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The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
William J. Clinton
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the importance of truth in preventing tyranny.

William J. Clinton emphasizes that the deterioration of truth serves as the starting point for tyranny. When truth is compromised or destroyed, it paves the way for autocratic rule and oppression. Upholding truth is essential for safeguarding democracy and freedom.

Themes

TruthTyrannyFreedomDemocracyDeceit

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of journalistic integrity.

More from William J. Clinton

You know, there was a recent poll which said that young people in the generation of the students here felt it was far more likely that they would see a UFO than that they would draw Social Security... It's very important you understand this. Once you understand this, you realize this is not an episode from the X Files, and you're not more likely to see a UFO if you do certain specific things.
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When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.
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For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.
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There is a huge body of business evidence now showing that energy savings give better service at lower cost with higher profit. We have to tear down barriers to successful markets and we have to create incentives to enter them.
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Demand that your government pays more attention. It's immoral that people in Africa die like flies of diseases that no one dies of in the United States. And the more disease there is, the more political unrest there will be, leading to more Darfurs, which the U.S. will have to pay to fix.
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I was not elected to produce a pile of vetoes.
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