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.
I really feel that political will is born out of popular will.
A politician normally prospers under democracy in proportion ... as he excels in the invention of imaginary perils and imaginary defenses against them.
My point was that the war was intrinsically wrong, and as a result of our participation we haven't improved Australia's security but created a greater danger at home and abroad.
We may be assured by past experience, that such a practice [as some states charging high taxes on goods from other states] would be introduced by future contrivances; and both by that and a common knowledge of human affairs, that it would nourish unceasing animosities, and not improbably terminate in serious interruptions of the public tranquility.
You feel sometimes when you hear analysts and knowledgeable people talking about Iran that they fear so much about the survival of the regime, because deep down it's not a legitimate regime, it doesn't represent the will of the people, it's kind of morphed into kind of a military theocracy.
A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.