A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.
James MonroeRead
Peace is the best time for improvement and preparation of every kind; it is in peace that our commerce flourishes most, that taxes are most easily paid, and that the revenue is most productive.
Interpretation
Peace creates an environment where progress and prosperity can thrive.
In this quote, James Monroe emphasizes the importance of peace as a foundation for development and success. He suggests that during times of peace, societal activities such as commerce and tax payment are more effective, leading to greater revenue and overall improvement in various facets of life.
In practice
You can use this quote during a seminar on economic development to highlight the importance of stable environments.
A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.
Of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into tyranny.
[In a republic,] it is not the people themselves who make the decisions, but the people they themselves choose to stand in their places.
How prone all human institutions have been to decay; how subject the best-formed and most wisely organized governments have been to lose their check and totally dissolve; how difficult it has been for mankind, in all ages and countries, to preserve their dearest rights and best privileges, impelled as it were by an irresistible fate of despotism.
It was by one Union that we achieved our independence and liberties, and by it alone can they be maintained.
I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor.
I want to say a simple thing, that the dividing line exists not between Jordan and Israel, but between the proponents of peace and the opponents of peace.
And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights -- the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation β the right to breathe air as nature provided it -- the right of future generations to a healthy existence?" (John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963, American University speech)
We have learned that peace and well-being are indivisible and that our peace and well-being cannot be purchased at the price of peace or the well-being of any other country.
Peace doesn't mean that you will not have problems. Peace means that your problems will not have you.
Like any other people, like fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in every land, when the issue of peace or war has been put squarely to the American people, they have registered for peace.
Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.