The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.
Interpretation
Minimal government interference in personal and business activities leads to greater overall prosperity.
This quote by Martin Van Buren suggests that when the government reduces its involvement in the activities of individuals and businesses, it creates a more favorable environment for prosperity and economic growth. It implies that freedom in private pursuits allows for innovation, productivity, and better resources allocation, leading to a thriving society.
In practice
In a discussion about economic policies, one might say, 'As Martin Van Buren stated, the less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.'
To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences, I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as are clearly with the constitutional authority of the Federal Government.
In time of peace there can, at all events, be no justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under such circumstances be performed without such a resort.
It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.
Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.
I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not found on the executive calendar of any country.
The government should not be guided by Temporary Excitement, but by Sober Second Thought.
In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
You know, there is a long tradition in the U.S. of, um, promoting elections up to the point that you get an outcome you don't like. Look at Latin America in the Cold War.
All the common people want is to be left alone. All the ordinary soldier wants is to collect his pay and not get killed. That's why the great forces of history can be manipulated by astonishingly small groups of determined people.
Here I am in the state of New Mexico. George Bush is still in the state of denial. New Mexico has five electoral votes. The state of denial has none. I like my chances.
The U.S. has since the end of World War II had an answer - we stand for free peoples and free markets, we are willing to support and defend them - we will sustain a balance of power that favors freedom.
Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.
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