I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.
Interpretation
Jefferson argues that a primarily agricultural society promotes virtuous governance, while urbanization leads to corruption.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson reflects on the relationship between agricultural societies and the ethical quality of governance. He suggests that as long as a nation remains largely agrarian with access to vacant lands, its governments can maintain virtue and integrity. However, he warns that as populations concentrate in large cities, similar to those in Europe, they are likely to experience corruption and moral decline due to the complexities and challenges of urbanization.
In practice
In a speech about sustainable development, you could reference this quote to emphasize the importance of agricultural practices.
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.
I am glad you have a Cat, but I do not believe it is So remarkable a cat as My Cat.
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.
I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.
A man does not have to go and find where his eyes are in order to see. The heart is there, always open to you, if you care to enter it, always supporting your movements, although you may be unaware of it. It is perhaps more correct to say that the Self is the Heart. Really the Self is the centre and is everywhere aware of itself as the Heart or Self-awareness.
It is an error to believe that Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and to all men, but rather that He inaugurated a religious movement adapted, or to be adapted, to different times and different places.
Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
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