“For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere. The majority remained solid; but the leaders became stiff and exacting.”

— Anatole France , book Penguin Island

Book VII : Modern Times, Ch. IX : The Final Consequences
Penguin Island (1908)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere. The majority remained solid; but the leaders became stiff and …" by Anatole France?

Anatole France 122

French writer 1844–1924

Related quotes

“Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal, immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

What Is Reality?
Context: Ideas, unlike solid structures, do not perish. They remain immortal, immaterial and everywhere, like all Divine things. Ideas are a golden, savage landscape that we wander unaware, without a map. Be careful: in the last analysis, reality may be exactly what we think it is.

“The recognition that love represents the highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but words.”

Leo Tolstoy A Letter to a Hindu

Source: A Letter to a Hindu (1908), III
Context: The recognition that love represents the highest morality was nowhere denied or contradicted, but this truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but words. It was taught that this highest morality was only applicable to private life — for home use, as it were — but that in public life all forms of violence — such as imprisonment, executions, and wars — might be used for the protection of the majority against a minority of evildoers, though such means were diametrically opposed to any vestige of love.