Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of unity among diverse groups while safeguarding freedoms.
Thomas Jefferson's quote highlights the necessity of defending individual liberties while fostering a sense of unity among people from various backgrounds and cultures. It speaks to the vision of creating a cohesive society that respects and integrates its diverse origins, encouraging collaboration and solidarity among its members to uphold shared values of freedom and democracy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech at a multicultural festival to highlight the importance of unity in diversity.
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.
Maybe that's all demons ever are. People like us, doing things without even knowing what we're doing.
The only religion that ought to be taught is the religion of fearlessness. Either in this world or in the world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.
Is it not strange, that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies!
Ashram means a community of men of religion. I feel that an ashram was a necessity of life for me.
Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
I think enormous harm is done by religion - not just in the name of religion, but actually by religion. ... Many people do simply awful things out of sincere religious belief, not using religion as a cover the way that Saddam Hussein may have done, but really because they believe that this is what God wants them to do, going all the way back to Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac because God told him to do that. Putting God ahead of humanity is a terrible thing.
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