Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that individual beliefs and principles in religion are ultimately one's own responsibility before God.
Thomas Jefferson suggests that the personal beliefs and principles one holds regarding religion are matters that should be considered only in the context of one's relationship with God. This statement advocates for the idea that religious accountability is a deeply personal affair, meaning that external judgment or societal norms should not dictate how an individual views their faith and practice.
In practice
In a speech on personal freedom and faith, one might quote Jefferson to emphasize that individuals are ultimately accountable for their own beliefs.
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.
We are caught up in a paradox, one which might be called the paradox of conceptualization. The proper concepts are needed to formulate a good theory, but we need a good theory to arrive at the proper concepts.
Without war there are no heroes. What harm would that be? Oh, Lavinia, what a woman's question that is.
No human being should ever have to fear for his own life because of political or religious beliefs. We are all in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her ..never forget that.
Wasn't he the one who said you shouldn't trust anybody who calls himself an ordinar man? - Naoko
To be ashamed of one's immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one's morality.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
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