You May Also Like / View all maxioms
...it may fairly be doubted if any political tyranny ever imposed on its people such a fear, such a longing read more
...it may fairly be doubted if any political tyranny ever imposed on its people such a fear, such a longing for freedom, such a paralysis of the spirit, as disease. I doubt if the average Englishman felt himself as much oppressed by Charles I as by the plague; or if any colonial American was as much in dread of taxation without representation as of smallpox. And it may reasonably be contended that Walter Reed and William Crawford Gorgas brought to man freedom in a more happy sense and in a larger measure than any military or political leader.
People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom read more
People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.
Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best.
Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best.
When people revolt in a totalitarian society, they rise not against the wickedness of the regime but its weakness.
When people revolt in a totalitarian society, they rise not against the wickedness of the regime but its weakness.
What doth it profit a man if he gains the who world and loses his own soul?
What doth it profit a man if he gains the who world and loses his own soul?
It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that read more
It is the duty of righteous men to make war on all undeserved privilege, but one must not forget that this is a war without end.
It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most read more
It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most vitally from democracy. In a despotism there is no organized opposition which can take over the power when the Administration in office has failed. All the eggs are in one basket. Everything is staked on one coterie of men. When the going is good, they move more quickly and efficiently than democracies, where the opposition has to be persuaded and conciliated. But when they lose, there are no reserves. There are no substitutes on the bench ready to go out on the field and carry the ball. That is why democracies with the habit of party government have outlived all other forms of government in the modern world. They have, as it were, at least two governments always at hand, and when one fails they have the other. They have diversified the risks of mortality, corruption, and stupidity which pervade all human affairs. They have remembered that the most beautifully impressive machine cannot run for very long unless there is available a complete supply of spare parts.
If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not read more
If a politician murders his mother, the first response of the press or of his opponents will likely be not that it was a terrible thing to do, but rather that in a statement made six years before he had gone on record as being opposed to matricide.
What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of read more
What kind of world is this that can send machines to Mars and does nothing to stop the killing of a human being?
