All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Interpretation
Majority rule must respect the rights of the minority to avoid oppression.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of balancing the will of the majority with the rights of the minority. He argues that while the majority should have the power to make decisions, those decisions must be reasonable and just, ensuring that the equal rights of the minority are protected to prevent oppression and injustice.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, one might quote Jefferson to emphasize the need for equality under the law.
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 first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.
The first problem of the media is posed by what does not get translated, or even published in the dominant political languages.
If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.
Ive seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.
When you're 20 or 30, looking ahead, you see these benchmarks for relationships, career, ambition, sexuality, and they went off into infinity. When you get to 50, you look at what's ahead of you, and there's an end. It goes into a nothingness, a void.
Perhaps loneliness had nothing to do with place or circumstance; perhaps it was in you; yourself. Perhaps, wherever you were, you took your little circle of loneliness with you.
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