"Our country is now taking so steady..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson
Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
More by Thomas Jefferson
“[I]t seems that the Cannibals of Europe are going to eat one another again. A war between Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the kite and snake; whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the less for the world.”
“Can one generation bind another, and all others, in succession forever? I think not. The Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter endowed with will...Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.”
“My confidence is that there will for a long time be virtue and good sense enough in our countrymen to correct abuses.”
More on Government
“Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
“A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master.”
“No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.”
More on Power
“What I say is that 'just' or 'right' means nothing but what is in the interest of the stronger party.”
“Yes, Haven, most of us enjoy preaching, and Ive got such a bully pulpit!”
“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”