefferson |
|---|---|
| Source | Notes on the State of Virginia |
| Topic | idleness suffering |
| Date | 1785 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/jefferson/jefferson.html |
Context
“But that time is not lost which is employed in providing tools for future operation: more especially as in this case the books put into the hands of the youth for this purpose may be such as will at the same time impress their minds with useful facts and good principles. If this period be suffered to pass in idleness, the mind becomes lethargic and impotent, as would the body it inhabits if unexercised during the same time. The sympathy between body and mind during their rise, progress and decline, is too strict and obvious to endanger our being misled while we reason from the one to the other.—As soon as they are of sufficient age, it is supposed they will be sent on from the grammar schools to the university, which constitutes our third and last stage, there to study those sciences which may be adapted to their views.—By that part of our plan which prescribes the selection of the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the state of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated.—but”
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