Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of farmers and cultivators as essential contributors to society and the foundation of a free nation.
Thomas Jefferson praises cultivators of the earth, asserting that they are the backbone of society due to their independence, virtue, and deep connection to both their land and the ideals of liberty. He argues that their contributions to the economy and community create lasting bonds that promote the welfare and freedom of the country.
In practice
This quote can be used to emphasize the role of farmers in a community event advocating for sustainable agriculture.
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.
As described in 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,' the cyclical rebirth of caste in America is a recurring racial nightmare.
Religion is the life of India, religion is the language of this country, the symbol of all its movements.
If every man took only what was sufficient for his needs, leaving the rest to those in want, there would be no rich and no poor.
The only attitude (the only politics--judicial, medical, pedagogical and so forth) I would absolutely condemn is one which, directly or indirectly, cuts off the possibility of an essentially interminable questioning, that is, an effective and thus transforming questioning.
Prayer sweeps the battlefield, slays the enemy, and buries the bones.
The only peace that can be made with a dictator is once that must be based on deterrence. For today, the dictator may be your friend, but tomorrow he will need you as an enemy.
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