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All... natural rights may be abridged or modified in [their] exercise by law.
Thomas Jefferson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Natural rights can be restricted by law for the sake of order and society.

This quote by Thomas Jefferson highlights the balance between individual rights and the laws governing society. While individuals possess inherent natural rights, their exercise can be limited or modified by laws to ensure the overall welfare and structure of the community. This reflects the idea that freedoms must sometimes yield to legal frameworks to maintain social order.

Themes

Natural RightsLawSocietyFreedomBalance

In practice

Example use cases

Citing this quote during a legal debate about the limits of personal freedom.

More from Thomas Jefferson

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.
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I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
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β€ŽWe 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.
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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.
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A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
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Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
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