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.
Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.
The moral truth here is obvious: anyone who feels that the interests of a blastocyst just might supersede the interests of a child with a spinal cord injury has had his moral sense blinded by religious metaphysics.
The rich get richer and the poor get - children.
We are finite and God will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.
Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
What's lost is nothing to what's found, and all the death that ever was, set next to life, would scarcely fill a cup.
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