The strongest continuous thread in America's political tradition is skepticism about government.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes a fundamental distrust of government in American political thought.
George Will's quote highlights a deep-rooted skepticism towards government that has been a consistent theme throughout American history. This skepticism serves as a critical lens through which citizens evaluate governmental actions and policies, reflecting a belief in individual liberties and caution against centralized power.
In practice
During a political debate, one might reference this quote to express concerns about government overreach.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
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.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
Now therefore, that my mind is free from all cares, and that I have obtained for myself assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions.
One should always look to the end of everything, how it will finally come out. For the god has shown blessedness to many only to overturn them utterly in the end.
The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head and he picks it up and buy victuals with it, the physical effect is good. But with respect to me the action is very wrong.
All food is the gift of the gods and has something of the miraculous, the egg no less than the truffle.
I dreamed: I am the fish whose flesh is eaten, and because I am fat, it is good.
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
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