What is Thomas Jefferson inferring in this quote ?

Question

"A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit."

~Thomas Jefferson

Answer 1

A coward (an ignorant person) is more likely to fight new ideas than and man of spirit (one who is open to new ideas and thought) won't get caught up in negative activities.

Answer 2

A coward to the good things in life, like scared to be the first to say hi to strangers, the first to quit wearing trends, the first to leave the party life and join an environmental group.
Then when the person is this coward as he puts it, they will have a bad day because they 'Wanted' to do these good things to become a better person, but were too influenced by outside pressures, but mostly their own inner pressures. So these are the quarrels they go through, starting with themself, then with the people that will surface asking "are you sure that will work"...kind of like the snake of the bible scriptures... or "I did that last week and it didn't work, don't do it man". After that they will only be able to laugh, that's if the person became brave and not 'coward', and continue to work nicely around people that negated their intentions, or laughed at them.

But it seems like law men in Jeffersons day were more brilliant because they didn't have tv or radio to waste time with and spent a lot more time with themselves, therefore became more intuitive of themselves and actually ended up listening to themselves more often. Men in his day, and women, were more spiritual, that is the good men and women.

Answer 3

This is just a guess.

A coward will argue (quarrel) about the merits of doing something (most likely to avoid doing it), while a man of spirit will just go ahead and do it.

Answer 4

That a person who runs from his/her problems gets into more problems, whilst the person who faces their problems does not.