It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
Interpretation
This quote warns about the dual nature of the press as a vital tool for freedom and a potential source of tyranny.
James F. Cooper highlights the paradox of the press, which can empower individuals by providing information and promoting liberty, yet has the potential to become overwhelmingly controlling and dangerous if mismanaged. He likens the press to fire, emphasizing that while it can be beneficial when used correctly, it can also lead to destruction if it becomes a master rather than a servant.
In practice
In a speech about media responsibility, this quote could illustrate the balance needed in journalism.
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true; though happily for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned, are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating, if not excusing its crimes.
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore.
On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much, is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity.
Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people.
In bodies moved, the motion is received, increased, diminished, or lost, according to the relations of the quantity of matter and velocity; each diversity is uniformity, each change is constancy.
Meaning is produced not only by the relationship between the signifier and the signified but also, crucially, by the position of the signifiers in relation to other signifiers.
Strictly speaking, no activity and no industry is possible without a certain amount of violence, no matter how little. Even the very process of living is impossible without a certain amount of violence. What we have to do is to minimize it to the greatest extent possible.
Taking a hypersensitive approach to life had come to seem so much more pure and honest then joining the ranks of the numb masses who could let it all slide by. What I stopped realizing was that if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all. Everything registers at the same decibel.
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