Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendency of the people.
Interpretation
Stay committed to your core beliefs, regardless of external pressures or fears.
Thomas Jefferson urges individuals to establish and stick firmly to their fundamental principles, despite any challenges or fears that may arise from others who are hesitant or influenced by wealth. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining one's convictions in the face of opposition and societal pressure.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of integrity and staying true to one’s values.
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.
The man who is seriously convinced that he deserves hell is not likely to go there, while the man who believes that he is worthy of heaven will certainly never enter that blessed place.
Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?
Law has become a business. Health care has become a business. Unfortunately, politics has also become a business. That really undermines society.
Amidst the vicissitudes of the earth's surface, species cannot be immortal, but must perish, one after another, like the individuals which compose them. There is no possibility of escaping from this conclusion.
A cat has a reputation to protect. If it had a halo, it would be worn cocked to one side.
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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