I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm-house.
Interpretation
Jefferson expresses concern over the lack of basic resources in a frontier area.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson reflects on the alarming absence of essential firearms in a part of the American frontier, highlighting the importance of such resources for the safety and security of those living in such exposed territories. He implies that these firearms are fundamental to both self-defense and the establishment of a functional homestead, emphasizing the dire need for better provision in areas that are critical to the nation's expansion and security.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of preparedness in rural communities.
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.
You are me, and I am you. Isn't it obvious that we "inter-are"? You cultivate the flower in yourself, so that I will be beautiful. I transform the garbage in myself, so that you will not have to suffer.
When we have become free, we need not go mad and throw up society and rush off to die in the forest or the cave; we shall remain where we were but we shall understand the whole thing. The same phenomena will remain but with a new meaning.
Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.
I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it's a very poor scheme for survival.
In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.
Because I have work to care about, it is possible that I may be less difficult to get along with than other women when the double chins start to form.
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