In our early struggles for liberty, religious freedom could not fail to become a primary object.
Interpretation
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of religious freedom in the pursuit of liberty.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson reflects on the historical significance of religious freedom during the struggles for liberty. He suggests that the quest for personal and societal freedom could not be fully realized without acknowledging and advocating for the right to practice one's religion freely, as it is a fundamental aspect of individual liberty.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of civil rights, one might quote Jefferson to emphasize the value of religious freedom.
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.
Nobody living can ever stop me. As I go walking my freedom highway. Nobody living can make me turn back. This land was made for you and me.
Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?
The wretch who lives without freedom feels like dressing in the mud from the streets Those who have you, o Liberty, do not know. you. Those who do not have you should not speak of you, but win you.
If you allow one single germ, one single seed of slavery to remain in the soil of America... that germ will spring up, that noxious weed will thrive, and again stifle the growth, wither the leaves, blast the flowers and poison the fair fruits of freedom.
To change masters is not to be free.
I could never live happily in Africa-or anywhere else-until I could live freely in Mississippi.
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