We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
Samuel AdamsRead
It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combin'd to destroy the people's liberties, practice every art to poison their morals.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Tyrants seek to keep people ignorant and immoral to maintain control, as true knowledge and virtue threaten their power.
This quote by Samuel Adams emphasizes the connection between a people's knowledge, virtue, and their ability to maintain liberty. It suggests that those in power, particularly tyrants, actively work to diminish the moral and intellectual capacities of the populace, as an informed and virtuous society is a significant threat to their oppressive rule. The interdependence of public liberty and morality implies that when one suffers, so does the other, highlighting the need for vigilance in both education and ethical standards within society.
Themes
TyrannyIgnoranceVirtueKnowledgeLibertyMoralsFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education in a democracy.
More from Samuel Adams
All quotes →Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.
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If taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves? We claim British rights not by charter only! We are born to them.
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Let no man thirst for good beer.
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He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.
Samuel AdamsRead
We boast of our freedom, and we have your example for it. We talk the language we have always heard you speak.
Samuel AdamsRead
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