Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of respecting the fruits of hard work and labor.
Thomas Jefferson's quote highlights the ethical responsibility to honor the effort that laborers put into their work, symbolized by the 'bread' they earn. It serves as a reminder that taking from those who work hard undermines their dignity and rights, advocating for fairness and respect in the distribution of earned rewards.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about workers' rights and fair wages.
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.
The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.
It was sad music. But it waved its sadness like a battle flag. It said the universe had done all it could, but you were still alive.
Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
Life is a terrible conflict, a grandiose and atrocious confluence. Hunting submerges man deliberately in that formidable mystery and therefore contains something of religious rite and emotion in which homage is paid to what is divine, transcendent, and in the laws of Nature.
A person doesn't die when he should but when he can.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.