"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, December 20, 1787. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 12, p. 442 (1955)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Government
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Government
315 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Government →
Related Quotes
""Whatever is, is not," is the maxim of the anarchist, as often as anything comes across him in the shape of a law whi…"
"I am for Peace, for Retrenchment, and for Reform,—thirty years ago the great watchwords of the great Liberal Party."
"States are great engines moving slowly."
"Yet if thou didst but know how little wit governs this mighty universe."
"Perish commerce. Let the constitution live!"
"England is the mother of parliaments."
"Adeo ut omnes imperii virga sive bacillum vere superius inflexum sit."
"It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king."
"Oh, we are weary pilgrims; to this wilderness we bring A Church without a bishop, a State without a King."
"Well, will anybody deny now that the Government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest government…"