I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
James MadisonRead
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
Interpretation
Religious bondage limits human potential and hinders noble pursuits.
This quote by James Madison emphasizes the detrimental effects of religious oppression on the human mind. By referring to religious bondage as something that 'shackles' and 'debilitates,' it suggests that such constraints prevent individuals from engaging in meaningful ventures and broadening their horizons, ultimately inhibiting progress and enlightenment.
In practice
When discussing the impact of restrictive ideologies at a seminar on personal freedom.
I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause; because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism.
The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it.
I love to doubt as well as know.
For white men, to live is to own, or to try to own more, or to die trying to own more. Their appetites are astonishing! They own wardrobes, slaves, carriages, houses, warehouses, and ships. They own ports, cities, plantations, valleys, mountains, chains of islands. They own this world, its jungles, its skies, and its seas. Yet they complain that Dejima is a prison. They complain they are not free.
You must see with eyes unclouded by hate. See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good. Pledge yourself to neither side, but vow instead to preserve the balance that exists between the two.
My belief is that I wasn't born into Judaism by accident, and so I needed to find ways to honor that.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.
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