Showing posts with label John Adams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Adams. Show all posts

Power

From "oxymoronica"

The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.
Lenny Bruce


Paradoxically, revolutionaries that attain power "become a conservative the next day" (Hannah Arendt). True reform comes from the outside. Take, for instance, the Prohibition success: it was a colossal government failure; as H. L. Mencken said, "One [government] composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top, there is no limit to repression." In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote:

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service, when it is violating all His laws.

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