A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.
Interpretation
Budget discipline and responsible spending are vital for a fair government.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of a strict and efficient management of public funds in order to maintain an honest and just government. He suggests that by eliminating unnecessary expenditures and focusing on essential contributions, the government can prevent corruption and ensure that it serves the interests of its citizens effectively.
In practice
During a town hall meeting about local government spending.
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.
One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption.
We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire.
Great powers can't get tired, because the international order is not self-governing.
We the people tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us.
It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public.
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