Thursday, July 31, 2025
Desire for Retirement
Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison (June 9, 1793):
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There has been a time when these [sc. feelings] were very different from what they are now: when perhaps the esteem of the world was of higher value in my eye than every thing in it. But age, experience & reflection, preserving to that only it’s due value, have set a higher on tranquility. The motion of my blood no longer keeps time with the tumult of the world. It leads me to seek for happiness in the lap and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors & my books, in the wholesome occupations of my farm & my affairs, in an interest or affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around me, in an entire freedom of rest or motion, of thought or incogitancy, owing account to myself alone of my hours & actions.
