Thought Provoking Law Quote: Thomas Jefferson

Students often trivialize negligence claims as the overly aggressive machinations of greedy, self-interested ambulance chasers. But the quote below places such claims in a new light.  At the infancy of our republic, while  "We the people" were sorting out exactly how government could help maintain a healthy, just and robust society, our third president makes clear his views in his inaugural speech:

Still one thing more, fellow citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

                - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801

A governmental system that restrains men (and women, ostensibly) from injuring one another is necessary "to close the circles of our felicities."

Nice, huh?!

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