QuoteProject
Every one knows that the exercise of military power is forever dangerous to civil rights; and we have had recent instances of violences that have been offer'd to private subjects.
Samuel Adams
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The use of military power can threaten individual freedoms and rights.

Samuel Adams warns that the exercise of military power poses a constant risk to civil rights. He highlights that history has shown instances where military actions have harmed private citizens, suggesting that the authority and force of the military should be approached with caution to protect individual liberties.

Themes

MilitaryCivil RightsLibertyDangerFreedom

In practice

Example use cases

During a debate about military intervention, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of protecting civil liberties.

More from Samuel Adams

We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
Samuel AdamsRead
Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.
Samuel AdamsRead
If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? We claim British rights not by charter only! We are born to them.
Samuel AdamsRead
Let no man thirst for good beer.
Samuel AdamsRead
He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.
Samuel AdamsRead
We boast of our freedom, and we have your example for it. We talk the language we have always heard you speak.
Samuel AdamsRead

Similar quotes

You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.
John C. MaxwellRead
She was desperate and she was choosey at the same time and, in a way, beautiful, but she didn't have quite enough going for her to become what she imagined herself to be.
Charles BukowskiRead
There is a God-shaped vacuum in every heart.
Blaise PascalRead
He who can make distinction in God without number or quantity, knows that the three persons of the Trinity are one God.
Meister EckhartRead
If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.
George SantayanaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.