The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.
Interpretation
A larger government often leads to a reduction in individual freedoms.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson highlights a critical perspective on governance, suggesting that as government power and size expand, individual liberties and freedoms tend to diminish. Jefferson, a proponent of limited government, argues that increased governmental authority can encroach upon personal rights and liberties, drawing attention to the delicate balance between societal order and individual freedom.
In practice
In a discussion about government policies during a political debate.
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.
A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.
The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact...Man, not the earth, makes civilization.
Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates manβs fundamental right-the right to life-and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a manβs life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle. Once that principle is accepted, the rest is only a matter of time.
Given the infinite number of coincidences that could happen, very few ever actually do. The universe exists in a coincidence-hating state of anti-fluke.
Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional.
The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project
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