"If, in my retirement to the humble..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson
If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
More by Thomas Jefferson
“In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.”
“The people are not always well-informed, but is better that they have misconceptions that make them restless than that they be lethargic-for lethargy in the people means death for republics.”
“In every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the other for a longer or shorter time.”
More on Government
“Louisiana's spicy, colorful politics have saddled our state with a reputation for tolerating lax ethical standards in government.”
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.”
“Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a nation should apply itself to reform the system.”
More on Happiness
“And I urge upon you this - which I think is wisdom - if you find you can't make seventy by any but an uncomfortable road, don't you go.”
“But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people--first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.”
“We are social animals. Others' suffering is ultimately your suffering; their happiness is ultimately your happiness.”