Although our prospect is peace, our policy and purpose are to provide for defense by all those means to which our resources are competent.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of defense while striving for peace as a goal.
Thomas Jefferson's quote reflects the dual approach of seeking peace but recognizing the necessity of being prepared for defense. It underscores the idea that while the ultimate aim may be harmony and tranquility, it is crucial to have the means to protect oneself and oneβs values when faced with threats, suggesting a balance between idealism and pragmatism in policy.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about national security to highlight the need for preparedness while advocating for peaceful solutions.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
When you love a city and have explored it frequently on foot, your body, not to mention your soul, gets to know the streets so well after a number of years that in a fit of melancholy, perhaps stirred by a light snow falling ever so sorrowfully, you'll discover your legs carrying you of their own accord toward one of your favourite promontories
I can recall no parallel in history where a great nation recently at war has so distinguished its former enemy commander.
If extreme poverty is allowed to increase, it will give rise to new problems, including new diseases that will spread from countries that cannot provide adequate healthcare to those that can. Poverty will lead to more migrants seeking to move, whether legally or not, to rich nations.
No birth is an accident, No experience is without meaning, and no life is without value.
We live in the best of all possible worlds
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