Category: Thought

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a 200-mile march, known as the Salt March, to the sea in defiance of British opposition, to protest the British monopoly on salt. This “Satyagraha” was one of Gandhi’s most famous protests.

A hard working laborer, I was told, fancied working by candlelight. He had calculated that, during his vigil, he burned a 4-penny candle, earning 8 pennies by his work. A tax on tallows and another on the manufacture of the candles increased by 5 pennies the cost of his luminary, which became thus more expensive than the value of the product that it could shed light upon. From then on, as soon as night fell, the workman remained idle; he lost the 4 pennies which his work could obtain him, and without the tax service perceiving anything out of this production. Such a loss must be multiplied by the number of the workmen in a city and by the number of the days of the year.

A tax can never be favorable to the public welfare, except by the good use that is made of its proceeds.

There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.

It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.