It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.
Interpretation
Weakness often leads people to seek authoritarian control, while true freedom and strength come from productivity and resilience.
This quote by Wendell Willkie suggests that in times of weakness or crisis, individuals may turn to dictators and centralized authority as a means of seeking security and stability. However, he emphasizes that genuine strength derives from productivity and self-reliance, allowing individuals the freedom to pursue their own paths without relying on oppressive governance.
In practice
In a speech discussing the importance of civic engagement and democracy.
Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.
Today it is becoming increasingly apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces and ideas of imperialism abroad and maintain any form of imperialism at home. The war has done this to our thinking.
No man has a right in America to treat any other man "tolerantly" for tolerance is the assumption of superiority. Our liberties are equal rights of every citizen.
I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.
To suppress minority thinking and minority expression would tend to freeze society and prevent progress. Now more than ever we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.
Genuine politics -- even politics worthy of the name -- the only politics I am willing to devote myself to -- is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole.
For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world - but it doesn't happen twice.
Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet. I'm always in Africa... And when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Republicans may learn they can't appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time.
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