We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
Samuel AdamsRead
It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Tyrants thrive on the ignorance and moral decay of the populace, as knowledge and virtue threaten their power.
Samuel Adams highlights the relationship between tyranny and the ignorance of the people. He argues that oppressive leaders work to keep citizens uninformed and morally corrupt, as an educated and virtuous populace would challenge their authority and ultimately resist their tyranny. This quote serves as a warning about the dangers of allowing ignorance and vice to fester in society.
Themes
TyrannyIgnoranceVirtueKnowledgeOppression
In practice
Example use cases
During a political rally to emphasize the importance of education in a democracy.
More from Samuel Adams
All quotes →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
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Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
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