If virtuous, the government need not fear the fair operation of attack and defense. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting the truth, either in religion, law, or politics.
Interpretation
A government that is just and virtuous can trust in the natural process of honest debate to reveal the truth.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson asserts that a virtuous government has nothing to fear from challenges to its authority or policies, as open discourse and debate act as a mechanism for uncovering truth. He emphasizes that the principles of truth in matters of religion, law, and politics are inherent to human nature, suggesting that transparency and dialogue are essential for a just society.
In practice
During a town hall meeting about community issues, one could quote Jefferson to emphasize the importance of open discussion.
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
We 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.
The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.
Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.
The body can't distinguish between cleansing and punishing for the body is ignorant, and mute besides.
What a chimaera then is man, what a novelty, what a monster, what chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, yet an imbecile earthworm; depository of truth, yet a sewer of uncertainty and error; pride and refuse of the universe. Who shall resolve this tangle?
No one, however weak, is denied a share in the victory of the cross. No one is beyond the help of the prayer of Christ.
Long before the awakening of thought on earth, manifestations of cosmic energy must have been produced which have no parallel today.
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