Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the incompatibility of conquest with democratic principles.
Thomas Jefferson asserts that the idea of conquest conflicts with the foundational beliefs of a government that values liberty and democratic ideals. He suggests that a true government should not pursue expansion through force, as such actions undermine the principles of equality and self-governance that it represents.
In practice
In a political speech discussing the importance of maintaining peaceful relations with other countries.
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.
My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?
Whether people be of high or low birth, rich or poor, old or young, enlightened or confused, they are all alike in that they will one day die.
When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.
But I believe the words entered me and changed me and still work in me. The words eat me and sustain me. And when I'm dead and in a box in the dark dark ground, and all my various souls have died and I am nothing but insensible bones, something in the marrow will still feel yearning, desire persisting beyond flesh.
To have opinions is to sell out to youself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.
Isn't it a remarkable coincidence almost everyone has the same religion as their parents ? And it always just happens to be the right religion. Religions run in families. If we'd been brought up in ancient Greece we would all be worshiping Zeus and Apollo. If we had been born Vikings we would be worshiping Wotan and Thor. How does this come about ? Through childhood indoctrination.
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