We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of acknowledging alliances and rivalries with respect and courage.
Thomas Jefferson's quote highlights the necessity of striking a balance between fulfilling our responsibilities and maintaining a cordial relationship with others. It suggests that even in conflict or competition, one should approach the situation with honor, presenting oneself as a friend to allies while being brave towards adversaries. This duality presents an understanding that courage and diplomacy go hand in hand.
In practice
During a team-building workshop, this quote can be used to encourage collaboration among colleagues with differing opinions.
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.
When I was young I asked more of people than they could give: everlasting friendship, endless feeling. Now I know to ask less of them than they can give: a straightforward companionship. And their feelings, their friendship, their generous actions seem in my eyes to be wholly miraculous: a consequence of grace alone.
That's what I meant,' said Pippin. 'We hobbits ought to stick together, and we will. I shall go, unless they chain me up. There must be someone with intelligence in the party.
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.
Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.
Friendship among nations, as among individuals, calls for constructive efforts to muster the forces of humanity in order that an atmosphere of close understanding and cooperation may be cultivated.
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