Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes individual reasoning and the separation of church and state in governance.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson underscores the importance of personal reasoning and the autonomy of individuals in making decisions based on their own beliefs. Jefferson advocates for a clear distinction between civil authority and religious practices, asserting that no governmental figure, including the President, holds the power to dictate religious observance to their constituents, thereby promoting the principle of religious freedom and personal liberty.
In practice
During a discussion on the importance of religious freedom in a democratic society.
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.
When you once see something as false which you have accepted as true, as natural, as human, then you can never go back to it.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.
The rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers.
A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness.
Every star may be a sun to someone.
Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall-that of our consciousness-between the world and ourselves.
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