Source: The Killing Dance
“It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.”
Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Medical Doctor, Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Personality Theorist
Quoted in: Phyllis Bottome, Alfred Adler: Apostle of Freedom (1939), ch. 5
Problems of Neurosis: A Book of Case Histories (1929)
“Love is not lust. The two (love and lust) are poles apart. Love liberates while lust binds.”
Swami Narayanananda (1902–1988) Indian guru
Source: A Practical Guide to Samadhi (1957), p. 144
“Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles.”
Ian Fleming book Casino Royale
Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 20 : The Nature Of Evil
Context: "Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles."
He laughed. "But don't let me down and become human yourself. We would lose a wonderful machine."
“There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But, who wants easier?”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1
William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English poet, critic and editor
Source: Hawthorn and Lavender (1901), XXI
Context: Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb.
Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom.
Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire.
Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire.
So man and woman will keep their trust,
Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust.
Yea, each with the other will lose and win,
Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in.
For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife,
And the word of Love is the Word of Life.
And they that go with the Word unsaid,
Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.
“The drive for power is even less logical than the sex urge… and stronger.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land
“It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.”
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Source: The Ordeal of Change (1963), Ch. 11: "Brotherhood"
Context: It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men. About a hundred years ago a Russian landowner by the name of Petrashevsky recorded a remarkable conclusion: "Finding nothing worthy of my attachment either among women or among men, I have vowed myself to the service of mankind." He became a follower of Fourier, and installed a phalanstery on his estate. The end of the experiment was sad, but what one might perhaps have expected: the peasants — Petrashevsky's neighbors-burned the phalanstery.
Some of the worst tyrannies of our day genuinely are "vowed" to the service of mankind, yet can function only by pitting neighbor against neighbor. The all-seeing eye of a totalitarian regime is usually the watchful eye of the next-door neighbor. In a Communist state love of neighbor may be classed as counter-revolutionary.
“It was always easier for me to love than to praise.”
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Siempre me fue más fácil amar que elogiar.
Voces (1943)
“It is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love.”
Facilius enim neglegentia emendari potest quam amor nasci.
Jerome (345–420) Catholic saint and Doctor of the Church
Letter 7
Letters
