But we know that freedom cannot be served by the devices of the tyrant. As it is an ancient truth that freedom cannot be legislated into existence, so it is no less obvious that freedom cannot be censored into existence. And any who act as if freedoms defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.
Interpretation
Freedom cannot be achieved through oppression or fear; it must be genuinely upheld and protected.
In this quote, Dwight D. Eisenhower emphasizes that true freedom cannot be maintained through tyrannical methods or fear tactics. He asserts that legislation and censorship cannot create genuine freedom; instead, a respectful and open society is required to protect individual liberties. Eisenhower warns against those who believe that suppressing freedoms and fostering suspicion is the way to maintain security, indicating that such beliefs are contrary to the principles of America.
In practice
During a speech on civil rights, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of protecting freedoms.
If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
The libraries of America are and must ever remain the home of free and inquiring minds. To them, our citizens-of all ages and races, of all creeds and persuasions-must be able to turn with clear confidence that there they can freely seek the whole truth, unvarnished by fashion and uncompromised by expediency.
You don't lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership.
When pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his: above all to conceal doubt, fear, and distrust.
Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.
The outward work can never be small if the inward one is great, and the outward work can never be great or good if the inward is small or of little worth.
Vain are the thousand creeds That move men's hearts, unutterably vain; Worthless as withered weeds, Or idlest froth amid the boundless main.
The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.
Resistances do not derive from a few heterogeneous principles; but neither are they a lure or a promise that is of necessity betrayed. They are the odd term in relations of power; they are inscribed in the latter as an irreducible opposite.
It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
Every man carries within himself a world made up of all that he has seen and loved; and it is to this world that he returns, incessantly, though he may pass through and seem to inhabit a world quite foreign to it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.