Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.
Interpretation
Truth demands loyalty and courage, making it a worthy cause for one's allegiance.
In this quote, John F. Kennedy emphasizes the paramount importance of truth, suggesting that it is the ultimate authority to which we should owe our fidelity. He frames the pursuit and service of truth as a noble and heroic endeavor, highlighting the courage required to uphold it in the face of challenges and potentials for tyranny from other influences.
In practice
In a speech about integrity, one might say, 'As John F. Kennedy noted, truth demands our allegiance, and this discourse encourages us to serve it with heroism.'
The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.
I had always enjoyed the title of Commander-in-Chief until I was informed ... that the only forces that cannot be transferred from Washington without my express permission are the members of the Marine Corps Band. Those are the only forces I have. I want it announced that we propose to hold the White House against all odds at least for some time to come.
I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children - not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women - not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.
It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of Philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, it has set up that single, unconscionable freedom -- free trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
A lawyer is either a social engineer or he is a parasite on society.
Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure... they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it.
We must be free for the truth; and conversely, to be able to be open toward the truth may be our deepest freedom as human creatures.
Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep... For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that an' Chuck him out, the brute! But it's Saviour of his country, when the guns begins to shoot!
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