Timid Men

clipped from jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others. To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Most bad government has grown out of too much government. Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.