No government can be strong and flourishing while the national character is weak and degraded. A government must flourish and decay with its subjects; and, when a prince makes a law or performs an action which has a tendency to injure the character or prosperity of the nation, he injures himself.
Interpretation
A government's strength is tied to the character of its people, and harming that character ultimately harms the government itself.
The quote emphasizes the intrinsic connection between a government and the character of its citizens. It suggests that for a government to thrive, the moral and ethical standards of its populace must be strong. When leaders enact laws or take actions that detract from the national character, they not only jeopardize the wellbeing of their citizens but also threaten their own power and stability. Thus, a government is only as strong as the people it governs, highlighting the need for leaders to foster an environment that promotes virtue and strength among their subjects.
In practice
In a political speech discussing the importance of national integrity.
There are many causes why a people politically ignorant cannot be roused to action. Perfect political ignorance must be accompanied by indifference to the general interests of society, and thus one of the most powerful motives which can act on the human mind is totally destroyed.
Whatever may be the merits of a religious system, its effects upon the mass of mankind must depend in an important degree upon its teachers. All instruction and all truth, except simple mathematical truth, is modified by the medium through which it is conveyed.
The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.
Everybody that's trying to get anything progressive done in this country knows that the biggest barrier is getting money out of politics.
Don't get mad. Don't get even. Just get elected, then get even.
We shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace on terms which have been contemplated by some powers we shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.
Politics are not a science based on logic; they are the capacity of always choosing at each instant, in constantly changing situations, the least harmful, the most useful.
Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute.
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