Tag Archives: First Principles

First Principles: It Is Better That Ten Guilty Persons Escape Than That One Innocent Suffer

“For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.” – Sir William Blackstone (Commentaries on the Laws of England, 9th ed., book 4, chapter 27, p. 358 (1783) It is seldom … Continue reading

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First Principles: America Should Be A Land of Safe and Agreeable Asylum To the Virtuous and Persecuted, Whatever Nation They May Come From

“I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.” – George Washington      

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First Principles: We Have Staked the Future of All Our Political Constitutions On the Capacity of Ourselves To Act According to the Moral Principles of the Ten Commandments of God

“We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according … Continue reading

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First Principles: Freedom Can Only Exist In the Society of Knowledge

“It is Favorable to liberty. Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal.” – … Continue reading

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First Principles: The End of Law Is To Preserve and Enlarge Freedom

“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.” – John Locke    

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First Principles: Lawmakers Who Attempt To Take the Property of the People Are At War With the People

“Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further … Continue reading

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First Principles: We Cannot Be Happy Without Being Free; We Cannot Be Free Without Being Secure In Our Property

“Let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds — that we cannot be happy, without being FREE — that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property— that we cannot be secure in our property, if, without … Continue reading

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First Principles: It Is Better To Be Despised For Simplicity Than To Be Tormented By Continual Hypocrisy

“Virtue runs no risk of becoming contemptible by being exposed to view, and it is better to be despised for simplicity than to be tormented by continual hypocrisy.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) Bloomberg’s dismissive statements against farmers … Continue reading

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First Principles: In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man Is King

“In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king.” – Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)      

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First Principles: The Aim of Every Constitution Ought Be To Obtain Rule By Those Possessing the Discernment To Pursue Society’s Common Good

“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.” – James Madison (1788)    

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