While the farmer holds the title to the land, actually, it belongs to all the people because civilization itself rests upon the soil.
Interpretation
Land ownership reflects a collective responsibility, as civilization is built upon it.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson suggests that although a farmer may have legal ownership of the land, the importance of that land transcends individual property rights. It emphasizes the idea that land is a communal resource that plays a crucial role in the foundation of civilization, implying that everyone benefits from and is responsible for the stewardship of the earth.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about sustainable farming practices at a community meeting.
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.
People are feeling and sensing a return of anti-Semitism - even in Europe, which, seventy years after the Holocaust, is a very scary thing. I think they are feeling that Israel is very isolated and doesn't always get what they see as fair treatment in the European media.
History is a novel for which the people is the author.
I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.
I'll tell you," said Beatty, smiling at his cards. "That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you're ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know. I've been through it all.
Sin is hell, grace is heaven; what madness it is to look more at hell than heaven.
May the culture of life and love render vain the logic of death.
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