I wish I was a despot that I might save the noble, the beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifice to the cupidity of their owners, or the necessity of the poor. The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep concern for the destruction of trees and nature, equating their unnecessary felling to a crime.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson laments the loss of trees due to human greed and the struggles of poverty. He feels that if he held absolute power, he would take action to protect these noble living beings from being cut down for selfish reasons or necessity. Jefferson's passionate stance highlights the importance of environmental conservation and reflects an ethical viewpoint that sees the destruction of nature as a grave injustice.
In practice
In a speech advocating for tree conservation, this quote can emphasize the importance of protecting our natural resources.
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.
In many environments, take away the ants and there would be partial collapses in many of the land ecosystems.
We had always dwelled together, beneath a tropical sun, in the Valley of the Many Colored Grass.
Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.
The most important thing is to preserve the world we live in. Unless people understand and learn about our world, habitats, and animals, they won't understand that if we don't protect those habitats, we'll eventually destroy ourselves.
It's a perfect wave when small and the most beautiful and scary wave on Earth when it's big, as the swell from deep water hits the shallow reef ledge. A ten-foot high wave and a 30-footer break in the same depth of water.
Forests were the first temples of the Divinity, and it is in the forests that men have grasped the first idea of architecture.
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