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.
This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.
It (Tao) is eternally without desire. So, it can be called small. All things return to it, although it does not make itself their ruler. So, it can be called great.
I've become convinced that nostalgia is a fundamentally unhealthy modality. When you see it, it's usually attached to something else that's really, seriously bad. I don't traffic in nostalgia. We're becoming a global culture.
I thought to myself that he contained a whole universe that I had yet to know.
Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
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