The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it.
Interpretation
Good government requires understanding and adapting to the needs of its people.
Thomas Jefferson's quote underscores the importance of responsive governance, suggesting that the effectiveness and quality of a government depend on its ability to adapt and align itself with the needs, values, and circumstances of its citizens. This adaptation ensures that the government remains relevant and effective in serving the populace, promoting a harmonious and functional society.
In practice
In a political debate, one could cite this quote to argue for policies that reflect the needs and will of the people.
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.
American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free.
Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top".
I want my son to grow up in a place where the people are more powerful than the government and not the other way around.
The Iranian government is undoubtedly a severe danger to its own population, but not beyond that.
He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.
The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.
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