We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection
Samuel AdamsRead
How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how those in power can manipulate language for their own benefit, altering its intended meaning.
Samuel Adams suggests that tyrants can distort the meanings of words, using language as a weapon to deceive and control the perception of truth. This manipulation can change the way people understand reality, leading to a society where the original meanings of words are lost or skewed, ultimately serving the interests of those who wield power.
Themes
TyrannyLanguageManipulationPowerTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of clear language in politics, one might invoke this quote to illustrate the dangers of manipulation.
More from Samuel Adams
All quotes βNothing 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.
Samuel AdamsRead
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.
Samuel AdamsRead
Let no man thirst for good beer.
Samuel AdamsRead
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
Similar quotes
The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers' abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual, rights which they found implicit in the Bible's teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. This same sense of man patterned the convictions of those who framed the English system of law inherited by our own Nation, as well as the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Ronald ReaganRead
Up from Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate rose, and on the Throne of Saturn sate; And many a Knot unravel'd by the Road; But not the Master-knot of Human Fate.
Omar KhayyamRead
Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.
A. Philip RandolphRead
(The difficulty over the question of eternal torments lies in) how it is irreconcilable with the Goodness of God, to put any Persons at all upon a necessity of making such an Option, wherein if they choose amiss, the Misery they incur must be irrevocable.
Samuel ClarkeRead
And he found himself thinking that maybe stories don't just make us matter to each other - maybe they're also the only way to the infinite mattering he'd been after for so long.
John GreenRead
And what? What's the other choice? To passively let things happen and then say: "Tut-tut, what at botch that was"? Don't we all manipulate people? Even if we openly ask them to make a choice, don't we try to frame it so they'll chose as we think they should?
Orson Scott CardRead