Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights and with an innate sense of justice.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the inherent nature of humans as rational beings who possess rights and a sense of justice.
Thomas Jefferson's quote reflects the Enlightenment belief in human nature's rationality and the intrinsic rights that every individual possesses. He argues that these rights are innate and foundational, suggesting that justice is not merely a societal construct but a natural law inherent in every person, linking morality with the essence of humanity.
In practice
In a speech advocating for human rights, one could quote Jefferson to highlight the inherent rights of all individuals.
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.
A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.
The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.
All her knowledge is gone now. Everything she ever learned, or heard, or saw. Her particular way of looking at Hamlet or daisies or thinking about love, all her private intricate thoughts, her inconsequential secret musings β theyβre gone too. I heard this expression once: Each time someone dies, a library burns. Iβm watching it burn right to the ground.
A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
The sudden hand of Death close up mine eye!
Because of lack of moral principle, human life becomes worthless. Moral principle, truthfulness, is a key factor. If we lose that, then there is no future.
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