The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
Interpretation
Jefferson advocates for a hands-off government approach, allowing citizens to pursue their own paths without interference.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson expresses a core principle of American democracy, emphasizing the importance of individual freedom and limited government intervention. He suggests that the role of government should not involve obstructing or excessively supporting its citizens, but rather providing an environment where individuals are free to pursue their own interests and aspirations, thereby fostering personal responsibility and autonomy.
In practice
A speaker at a political rally discussing the importance of personal freedom and minimal government interference.
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.
There has never been a humane communist regime. Marxism is inherently totalitarian. It recognizes no moral limits on the state. Itβs the most convenient ideology for aspiring tyrants; it also retains its appeal for intellectuals, who have proved equally skillful at rationalizing abuses of power and at exculpating themselves.
No matter how many toys we amass we leave them behind when we die, just as we leave a broken environment, an economy that only benefits the richest, and a legacy of empowering greed over goodness. It is now time to commit to following a new path.
Wanting to be liked means being a supporting character in your own life, using the cues of the actors around you to determine your next line rather than your own script. It means that your self-worth will always be tied to what someone else thinks about you, forever out of your control.
People consider the harms they inflict to be justified and forgettable, and the harms they suffer to be unprovoked and grievous.
All the stories are fictions. What matters is which fiction you believe.
Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.
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