Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties... They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty... that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of liberty as both an end goal and a means to personal development and happiness.
Louis D. Brandeis articulates a profound belief in the value of liberty, suggesting that it is essential not only for the growth and development of individuals but also as a cornerstone of a just society. He associates happiness with liberty and links courage with the ability to maintain freedom. Furthermore, Brandeis highlights the necessity of public discourse as a fundamental duty in a democratic society, indicating that active participation in discussions is crucial for the realization of these ideals within American government.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civil rights, you might use this quote to stress the importance of liberty in achieving personal and societal growth.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.
When those of Jewish blood exhibit moral or intellectual superiority, genius or special talent, we feel pride in them, even if they have abjured the faith like Spinoza, Marx, Disraeli or Heine. Despite the meditations of pundits or the decrees of council, our own instincts and acts, and those of others, have defined for us the term 'Jew.'
In business, the earning of profit is something more than an incident of success. It is an essential condition of success. It is an essential condition of success because the continued absence of profit itself spells failure.
America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered.
If you will just start with the idea that this is a hard world, it will all be much simpler.
I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can.
The flattery of posterity is not worth much more than contemporary flattery, which is worth nothing.
In a way, the futile excuses many people use to cover their superstitions are demolished. They think it is enough to have some sort of religious fervor, however ridiculous, not realizing that true religion must be according to God's will as the perfect measure; that He can never deny Himself and is no mere spirit form to be changed around according to individual preference.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness... I see what people call God in all these things.
If you don't have a moral question governing your society, then you don't have a society that is going to survive.
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
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