Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians.
Interpretation
The essence of a nation is inspired by creative visionaries, but its fate ultimately lies in the hands of its leaders.
This quote highlights the vital role that poets and creative thinkers play in the formation of a nation's identity and spirit, suggesting that the ideals and dreams they embody are crucial for its birth. However, it also emphasizes that politicians, who wield power and make practical decisions, have the responsibility and capability to sustain or destroy that vision, reflecting the complex interplay between inspiration and governance in shaping a nation's destiny.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of arts in society.
The revealed and mystic literature of mankind bears ample testimony to the fact that religious experience has been too enduring and dominant in the history of mankind to be rejected as mere illusion. There seems to be no reason, then, to accept the normal level of human experience as fact and reject its other levels as mystical and emotional.
I have seen the movement of the sinews of the sky, And the blood coursing in the veins of the moon.
let this be our beautiful departure from stagnation; let our minds come alive; enter another dimension; go beyond the stars eagerly struggling to find that... which our naked eyes did not know existed; rise like a falcon born to soar and not be alone but be present amongst others.
The soul is neither inside nor outside the body; neither proximate to nor separate from it.
The wing of the Falcon brings to the king, the wing if the crow brings him to the cemetery.
The truth is that the religious and the scientific processes, though involving different methods, are identical in their final aim. Both aim at reaching the most real.
What we have ignored is what citizens can do and the importance of real involvement of the people involved - versus just having somebody in Washington make a rule.
If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts.
I have ever been opposed to banks, - opposed to internal improvements by the general government, - opposed to distribution of public lands among the states, - opposed to taking the power from the hands of the people, - opposed to special monopolies, - opposed to a protective tariff, - opposed to a latitudinal construction of the constitution, - opposed to slavery agitation and disunion. This is my democracy. Point to a single act of my public career not in keeping with these principles.
Thomas Jefferson once said: 'Of course the people don't want war. But the people can be brought to the bidding of their leader. All you have to do is tell them they're being attacked and denounce the pacifists for somehow a lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.' I think that was Jefferson. Oh wait. That was Hermann Goering. Shoot." [Hosting the Peabody Awards for broadcasting excellence at the New York Waldorf-Astoria, June 6, 2006]
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
The State has invariably shown a striking talent for the expansion of its powers beyond any limits that might be imposed upon it.
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