One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.
Louis Antoine De Saint-JustRead
Morality is stronger than tyrants.
Interpretation
Moral principles hold more power and influence than oppressive rulers.
This quote by Louis Antoine De Saint-Just emphasizes the idea that moral righteousness and ethical values can supersede the control and brutality of tyrants. It suggests that, despite the force and power wielded by authoritarian figures, the inherent strength of morality serves as a foundation for resistance and can ultimately lead to justice and liberation.
In practice
During a speech on human rights, one could use this quote to stress the importance of moral integrity in the face of oppression.
One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.
Monarchy is an outrage which even the blind of an entire people cannot justify... all men hold from nature the secret mission to destroy wherever it my be found. No man can reign innocently. The folly is too evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper. Do kings themselves treat otherwise those who seek to usurp their authority?
God, how pointless and empty the world is! Days filled with cheap and tarnished moments succeed each other, restless and haunted nights follow in bitter routine: the sun shines without brightness, and the moon rises without light. My heart has the taste of ashes, and my throat is tight and weary with weeping. What is a lost soul? It is one that has turned from its true path and is groping in the darkness of remembered waysβ
I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.
We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.
When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day β but by the minute.
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?
The testimony of scripture is so plain that to add anything were superfluous, were it not that the world is almost now come to that blindness, that whatsoever pleases not the princes and the multitude, the same is rejected as doctrine newly forged, and is condemned for heresy.
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