A quote from America’s 3rd President:
A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.
I’m assuming he was referring to soccer in the penultimate line.
Confirmed by Snopes http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/exercise.asp
That was simply beautiful. Thank you, Harvey!
i have taken his advice for many years now. as a result i am quite the character.
What about punching hippies? Punching hippies is a great form of exercise for the body and simultaneously “gives boldness, enterprize, and independence to the mind.”
It’s a good thing Jefferson is dead – if he were to see how far his Democrat party has fallen it would kill him.
Penultimate!? I had to go to the dictionary for that one. Admitedly it did further my education so I guess it wasn’t a total act of floccinaucinihilipilification.
zzyzx – quiet, peasant, lest I defenestrate you!
SoB, I am sure if Jefferson knew of hippies, he would not have recommended punching them. Rather, he would have recommended them as an exercise accessory. Hippies didn’t come along until the real problems of this country were pretty much solved. Problems like British Soldiers, having enough to eat, having adequate shelter, etc.
Can you imagine the following events at the Olympics: the 300 meter hippy dash, immediately followed by hippy sniping at 300 meters?
The gun was incidental to the exercise Jefferson recommended most: Walking. As one walked, for up to two hours a day, one should not take a book but a gun, which provided the added benefits listed in your excerpt. All of this can be found in full letters to his nephew Peter Carr.
Learn more about Thomas Jefferson in his blog!
Several times each week, he posts briefly on a variety of topics, including exercise. Recent posts were:
– “Are rules made to be broken?”
– “Have you walked 10,000 steps today?,” and
– “Is there a doctor in the house?”
July 2’s post was “WWJD?”
July 4 featured an interesting tidbit from Jefferson’s personal notes on July 4, 1776.
Read his blog at http://ThomasJeffersonLeadership.com/blog/