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2010 January 08
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"A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought." |
"The revolt against freedom, which can be traced back so far,
is associated with a revolt against reason that [gives]
sentiment primacy to evaluate actions and experiences according to
the subjective emotions with which they are associated." |
"Our modern society is engaged in polishing and decorating the cage in which man is kept imprisoned." |
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2010 January 07
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"Americans, indeed all freemen, remember that in the final choice, a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains." |
"We will either find a way or make one." |
"Conquering any difficulty always gives one a secret joy, for it means to push back a boundary-line and adding to one's liberty." |
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2010 January 06
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"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery,
I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." |
"And I cannot see, why arms should be denied to any man who is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of liberty." |
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2010 January 05
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"The great foe of democracy now and in the near future is plutocracy. Every year that passes brings out this antagonism more distinctly. It is to be the social war of the twentieth century. In that war militarism, expansion and imperialism will all favor plutocracy. In the first place, war and expansion will favor jobbery, both in the dependencies and at home. In the second place, they will take away the attention of the people from what the plutocrats are doing. In the third place, they will cause large expenditures of the people’s money, the return for which will not go into the treasury, but into the hands of a few schemers. In the fourth place, they will call for a large public debt and taxes, and these things especially tend to make men unequal, because any social burdens bear more heavily on the weak than on the strong, and so make the weak weaker and the strong stronger. Therefore expansion and imperialism are a grand onslaught on democracy." |
"Freedom from something is not enough. It should also be freedom for something. Freedom is not safety but opportunity. Freedom ought to be a means to enable the press to serve the proper functions of communication in a free society." |
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2010 January 04
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The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution in spirit, the forces which had produced inequities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance, and fear. |
"In this possibly terminal phase of human existence,
democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued --
they may be essential to survival." |
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