“The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”

Thank god for the internet.

I think this is so true that it carries the same weight today as when it was first written by James Madison.

We hold these truths to be self-evident

Proved once again, it is Truth that set us free.

Truth that set us free, very true

The advancement and diffusion of knowledge, under the constraint of Virtue, under the tutelage of understanding, is the only guardian of true liberty.

Just a side note* ancient Hebraic jurisprudence (equity, law, etc.) made an absolute distinguishment between knowledge and information, facts, understanding, etc. (or any accumulation thereof). Hebraic "knowledge" also differed from Greek epistemology (knowledge). "Knowledge" being that thing, in and of itself that knows the tangible of matter along with each and every related event as it/they were, are and will be. To know the laws of nature and of nature's God would be to know liberty. Knowledge knows that compelled compliance, government license, victimless crimes, larceny with impunity (2nd plank of the communist manifesto, social security, police state confiscations, etc.) and alienation of nature's endowed rights are tyranny - absolutely antithetical to liberty.

Who's 'nature's God' ? Mike Norwalk

Mick - yours and mine. God is a nebulas term that doesn't even show up in Hebrew or related languages. Nature's God was an early reference to that law that is natural = natural law, not necessarily one corporeal idol or a superhuman experience. Such natural law defines that which "IS", such as physics, math, gravity, fiscal law, etc. - those laws that impact every one and thing equally. The originating concept was that corporeal man could not create law(s) or right(s) but, he could only discover that which already existed and then place order to his existence by using tools (codes, ordinances, regulations, rules, statutes, etc.) to define that law that already existed. Common law was the administrative understanding of natural law (common law has also grossly changed meanings). A legal philosophy now recognized as "legal positivism" has been the bane of man's existence in that man, as a god, can create law. I hope that helps or begins to make sense of the phraseology.

can someone explain this quote to me

And so we continue our slavery status by covering up the truth and the latest developments in regard to the truth in what one  would call our conventional arrangement, "the secret society."

Keep the brush fires burning.