It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.
Interpretation
True liberty relies on the people's empowerment and education.
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes that the safety of liberty fundamentally rests in the hands of the people, who must possess a degree of education to effectively govern themselves. This underscores the responsibility of the state to promote education and instill the principles of democracy among its citizens, ensuring that freedom is safeguarded through informed participation.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech advocating for educational reforms.
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
We 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.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.
Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living.
If our goal is to understand the world, to seek a deeper understanding of the world, our general lack of moral diversity here is going to make it harder. Because when people all share values, when people all share morals, they become a team.
I don't have to see a murder in order to condemn murder.
Posterity will pay everyone their due.
Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you.
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