Truth is one forever absolute, but opinion is truth filtered through the moods, the blood, the disposition of the spectator.
Wendell PhillipsRead
Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Debt can destabilize governments and corrupt societies.
Wendell Phillips highlights that accumulating debt poses a severe threat to democratic governments, as it can erode their foundational principles, lead to corruption, and ultimately weaken the bond between the government and its citizens. In this context, debt is seen as not just a financial issue, but a moral and political one that can undermine the very fabric of a republic.
Themes
DebtGovernmentCorruptionRepublicFinancialPolitical
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about financial responsibility, one could use this quote to emphasize the dangers of national debt.
More from Wendell Phillips
All quotes βSeldom ever was any knowledge given to keep, but to impart; the grace of this rich jewel is lost in concealment.
Wendell PhillipsRead
If you want to be an orator, first get your great cause.
Wendell PhillipsRead
Organize, and stand together. Claim something together, and at once; let the nation hear a united demand from the laboring voice, and then, when you have got that, go on after another; but get something.
Wendell PhillipsRead
Write on my gravestone: 'Infidel, Traitor.', infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.
Wendell PhillipsRead
On a single winged word hath hung the destiny of nations.
Wendell PhillipsRead
Similar quotes
The question of souls is oldβwe demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power, and to set up among the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure the observance of those principles.
Woodrow WilsonRead
Among the liberties of citizens that are guaranteed are ... the right to believe what one chooses, the right to differ from his neighbor, the right to pick and choose the political philosophy he likes best, the right to associate with whomever he chooses, the right to join groups he prefers.
William O. DouglasRead
Young men's minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.
HomerRead
The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.
Michel De MontaigneRead
The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.
Walt WhitmanRead