"If ever you find yourself environed with difficulties and perplexing circumstances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate you the best out of the worst situations. Tho’ you cannot see when you fetch one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain-dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the labyrinth in the easiest manner possible."
- Jefferson to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785
I've always loved how people wrote their letters so eloquently back then. Very deliberate, poetic, and imaginative. I hope to be able to convey so much in so few lines with my writings someday.
Words have immense power, but we seem to have lost the ability to harness it, I believe. In a world where communication across the world has never been easier or more prolific, we seem to fail at conveying anything of real value. There doesn't seem to be much thought put into what is shared and it, in turn, is consumed without much cogitation.
How do you get a society to be more thoughtful when it's so easy not to be?