Thomas Jefferson

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

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Theodore Roosevelt

Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of plutocracy.

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Alexander Hamilton

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity.

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Democratic forms of government are vulnerable to mass prejudice, the so-called tyranny of the majority.

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Winston Churchill

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

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Alexander Hamilton

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

Alexander Hamilton in speech on 21 June 1788 urging ratification of the Constitution in New YorkReport problemRelated quotes
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Thomas Jefferson

It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go; and let the honest advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition Acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits; let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on the President, and the President of our choice has assented to and accepted, over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws had pledged hospitality and protection; that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.

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Now, al Qaeda's on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base of operations. The Afghan government is a friendly government that is trying to bring democracy to its people.

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No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.

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No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.

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People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience.

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My goal was to make New Jersey's state government a model for all other states to emulate, hopefully thereby to stem, or at least slow down, the flow of power to the federal government.

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Simone Weil

It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation. Law is the quality of the permanent provisions for making this aim effective.

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You Can Go Now

Time — what is it,
this vast father of all concepts
luring its children into
preoccupation with the past?

History is a fine fiction
within its limits, full of lessons
for those who have ears to hear them,
but when taken too seriously,
as if it were the whole
truth and nothing but the truth,
it prohibits experience of presence.

The narrative of sports commentators,
presented in present tense,
is more honest than that of historians.
'Will looks left, crosses over,
drives right, puts up a floater...
off the glass... GOOD! All tied up now,
three seconds to go, time out Wolfpack.
This place is going CRAZY! '

But how to put time in perspective
when time is a primary component
of perspective? Can space manage to
squeeze its age-old partner in philosophy
out of business by means of some
trick of focus, put an end to time's
executive decision making behind the scenes
of ignorance, war, and social injustice?
And will that help, or only give
space too much play, leading to
more of the same in another form of tyranny?

Time will tell, it's said.
Or will it? Maybe it's just
waiting to be told. Maybe it never
wanted the power it was entrusted with
in the first place. Maybe it too feels that it's
long overdue for retirement.
There it is now, sitting at its desk —
piled up with nothing but travel brochures —
sighing, waiting for the phone to ring,
to hear from the stockholders
those four liberating words:
'You can go now.'

poem by Dick HolmesReport problemRelated quotes
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Anomalous

What hath a mind
If it hath not a choice
What hath a man
If he hath not a voice

What is a man
If the voice the man hath
Is that of another
On a surrogate path

Rather I say
Inimitably give
Make each moment yours
Expectations, outlive

Bring no shame upon
How you sound or appear
Speak loud, proud,
Conscious, and clear

You're not born with a voice
It forms over time
Just speak for yourself
You'll turn out sublime

poem by Brandon McConnellReport problemRelated quotes
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A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.

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Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.

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For your love

‘For your love’

Open your eyes
Take in the sights
Not in the dark love
Keep on the lights love
That’s the sight of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
Make my eyes glow love

Open your nostrils
Take in the smell
It’s there In the air
The high of true love
That’s the smell of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
Make my eyes glow love

Open your ears
Listen to the sounds
The sounds of heartbeats pulsating
To the beat of pure love
That’s the sound of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
Make my eyes glow love

Open your mouth
Stick out your tongue
Taste the sweet love
On my loving lips
That’s the taste of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
Make my eyes glow love

Open your mouth
Speak to me about love
Give me the poetry
Of everlasting love
That’s the language of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
Make my eyes glow love

Love can be a beautiful experience
Experience will let you know
That an experience lover
Will take it real slow
That’s the beauty of true love
Take it slow love
Take time to know love
My eyes glowing eternally
For your love

Michael Micmac Mccrory

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We supported the contras. We're not against all opposition to government, or all paramilitary operations.

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Thomas Jefferson

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

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The pride of life hath corrupted the judgment of others, and perverted them in the way of religion.

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