Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the ability to defend oneself or go to war is essential for maintaining peace.
Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the paradoxical relationship between war and peace, asserting that the readiness to engage in conflict is a vital component of securing peace. This viewpoint reflects a philosophical stance that suggests peace is often safeguarded by the ability and willingness to confront aggressors or threats, indicating that strength can prevent chaos and disorder.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about military strategies during a history class.
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.
Far off, men swell, bully, and threaten; bring them hand to hand, and they are feeble folk.
My mother, Abra, had taught me that all people are made from the same dust. When our days here are gone, all men and women enter the same garden.
We donβt have faith that #freedom works. We have evidence.
There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor.
Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.
To be sure, the response of faith to revelation, which God grants to the creature he chooses and moves with his love, occurs in such a way that it is truly the creature that provides the response, with its own nature and its natural powers of love.
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