Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.
Interpretation
Jefferson emphasizes the certainty of freedom for all, yet acknowledges the challenges of coexistence between different races under a single government.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson asserts that the destiny of certain groups is unmistakably tied to the pursuit of freedom. However, he also highlights the inherent difficulties in promoting unity and coexistence among distinct races within the same political framework, suggesting that deep-seated differences shaped by nature, culture, and perception make such coexistence problematic.
In practice
This quote can be used to spark discussions on the complexities of race relations in politics.
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.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
Do you think it is only a little thing to possess a house from which lovely things can be seen?
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
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