A properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate.
Interpretation
A healthy democracy relies on voters who are knowledgeable and aware of issues.
Thomas Jefferson's quote emphasizes the critical role of an informed citizenry in maintaining the health and effectiveness of a democratic system. Without an electorate that is educated about political matters, the principles of democracy can be compromised, leading to uninformed decisions that may undermine governance and the public good.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech advocating for voter education programs.
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.
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.
The Iranian government is undoubtedly a severe danger to its own population, but not beyond that.
Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice.
I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display.
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