Quotation by Thomas Jefferson

In a world which furnishes so many employments which are useful, and so many which are amusing, it is our own fault if we ever know what ennui [boredom] is, or if we are ever driven to the miserable resource of gaming, which corrupts our dispositions, and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, May 21, 1787, to his daughter, Martha Jefferson. The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, p. 41, eds. E.M. Betts and J.A. Bear, Jr. (1966).
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