Tyranny

by John P.

Thomas Jefferson

“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

- Thomas Jefferson


{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Chris R. September 17, 2007 at 10:40 am

I love Jefferson :) I just took out a book from the library that’s an anthology of some of the Founding Fathers’ letters, diaries, works, etc. and it’s simply astounding how lucky we were to have such lucid, level-headed, and brilliant men to lead our revolution. It is unfortunate that most countries have not had a similar privilege, or I suspect the world would be a much better place.

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2 Derek Wong September 17, 2007 at 11:33 am

Jefferson had so many good quotes and ideas. For the amount of work that he did, I think that he’s often overlooked for other prominent personalities. It’s too bad, too.

What prompted this quote post?

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3 John P. September 17, 2007 at 3:41 pm

I threw this out there as a follow up to the Taser post. I thought it fitting…

John

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4 Ajeet September 17, 2007 at 4:35 pm

Rabindranath Tagore, from the late 1800s wrote these lines that are very pertinent in this context:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action–
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

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5 Peter B September 17, 2007 at 8:52 pm

I like:

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

better, though that can only be attributed to Jefferson. No real proof that he ever wrote or said it…but it’s something he could’ve well said.

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6 Rob September 18, 2007 at 12:17 pm

People don’t talk like that any more. Being a ‘patriot’ is something very different these days.

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7 Chris R. September 18, 2007 at 1:00 pm

I don’t think people know who Jefferson was these days either. I don’t think I’ve heard a reference to him in various media recently (this blog being the exception) that didn’t somehow identify him as “that guy who had sex with slaves”.

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8 Franklin June 16, 2008 at 6:07 pm

… Wow …
Can’t we clone him?

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9 Franklin June 16, 2008 at 9:45 pm

PS: Then why is Bush W. still sitting in the oval office? I’m a Belgian but in my eyes American Politics ceased to exist the day George Bush Sr. said the magical words ‘New World Order’.

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