Quote by Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.


My reading of history convinces me that most bad government

Summary

The quote suggests that the speaker, based on their understanding of history, believes that the main cause of ineffective or harmful governance is an excessive presence of government. They argue that when governments become overbearing and intrusive, it often leads to negative outcomes. This viewpoint implies that a more limited and restrained role for the government is preferable, as it reduces the potential for misuse of power and allows for greater individual freedom and achievement.

By Thomas Jefferson
Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars--namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the forth- putting of the hands--are merely illusions; and even that we really possess neither an entire body nor hands such as we see. Nevertheless it must be admitted at least that the objects which appear to us in sleep are, as it were, painted representations which could not have been formed unless in the likeness of realities; and, therefore, that those general objects, at all events, namely, eyes, a head, hands, and an entire body, are not simply imaginary, but really existent. For, in truth, painters themselves, even when they study to represent sirens and satyrs by forms the most fantastic and extraordinary, cannot bestow upon them natures absolutely new, but can only make a certain medley of the members of different animals; or if they chance to imagine something so novel that nothing at all similar has ever been seen before, and such as is, therefore, purely fictitious and absolutely false, it is at least certain that the colors of which this is composed are real. And on the same principle, although these general objects, viz. a body, eyes, a head, hands, and the like, be imaginary, we are nevertheless absolutely necessitated to admit the reality at least of some other objects still more simple and universal than these, of which, just as of certain real colors, all those images of things, whether true and real, or false and fantastic, that are found in our consciousness (cogitatio), are formed.

Rene Descartes, Meditation I