The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.
Interpretation
Arbitrary imprisonments are a powerful tool used by tyrants to crush freedom.
This quote by Alexander Hamilton highlights the historical use of arbitrary imprisonments as a means of oppression. Hamilton warns against the abuse of power that comes with the ability to detain individuals without due process, emphasizing the threat such practices pose to liberty and justice throughout history.
In practice
In a speech about civil liberties, one might use this quote to highlight the dangers of unchecked governmental power.
When men, engaged in unjustifiable pursuits, are aware that obstructions may come from a quarter which bare apprehension of opposition from doing what they would with eagerness rush into if no such external impediments were to be feared.
The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state.
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.
The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge right or make good decision.
The true principle of a republic is that the people should choose whom they please to govern them. Representation is imperfect, in proportion as the current of popular favor is checked. The great source of free government, popular election, should be perfectly pure, and the most unbounded liberty allowed.
Societies can be sunk by the weight of buried ugliness.
You see, the deaf have an intimacy with silence. Itβs there in their dreams.
Experience demonstrates that there may be a wages of slavery only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other.
Goodness was more difficult than evil. Evil men knew that more than good men. That's why they became evil. That's why it stuck with them. Evil was for those who could never reach the truth. It was a mask for stupidity and lack of love. Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter -- it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for.
I cannot be a materialist - but Oh, how is it possible that a God who speaks to all hearts can let Belgravia go laughing to a vicious luxury, and Whitechapel cursing to a filthy debauchery - such suffering, such dreadful suffering - and shall the short years of Christ's mission atone for it all?
It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.
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