It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith."
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of fiscal responsibility in government borrowing.
Thomas Jefferson's quote underscores a fundamental principle of financial prudence for governments: any borrowing should be accompanied by a tax to ensure that the interest and principal can be repaid. This reflects a commitment to maintaining public credit and accountability to creditors, advocating for a system that ties government debt directly to the means of repayment to avoid excessive indebtedness.
In practice
During a finance seminar discussing responsible government budgeting.
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.
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.
Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it's also so disappointing and self-defeating.
Chance does not speak essentially through words nor can it be seen in their convolution. It is the eruption of language, its sudden appearance. It's not a night twinkle with stars, an illuminated sleep, nor a drowsy vigil. It is the very edge of consciousness.
Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.
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