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The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people

Wendell Phillips

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Wendell Phillips
Age: 72 †
Born: 1811
Born: November 29
Died: 1884
Died: February 2
Jurist
Lawyer
Politician
Boston
Massachusetts
Human
Corps
Humans
Necessary
People
Becomes
Either
Enemy
Hand
Esprit
Hands
Entrusted
Power
Depravity

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Statutes are mere milestone, telling how far yesterday's thought had traveled and the talk of the sidewalk today is the law of the land. With us, law in nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.
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Immoral laws are doubtless void, and should not be obeyed.
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How prudently most men creep into nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into immortality.
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It is easy to be independent when all behind you agree with you, but the difficulty comes when nine hundred and ninety-nine of your friends think you are wrong.
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The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.
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Peace, if possible, but justice at any rate.
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What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.
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Insurrection of thought always precedes the insurrection of arms.
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Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.
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Every government is always growing corrupt.
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Neither do I acknowledge the right of Plymouth to the whole rock. No, the rock underlies all America: it only crops out here.
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Difference of religion breeds more quarrels than difference of politics.
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To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.
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Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities. The loved and the rich need no protection: they have many friends and few enemies.
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Experience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past.
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The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.
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Education is the only interest worthy the deep, controlling anxiety of the thoughtful man.
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Example acquires tenfold authority when it speaks from the grave.
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Physical bravery is an animal instinct moral bravery is much higher and truer courage.
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No free people can lose their liberties while they are jealous of liberty. But the liberties of the freest people are in danger when they set up symbols of liberty as fetishes, worshipping the symbol instead of the principle it represents.
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