The first lesson in civics is that efficient government begins at home.
Charles Evans HughesRead
The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The nation's challenges stem from within its own people rather than external threats.
Charles Evans Hughes emphasizes that the true danger to a nation does not come from outside adversaries but from the people themselves. He suggests that the strength and potential for change lie in the populace, highlighting their responsibility as the source of both hope and peril for the nation.
Themes
NationPowerPeopleResponsibilityHope
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civic responsibility, one might use this quote to emphasize the role of citizens in shaping their nation's future.
More from Charles Evans Hughes
All quotes →Dissents are appeals to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of another day.
Charles Evans HughesRead
While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty.
Charles Evans HughesRead
Every young man should aim at independence and should prepare himself for a vocation; above all, he should so manage his life that the steps of his progress are taken without improper aids; that he calls no one master, that he does not win or deserve the reputation of being a tool of others, and that if called to public service he may assume its duties with the satisfaction of knowing that he is free to rise to the height of his opportunity.
Charles Evans HughesRead
It is the essence of the institutions of liberty that it be recognized that guilt is personal and cannot be attributed to the holding of opinions or to mere intent in the absence of overt acts.
Charles Evans HughesRead
Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed.'
Charles Evans HughesRead
Similar quotes
The three wishes of every man: to be healthy, to be rich by honest means, and to be beautiful.
PlatoRead
For the world is an ever-elusive and ever-disappointing mirage only from the standpoint of someone standing aside from it—as if it were quite other than himself—and then trying to grasp it. But a third response is possible. Not withdrawal, not stewardship on the hypothesis of a future reward, but the fullest collaboration with the world as a harmonious system of contained conflicts—based on the realization that the only real "I" is the whole endless process.
Alan WattsRead
I don't think there is such a thing as a precise sexual orientation. I think we're all ambiguous sexually.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
The definition of 'morbid' is an unhealthy preoccupation with death. Unfortunately, there's no word to mean the perfectly healthy preoccupation with death, which is what I have.
Caitlin DoughtyRead
Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods.
Baruch SpinozaRead
The universe is the way it is , whether we like_x000D_ it or not. The existence or nonexistence of a creator is independent_x000D_ of our desires . A world without God or purpose may seem harsh_x000D_ or pointless, but that alone doesn ' t require God to actually exist.
Lawrence M. KraussRead