Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of humanity, highlighting the inherent violence and exploitation found within society.
Thomas Jefferson's quote contemplates the darker aspects of human nature and society, implying that humans, unlike other animals, have the capacity for self-destructive behavior, particularly through the exploitation of one another. He suggests that the rich prey on the poor, illustrating a critique of economic inequality and moral decay in a system where some benefit at the expense of others.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about economic inequality during a social justice seminar.
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.
If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then?
We have more and more ways to communicate, as Thoreau noted, but less and less to say.
People with handicaps teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and caring together is better than caring alone.
Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.
The priest is an immense being because he makes the crowd believe astonishing things.
I am a Muslim and . . . my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. It keeps me from judging any man by the color of his skin. It teaches me to judge him by his deeds and his conscious behavior. And it teaches me to be for the rights of all human beings, but especially the Afro-American human being, because my religion is a natural religion, and the first law of nature is self-preservation.
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