Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of unity among diverse groups while safeguarding freedoms.
Thomas Jefferson's quote highlights the necessity of defending individual liberties while fostering a sense of unity among people from various backgrounds and cultures. It speaks to the vision of creating a cohesive society that respects and integrates its diverse origins, encouraging collaboration and solidarity among its members to uphold shared values of freedom and democracy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech at a multicultural festival to highlight the importance of unity in diversity.
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.
There exists in our society widespread fear of judging…[B]ehind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done…Who has ever maintained that by judging a wrong I presuppose that I myself would be incapable of committing it?
Life in freedom is not easy, and democracy is not perfect.
Wars are usually really popular with people that aren't gonna be affected by them. 'Cause it's just entertainment, and it's just weird, like, 'Well, we've got to show the world that we're strong.' No we don't. And by the way, that has nothing to do with you. Why are you equating yourself with that... you know what I mean?
...there is one thing that all Satan's cunning and all the snares of temptation cannot take by surprise - an undivided will.
Every human being has an assortment of diverse identities, and it greatly matters which one is triggered by social situations, which hold up different kinds of mirrors. The same is true for nations.
Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.
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