Excessive taxation . . . will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.
Interpretation
Excessive taxation prompts citizens to think critically about the political landscape, especially during elections.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the idea that when taxation becomes burdensome, it compels individuals to engage in thoughtful consideration of their government's actions and policies. Particularly during election times, the impact of heavy taxes can motivate citizens to evaluate which candidates or policies best reflect their interests and values.
In practice
During a political speech, one might say, 'As Thomas Jefferson noted, excessive taxation prompts us to carefully choose our leaders.'
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.
Our democracy cannot be left in the hands of those who would rather watch or participate in a train wreck than stop it.
I don't think anyone in the 1990s, the late '90s, anticipated that the Putin they knew then would become the Putin we know now.
All of the American's foreign wars have been fought with foes either too weak to resist them or too heavily engaged elsewhere to make more than a half-hearted attempt. The combats with Mexico and Spain were not wars; they were simply lynchings.
I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.
I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”-or failing to vote at all-is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction.
The vote controls everything that you do.
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