“The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.”
Source: The Art of Loving
“We cannot afford merely to sit down and deplore the evils of city life as inevitable, when cities are constantly growing, both absolutely and relatively. We must set ourselves vigorously about the task of improving them; and this task is now well begun.”
"The City in Modern Life", Literary Essays (vol. 12 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, national ed., 1926), p. 226. Book review in The Atlantic Monthly (April 1895)
1890s
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Theodore Roosevelt 445
American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858–1919Related quotes
“One of the tasks we have set ourselves”
Aung San Suu Kyi
(1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy
Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought Acceptance Speech (2013)
Context: Freedom of thought,…freedom of thought is essential to human progress. If we stop freedom of thought, we stop progress in our world. Because of this it is so important that we teach our children, our young people, the importance of freedom of thought. Freedom of thought begins with the right to ask questions. And this right our people in Burma have not had for so long that some of our young people do not quite know how to ask questions. One of the tasks we have set ourselves, in my party, the National League for Democracy is to teach our people to ask questions, not to accept everything that is done to them without asking why.
“Our task is to grow out until we reach them.”
R. A. Lafferty
(1914–2002) American writer
Source: The Flame is Green (1971), Ch. 9 : Oh, The Steep Roofs of Paris
Context: Beware of those who manufacture final answers as they go along, of those who will catch you on their catch-phrases and let you perish in the traps. All the final answers were given in the beginning. They stand shining, above and beyond us, but they are always there to be seen. They may be too bright for us, they may be too clear for us. Well then, we must clarify our own eyes. Our task is to grow out until we reach them.
Truckers, Ch. 7
The Nome Trilogy (1989 - 1990)
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(1888–1975) Indian philosopher and statesman who was the first Vice President and the second President of India
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Context: Intuition must be not only translated into positive and creative action but shared with others. There is a sense of urgency, if not inevitability, about this. One cannot afford to be absolutely silent and the saints love because they cannot help it.
John F. Kennedy
(1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
1963, Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt
Ivars Peterson
(1948) Canadian mathematician
Source: The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997), Chapter 2, “Sea of Life” (p. 43)
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
Source: Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics (1948), Chapter titled: The Imperative of Our Age, p. 111 Noontide Press edition.
Boris Johnson
(1964) British politician, historian and journalist
Prime Minister's statement on coronavirus https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-ministers-statement-on-coronavirus-covid-19-30-april-2020 (30 April 2020)
2020s, 2020