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.
Time rushes towards us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
The Old Religion, as we call it, is closer in spirit to Native American traditions or to shamanism of the Arctic. It is not based on dogma or a set of beliefs, nor on scriptures or a sacred book revealed by a great man. Witchcraft takes it's teachings from nature, and reads inspiration in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the flight of birds, the slow growth of trees, and the cycles of the seasons.
Ideas are like wandering sons. They show up when you least expect them.
You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.
All systems of morality are based on the idea that an action has consequences that legitimize or cancel it. A mind imbued with the absurd merely judges that those consequences must be considered calmly.
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