The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of balance between state and federal authority.
Thomas Jefferson's quote reflects his belief that the individual states within the United States should not be entirely submissive to the federal government. Instead, there should be a balance where states have the power to govern themselves and protect their rights without being overridden by a central authority, highlighting the principles of autonomy and federalism.
In practice
In a speech about state rights, you might reference this quote to highlight the need for autonomy.
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.
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a definition of what life is: change... If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances β and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse β then you don't have life after death; you just have death.
And though all streams flow from a single course to cleanse the blood from polluted hand, they hasten on their course in vain.
Let us respect others no one lives alone in a city, a nation, or a world.
The state of childhood resonates with life inside a fantasy novel. If you have no control over how you spend large chunks of your day, or are at the mercy of flawed giant beings, then the desire to bend the laws of the world by magic is strong and deep.
Violence always seems to me the worst form of tyranny. It deprives people of their rights, including the right to live.
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