I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
Interpretation
Jefferson emphasizes the importance of economic prudence and warns against the dangers of public debt.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson highlights the value he places on economic responsibility within a republic. He considers a sound economy as a cornerstone of good governance while simultaneously warning that relying on public debt poses a significant threat to the nation's integrity and stability. This perspective underlines the belief that fiscal discipline is crucial for the prosperity and survival of a democratic society.
In practice
During a town hall meeting focused on budgeting and public finance, one might reference this quote to stress the importance of fiscal responsibility.
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.
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.
There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.
We cannot get from anyone else the things we need to fill the endless terrible need, not to be dissolved, not to sink back into sand, heat, broom, air, thinnest air. And so we revolve around each other and our dreams collide. Look out the window in any weather. We are part of all that glamour, drama, change, and should not be ashamed.
I feel I have a lot to learn from English football and I am completely open to good influences in my way of thinking football. But I also have things to give them.
Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.
Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.
People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while theyβre reflecting too ... Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.
You cannot tackle hunger, disease, and poverty unless you can also provide people with a healthy ecosystem in which their economies can grow.
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