Politics & Power Quote by Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson is selling a paradox that powered the early republic: distrust the state, then build one anyway. The line reads like a warning label on government, but it’s also a manual for democratic maintenance. “Degenerates” isn’t just moral scolding; it’s a prediction about incentives. If power is “trusted” to rulers alone, it will rot toward self-preservation: patronage, secrecy, the slow conversion of public office into private advantage. The verb choice matters because it frames corruption as gravity, not anomaly.

The second sentence sounds like pure populist faith until you hear the steel underneath it. Calling the people “safe depositories” is a legal-financial metaphor, not a romantic one. A depository holds something on behalf of someone else and can demand account. Jefferson’s subtext is procedural: liberty survives through mechanisms that keep authority on a short leash - elections, free press, local participation, civic education, and a culture of scrutiny. He’s not claiming the people are always wise; he’s insisting they are the least dangerous custodians because they can replace the custodians.

Context sharpens the edge. Jefferson is writing from a revolutionary generation that had watched monarchy claim divine legitimacy and watched legislatures drift toward insider rule. He also feared a distant, professionalized governing class - “the rulers of the people” - hardening into an American aristocracy. The quote doubles as a rebuke to complacency: if citizens outsource politics to experts and officeholders, they shouldn’t be surprised when government stops feeling like theirs.