“We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.”  -Thomas Jefferson (1805)

To best understand the meaning and context under which the above words were written, please see:https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/interests-nationquotation