Private fortunes, in the present state of our circulation, are at the mercy of those self-created money lenders, and are prostrated by the floods of nominal money with which their avarice deluges us.
Interpretation
Private wealth is vulnerable to manipulation by greedy lenders and the abundance of nominal money.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson expresses concern about the financial system and how private wealth can be severely impacted by opportunistic lenders. He critiques the overwhelming amount of nominal money, suggesting that it is driven by avarice and can lead to the downfall of individuals' fortunes.
In practice
During a financial seminar on personal wealth management, this quote can illustrate the risks posed by unscrupulous lenders.
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.
I look under the skin of countries' economies, and I help them make better decisions and be stronger, to prosper and create employment.
Constructive trade, the two-way exchange of goods and services, is the most efficient and logical way for each nation . . . to build a stable prosperity, a prosperity based not on aid, but on mutually beneficial economic contacts.
Capitalism is not an 'ism.' It is closer to being the opposite of an 'ism,' because it is simply the freedom of ordinary people to make whatever economic transactions they can mutually agree to.
All money is a matter of belief.
The consumer, so it is said, is the king each is a voter who uses his money as votes to get the things done that he wants done.
We've used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we're running a federal deficit that's 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It's more stimulative than any policy we've followed since World War II.
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