Every nation has a right to govern itself internally under what forms it pleases, and to change these forms at its own will.
Interpretation
Nations should have the autonomy to self-govern and change their governing structures as they see fit.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the principle of self-determination, suggesting that every nation possesses the inherent right to determine its own form of government and to modify it according to the will of its people. It encapsulates the belief that sovereignty and governance should reflect the desires and needs of the nation's inhabitants, allowing for flexibility and adaptation in political structures.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion on democracy at a community forum.
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.
A common danger tends to concord. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In Communism, inequality comes from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence.
Physically, man is but an atom in space, and a pulsation in time. Spiritually, the entire outward universe receives significance from him, and the scope of his existence stretches beyond the stars.
Truthiness is what you want the facts to be as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support.
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.
Prejudice is the sole author of infamies: how many acts are so qualified by an opinion forged out of naught but prejudice!
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