"It is an essential attribute of the..." - Quote by Thomas Jefferson
It is an essential attribute of the jurisdiction of every countryto preserve peace, to punish acts in breach of it, and to restore property taken by force withinits limits.
More by Thomas Jefferson
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”
“The same political parties which now agitiate the US have existed through all time. And in fact the terms of whig and tory belong to natural as well as to civil history. They denote the temper and constitution and mind of different individuals.”
“Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.”
More on Law
“The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.”
“The safety of the people shall be the highest law.”
“Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.”
More on Justice
“It was in Spain that [my generation] learned that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this, doubtless, which explains why so many, the world over, feel the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy.”
“I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier.”
“What monster have we here? A great Deed at this hour of day? A great just deed - and not for pay? Absurd - or insincere?”