Joshua Charles > Quotes

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture... . As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.1”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“The creation of the United States Constitution was a singularly unique event in man’s quest for self-government. Never before had an entire society created a form of government through reason, debate, and the application of ideas rather than the application of force.”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“For the Founders, self-government meant the presence of two things: virtue (i.e., morality) and knowledge. As Samuel Adams put it, “If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“It is thus a great twist of irony that perhaps never before has mankind been so inundated with information and at the same time so bereft of wisdom. If this Republic is to continue, we must recognize this reality for what it is: an absurdity, and a farce unworthy of a people who mean to govern themselves.”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it. – JOHN ADAMS”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“Here is my creed: I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we ought render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.16”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“The challenges mankind has dealt with may appear fundamentally different and only superficially the same over time, but a thorough knowledge of human nature and history shows that they are in fact superficially different and fundamentally the same.”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders

“It is very true, that a people who have declared themselves “a free state should know what freedom is, and have it represented in all its lively and lovely features, that they may grow zealous and jealous over it. They should also be made acquainted and thoroughly instructed in the means and rules of its preservation against the adulterous wiles and rapes of any projecting sophisters [sic] that may arise.”4”
― Joshua Charles, Liberty's Secrets: The Lost Wisdom of America's Founders