Let the public mind become corrupt, and all efforts to secure property, liberty, or life by the force of laws written on paper will be as vain as putting up a sign in an apple orchard to exclude canker worms.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Laws cannot protect society if the public mindset is corrupt.
- In plain terms
- Corrupt minds make laws useless.
- What can you take from it?
- Cultivate public integrity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is the public spirit healthy?
- Do laws matter without culture?
Another view
Strong laws can still check corruption.
More from Horace Mann
Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.
Permalink to quote #32 Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.
Permalink to quote #34 It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.
Permalink to quote #31
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