Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent.
Interpretation
Liberty requires a balance of order and restraint, particularly on those who are violent.
This quote emphasizes that true liberty cannot exist in a society without the establishment of order and the necessity of subordination to just laws. It suggests that liberty is not merely the absence of restraint, but rather the presence of a system that imposes necessary limits on those who would disrupt peace and justice. In this view, liberty flourishes when there is a fair and just system that curtails violence while allowing civil order.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of law and order in a democratic society.
A large portion of our citizens, who will not believe, even on the evidence of facts, that any public evils exist, or are impending. They deride the apprehensions of those who foresee, that licentiousness will prove, as it ever has proved, fatal to liberty.
We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets; that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same.
I would never say I was an icon, but so many people have said I am, so I suppose I am. I mean, I can't not be what everyone says I am. But I don't feel like an icon.
People have this obsession. They want you to be like you were in 1969. They want you to, because otherwise their youth goes with you. It's very selfish, but it's understandable.
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
We are prone to see what lies behind our eyes, rather than what apprears before them.
Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.
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