Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that individual beliefs and principles in religion are ultimately one's own responsibility before God.
Thomas Jefferson suggests that the personal beliefs and principles one holds regarding religion are matters that should be considered only in the context of one's relationship with God. This statement advocates for the idea that religious accountability is a deeply personal affair, meaning that external judgment or societal norms should not dictate how an individual views their faith and practice.
In practice
In a speech on personal freedom and faith, one might quote Jefferson to emphasize that individuals are ultimately accountable for their own beliefs.
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.
There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral.
Two months ago I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South I said, `That's their business, not mine.' Now I know how wrong. I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.
To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination.
There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.
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