To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of financial prudence to maintain personal and national freedom.
Thomas Jefferson's quote warns against the dangers of excessive debt, asserting that true independence relies on economic responsibility. He highlights a crucial choice between maintaining liberty through frugality and risking servitude through indulgence and financial imprudence.
In practice
During a discussion on national budget priorities in a civic 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.
Dear young people, always be missionaries of the Gospel, every day and in every place.
If you find yourself loving any pleasure more than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of the Lord, any table better than the Lord's table, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven β be alarmed.
The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis.
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart...
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
The worst thing for a writer is to know another writer, and worse than that, to know a number of other writers. Like flies on the same turd.
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