"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence 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 your constant companion of your walks"
About this Quote
Jefferson sells marksmanship as self-help, but the pitch is really political: the gun as a portable civics lesson. He starts with the tidy Enlightenment equation - body strengthens mind - then smuggles in a much bigger claim about what kind of mind the young republic needs. Not disciplined, team-oriented, or even playful, but "bold", enterprising, and independent. In his framing, the firearm doesn't merely train muscles; it manufactures a citizen temperament.
The subtext is a frontier morality dressed as health advice. "Moderate exercise" is a soothing qualifier, calming any squeamishness about weapons by making the gun sound like a walking stick that happens to shoot. Meanwhile, ball games are dismissed as "too violent" - an ironic reversal that recasts communal sport as harmful excess and solitary shooting as balanced virtue. Jefferson isn't arguing physiology; he's arguing character, and specifically a character compatible with his suspicion of crowded institutions: standing armies, centralized power, and the kind of collective life that team sports quietly rehearse.
Context matters. Jefferson writes from a world where the firearm is tool, food security, and defense - and where the ideal citizen is imagined as a property-holding man capable of self-reliance and, if necessary, resistance. "Constant companion" turns the gun into an everyday object, normalizing proximity and habit. The line reads today like a culture-war artifact, but its original force is more foundational: a blueprint for republican masculinity, where independence is not just a value but a practiced reflex, reinforced on every walk.
The subtext is a frontier morality dressed as health advice. "Moderate exercise" is a soothing qualifier, calming any squeamishness about weapons by making the gun sound like a walking stick that happens to shoot. Meanwhile, ball games are dismissed as "too violent" - an ironic reversal that recasts communal sport as harmful excess and solitary shooting as balanced virtue. Jefferson isn't arguing physiology; he's arguing character, and specifically a character compatible with his suspicion of crowded institutions: standing armies, centralized power, and the kind of collective life that team sports quietly rehearse.
Context matters. Jefferson writes from a world where the firearm is tool, food security, and defense - and where the ideal citizen is imagined as a property-holding man capable of self-reliance and, if necessary, resistance. "Constant companion" turns the gun into an everyday object, normalizing proximity and habit. The line reads today like a culture-war artifact, but its original force is more foundational: a blueprint for republican masculinity, where independence is not just a value but a practiced reflex, reinforced on every walk.
Quote Details
| Topic | Fitness |
|---|---|
| Source | Letter from Thomas Jefferson to his nephew Peter Carr, 19 August 1785 — contains the passage advising 'the gun' as exercise; published in Jefferson's collected letters (e.g., Papers of Thomas Jefferson / Founders Online). |
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