Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Denken überzeugt Denkende; darum überzeugt Denken selten.
Nur Lebendiges schwimmt gegen den Strom, Aphorismen. 1985.
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
“Reason does not scream. Reason convinces.”
Luis A. Ferré (1904–2003) American politician
La razón no grita, la razón convence.
Attribution inscribed on the memorial statue in the Puerto Rican Capitol (see right).
Attributed
Leo Strauss (1899–1973) Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservativism
Source: What is Political Philosophy (1959), p. 68
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Quoted in Library of Living Philosophers: The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell (1944)
1940s
Hannah Arendt book The Origins of Totalitarianism
Part 3, Ch. 13, § 3. <br class="br">Source: On the subject the ideal subjects for a totalitarian authority. Source: The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951. As quoted by Scroll Staff (December 04, 2017): Ideas in literature: Ten things Hannah Arendt said that are eerily relevant in today’s political times https://web.archive.org/web/20191001213756/https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times. In: Scroll.in. Archived from the original https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times on October 1, 2019.
“Is there a thinker apart from thought?”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
12th Public Talk, London, UK (28 May 1961)
1960s
“Give people a convincing reason and they will lay down their very lives.”
Patrick Dixon book Building a Better Business
Building a Better Business (2005)
John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education
Sec. 81
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
Context: The foundations on which several duties are built, and the foundations of right and wrong from which they spring, are not perhaps easily to be let into the minds of grown men, not us'd to abstract their thoughts from common received opinions. Much less are children capable of reasonings from remote principles. They cannot conceive the force of long deductions. The reasons that move them must be obvious, and level to their thoughts, and such as may be felt and touched. But yet, if their age, temper, and inclination be consider'd, they will never want such motives as may be sufficient to convince them.