You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.
Boris YeltsinRead
Liberty sets the mind free, fosters independence and unorthodox thinking and ideas. But it does not offer instant prosperity or happiness and wealth to everyone.
Interpretation
Liberty promotes freedom and independent thinking, but it does not guarantee prosperity or happiness for all.
In this quote, Boris Yeltsin emphasizes the importance of liberty as a cornerstone of free thought and creativity. While liberty enables individuals to explore new ideas and live independently, he cautions that it does not inherently provide material success or wellbeing for everyone, highlighting the nuanced relationship between freedom and personal outcomes in life.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of personal freedom and responsibility.
You can build a throne with bayonets, but it's difficult to sit on it.
We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.
Storm clouds of terror and dictatorship are gathering over the whole country... They must not be allowed to bring eternal night.
Whenever you see, in an official lectionary, the command to omit two or three verses, you can normally be sure that they contain words of judgment. Unless, of course, they are about sex.
We look at life from the back side of the tapestry. And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangled knots and the like. But occasionally, God's light shines through the tapestry, and we get a glimpse of the larger design with God weaving together the darks and lights of existence.
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
The exit is usually where the entrance was.
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
So sad, so fresh the days that are no more.
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