There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
Interpretation
Natural aristocracy is based on virtue and talents rather than birthright.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson suggests that true leadership and distinction in society should come from an individual's qualities such as virtue and talent, rather than their social status or lineage. Jefferson emphasizes the importance of merit and personal character as the foundation of a just and equal society, advocating for recognition of individuals based on their abilities and moral compass rather than their aristocratic heritage.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire young leaders about the importance of character.
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.
We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.
Born to an age where horror has become commonplace, where tragedy has, by its monotonous repetition, become a parody of sorrow, we need to fence off a few parks where humans try to be fair, where skill has some hope of reward, where absurdity has a harder time than usual getting a ticket.
The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.
Incidentally, one of the most worrying problems in the impact of Western modernity on traditional culture is that it quite rapidly communicates its own indifference or anxiety or even hostility about age and ageing.
For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.
Place principle above all else.
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