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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
ReligionBondageMindFreedomPotentialEnterprise
In practice
Example use cases
When discussing the impact of restrictive ideologies at a seminar on personal freedom.
More from James Madison
All quotes →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.
James MadisonRead
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.
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The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.
James MadisonRead
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
James MadisonRead
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.
James MadisonRead
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The angry men know that this golden age (of fossil fuels) has gone; but they cannot find the words for the constraints they hate. Clutching their copies of Atlas Shrugged, they flail around, accusing those who would impede them of communism, fascism, religiosity, misanthropy, but knowing at heart that these restrictions are driven by something far more repulsive to the unrestrained man: the decencies we owe to other human beings.
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There are more dead people than living. And their numbers are increasing. The living are getting rarer.
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I ask why your Omnipotent God does not hold a man back when he is about to commit a sin or offence. It is child’s play for God. Why did He not kill war lords? Why did He not remove the fury of war from their minds? In this way God could have saved humanity from great calamity and horror.
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