The Earth is given as a common for men to labor and live in.
Interpretation
The Earth belongs to everyone and is meant for our work and sustenance.
Thomas Jefferson's quote emphasizes the idea that the Earth is a shared resource meant for all of humanity. It suggests that we have a responsibility to both labor upon the land and to live harmoniously within it, highlighting the interconnectedness of people and nature and the importance of stewardship over our planet.
In practice
At an environmental conference discussing sustainability.
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.
He who does not become familiar with nature through love will never know her.
It's a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.
If one truly loves nature one finds beauty everywhere.
The preservation of biodiversity is not just a job for governments. International and non-governmental organisations, the private sector and each and every individual have a role to play in changing entrenched outlooks and ending destructive patterns of behaviour
If we recognise that every ecosystem can also be viewed as a food web, we can think of it as a circular, interlacing nexus of plant animal relationships (rather than a stratified pyramid with man at the apex)β¦ Each species, be it a form of bacteria or deer, is knitted together in a network of interdependence, however indirect the links may be.
When the forest and the city are functionally indistinguishable, then we know we have reached sustainability.
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