A superfluity of wealth, and a train of domestic slaves, naturally banish a sense of general liberty, and nourish the seeds of that kind of independence that usually terminates in aristocracy.
Interpretation
Excessive wealth and reliance on servants can lead to a loss of true freedom and foster a hierarchy that promotes aristocracy.
Mercy Otis Warren highlights the paradox of wealth and independence. She argues that an abundance of wealth, along with dependence on domestic servants, can erode genuine liberty and instead cultivate a false sense of independence that ultimately contributes to the emergence of an aristocratic society, which may restrict the freedom of others and lead to social inequality.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on economic inequality at a community meeting.
It is necessary for every American, with becoming energy to endeavor to stop the dissemination of principles evidently destructive of the cause for which they have bled. It must be the combined virtue of the rulers and of the people to do this, and to rescue and save their civil and religious rights from the outstretched arm of tyranny, which may appear under any mode or form of government.
Public emergencies may require the hand of severity to fall heavily on those who are not personally guilty, but compassion prompts, and ever urges to milder methods
We who are atheists are also a-fairyists, a-teapotists, and a-unicornists, but we don't have to bother saying so.
Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call me to account for eating decently? If I battened on the scorched corpses of animals, you might well ask me why I did that
If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long.
Manhattanism is the one urbanistic ideology that has fed, from its conception, on the splendors and miseries of the metropolitan condition—hyper-density—without once losing faith in it as the basis for a desirable modern culture. Manhattan's architecture is a paradigm for the exploitation of congestion.
Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.
If you are white, racism is too easily ignored and forgiven, regarded as of burning concern only to the ethnic minorities, and therefore of relatively marginal significance.
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