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
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.
Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say 'God Save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General. The proclamation you have just heard was countersigned Malcolm Fraser, who will go down in history as Kerr's cur.
Every provisional political set-up following a revolution requires a dictatorship, and an energetic dictatorship at that.
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements.
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected.
Sheep run to the slaughterhouse, silent and hopeless, but at least sheep never vote for the butcher who kills them or the people who devour them. More beastly than any beast, more sheepish than any sheep, the voter names his own executioner and chooses his own devourer, and for this precious "right" a revolution was fought.
Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.
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