Walking the Pathways—Thomas Jefferson Would Have Approved

Some years ago I heard that Thomas Jefferson advised getting two hours a day of exercise. Now, thanks to the wonders of Google, I have found some exact quotes:

• In order to progress well in your studies, you must take at least two hours a day to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning...Walking is very important...Walking is the best possible exercise.
• Habituate yourself to walk very far…If the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong. The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is best…No one knows, till he tries, how easily a habit of walking is acquired. A person who never walked three miles will in the course of a month become able to walk 15 or 20 without fatigue. I have known some great walkers…and I never knew or heard of one who was not healthy and long lived…Should you be disposed to try it, as your health has been feeble, it will be necessary for you to begin with a little, and to increase it by degrees…Not less than two hours a day should be devoted to exercise, and the weather should be little regarded. A person not sick will not be injured by getting wet.  
• The recipe … is simple diet, exercise and the open air.
• Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends....You are not however to consider yourself as unemployed while taking exercise.
• I repeat my advice to take a great deal of exercise, and on foot. Health is the first requisite after morality.
• …leaving all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading; I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning.
• I give more time to exercise of the body than of the mind, believing it wholesome to both.

After reading these quotes from someone who helped invent the absolutely brilliant ideas of democracy, you might be thinking, “I walk, but I am too busy to walk for two hours.” Probably your work is more important than Jefferson’s.  

To verify or contextualize these quotes, see www.monticello.org.

About This Column: Each week Pam Walatka will explore sustainable life in Los Altos Hills. Contact Pam at pamwalatka@yahoo.com or see Pam Portugal Walatka Writings on Facebook.