“The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add an useful plant to its culture; especially, a bread grain; next in value to bread is oil.”
Thomas Jefferson, In Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies from the Papers of T. Jefferson (1829), Vol. 1, 144
Posthumous publications, On botany
Source: The Quotable Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826Related quotes

“The greatest thing since sliced bread.”
Buck Owens, RIP George Jones: 1931-2013 http://communityvoices.post-gazette.com/arts-entertainment-living/get-rhythm/item/36485-rip-george-jones-1931-2013, 1988

Presidency (1977–1981), Farewell Address (1981)
Context: We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities— not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.

“Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”
Abide as the Self

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?”
Origins of attribution could be a New York Times Magazine article by Joan Barthel ("How to Avoid TV Dinners While Watching TV" 7 August 1966, p. 34): "'The French Chef'...the program that can be campier than 'Batman,' farther-out than 'Lost in Space' and more penetrating than 'Meet the Press' as it probes the question: Can a Society be Great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?" Article quoted in for Life: The Biography of Julia Child http://books.google.com/books?id=GDDYYhUS4i0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=kleenex&f=false|Appetite (Noël Riley Fitch. Doubleday, 1997, p. 308)
Attributed

Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Garden of Eden

“Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality.”
The first sentence of this was used by William Torrey Harris for the motto of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy
Novalis (1829)
Context: Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality. Which, then, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy?