Legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property... Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.
Interpretation
Thomas Jefferson critiques the laws of property and taxation, advocating for measures that promote equality.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson addresses the issue of property rights and economic inequality. He argues that when there are uncultivated lands and poor individuals who are unable to work, it indicates a failure of the legal system to respect natural rights. By proposing a progressive tax system that alleviates burden on the lower classes, he suggests that legislators have a responsibility to create laws that promote fairness and prevent the concentration of wealth.
In practice
Referencing this quote during a debate on property tax reforms.
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.
If your desires are not great, a little will seem much to you; for small appetite makes poverty equivalent to wealth.
...you have to leave the island in order to see the island, that we can't see ourselves unless we become free of ourselves, Unless we escape from ourselves you mean, No, that's not the same thing.
I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
One cannot use an evil action with reference to a good intention.
The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation.
We need to learn how to capture and kill wild fish humanely - or, if that is not possible, to find less cruel and more sustainable alternatives to eating them.
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