Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.
Woodrow WilsonRead
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all- disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Official documents can obscure truth despite their detail.
This quote by Woodrow Wilson suggests that even though official documents may appear transparent and comprehensive, they often disguise the core truth within complex and specific language. It reflects the idea that clarity can sometimes mask deception, and that one must be discerning when interpreting seemingly straightforward information.
Themes
TruthOfficial DocumentsDeceptionCommunicationTransparency
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation on government transparency, this quote highlights the need for critical analysis of official reports.
More from Woodrow Wilson
All quotes βSince trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused.
Woodrow WilsonRead
The history of liberty is the history of limitations on the power of government, not the increase of it. When we resist, therefore, the concentration of power, we are resisting the processes of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.
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We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
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The way to stop financial joyriding is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.
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Once lead this people into war, and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street.
Woodrow WilsonRead
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