Legislators invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that laws regarding property should align with human emotions and relationships.
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of ensuring that legislation regarding property ownership does not conflict with the innate emotional attachments and relationships people have. He argues that lawmakers should consider the natural affections of individuals while creating laws, as arbitrary subdivisions of property can disrupt social bonds and community cohesion.
In practice
In a discussion about zoning laws at a town hall meeting, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of community ties in property legislation.
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.
Bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves.
Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.
Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions... Man, far from being freed from his natural passions, was plunged into artificial ones quite as violent and much more disappointing.
Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
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