QuoteProject
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
James F. Cooper
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Political liberty allows individuals the freedom to pursue their own happiness within a structured society.

In this quote, James F. Cooper emphasizes the importance of individuality and personal freedom within a political framework. He argues that a true sense of liberty is achieved when citizens are granted the freedom to act and express themselves while respecting the order and rights of others, thus allowing them to seek happiness in their own way. This perspective highlights the balance between personal freedom and societal norms, advocating for a political system that nurtures individuality.

Themes

IndividualityFreedomHappinessLibertyPolitics

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about civil rights, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of personal liberty.

More from James F. Cooper

It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
James F. CooperRead
We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true; though happily for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned, are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating, if not excusing its crimes.
James F. CooperRead
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore.
James F. CooperRead
On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much, is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity.
James F. CooperRead

Similar quotes

Crucially we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness, with the Earth & every other living thing; we have just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other, billions of each other, only we're not living with each other our crazy selves are living with each other, and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection.
Thandie NewtonRead
Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemlance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' - Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyRead
Crime is a product of social excess.
Vladimir LeninRead
Henceforth the cosmos, once a swarm of blazing galaxies, each a swarm of stars, was composed wholly of star-corpses. These dark grains drifted through the dark void, like an infinitely tenuous smoke rising from an extinguished fire. Upon these motes, these gigantic worlds, the ultimate populations had created here and there with their artificial lighting a pale glow, invisible even from the innermost ring of lifeless planets.
Olaf StapledonRead
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
Eric HofferRead
I know that what you call 'God' really exists, but not in the form you think; God is primal cosmic energy, the love in your body, your integrity, and your perception of the nature in you and outside of you.
Wilhelm ReichRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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