Thomas JeffersonPolitics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.
About This Quote
In the past, religious movements were often persecuted and the resulting martyrs were often worshiped as heroes. In modern times, however, the world seems to have lost interest in martyrdom. There is a great deal of subtlety in politics today. The politics of a country's leaders are rarely so clear-cut as in the past when it came to religion.
The political beliefs of a leader can be a complex thing. In a way, you could say that this quote is saying that politicians are like religious reformers. They both hide behind the authority of their office to hide from the fact that they do not agree with their own beliefs.
In both cases, however, it is possible to find out what they really believe because their actions speak louder than their words.
Source: Letters Of Thomas Jefferson
Some Similar Quotes
- I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations... I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be...
- I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.
- Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
- In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- You know what's truly weird about any financial crisis? We made it up. Currency, money, finance, they're all social inventions. When the sun comes up in the morning it's shining on the same physical landscape, all the atoms are in place.
More Quotes By Thomas Jefferson
- I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power...
- Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.
- Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.
- The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
- There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.