A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Edmund BurkeRead
In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.
Interpretation
Democracy can lead to the tyranny of the majority over the minority.
This quote by Edmund Burke highlights the potential danger inherent in democratic systems, where the will of the majority can overpower and unjustly oppress minority groups. It serves as a cautionary reminder that democracy, while promoting equality and representation, can sometimes facilitate the very oppression it seeks to avoid if the rights of minorities are not protected.
In practice
During a lecture on political philosophy, this quote can be used to discuss the balance between majority rule and minority rights.
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.
Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
The real opposition is that between the ego-bound man, whose existence is structured by the principle of having, and the free man, who has overcome his egocentricity.
No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.
I want to live as long as possible, just to see how stupid it gets.
Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a ghost in a machine.
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.
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