A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.
Interpretation
Understanding the principles of happiness is essential for a free and virtuous society.
This quote emphasizes the importance of knowledge and awareness among individuals in a society that values freedom and virtue. James Monroe suggests that for a population to truly achieve happiness, they must grasp the foundational principles and causes that contribute to their well-being, indicating that enlightenment and understanding are key components of a fulfilled life.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of education in democracy.
Of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny.
Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
[In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.
How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.
It was by one Union that we achieved our independence and liberties, and by it alone can they be maintained.
I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.
Show me the country that has no strikes and I'll show you the country in which there is no liberty.
The government's not going to create jobs. It doesn't have to. People have to create jobs.
Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing. The central feature of pride is enmity - enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen.
Realization is not knowledge about the universe, but the living experience of the nature of the universe. Until we have such living experience, we remain dependent on examples, and subject to their limits.
Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.
Freedom is indivisible. Whites can't enjoy their separate freedoms. They spend too much time and resources defending those freedoms instead of enjoying them.
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