I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
Interpretation
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of an informed citizenry in exercising power within society.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson argues that the true power of society lies in the hands of the people, and rather than stripping them of their power due to a lack of enlightenment, it is essential to educate and inform them. He expresses the belief that an informed populace is crucial to the functioning of democracy and that the solution to potential misuse of power is not to take away that power but to enhance the capability of the citizens to wield it responsibly.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civic education.
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.
All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.
I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals.
Opinions about obviousness are to a certain extent a function of time.
To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.
If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.
Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.
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