Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 30
Context: The Church of Reason, like all institutions of the System, is based not on individual strength but upon individual weakness. What's really demanded in the Church of Reason is not ability, but inability. Then you are considered teachable. A truly able person is always a threat. Phædrus sees that he has thrown away a chance to integrate himself into the organization by submitting to whatever Aristotelian thing he is supposed to submit to. But that kind of opportunity seems hardly worth the bowing and scraping and intellectual prostration necessary to maintain it. It is a low-quality form of life.
“If there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need for violence.”
"The Nobel Evening Address" p. 115.
The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness (1990)
Context: If there are sound reasons or bases for the points you demand, then there is no need for violence. On the other hand, when there is no sound reason that concessions should be made to you but mainly your own desire, then reason cannot work and you have to rely on force. Thus using force is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Tenzin Gyatso 112
spiritual leader of Tibet 1935Related quotes
“You need a reason to be angry. You don't need a reason to be happy.”
Sideways Stories From Wayside School
Source: Sideways Stories from Wayside School
“We live in a universe that is always happy to give you whatever your intent-based reality demands.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 116
"Anarchism, Authoritarian Socialism and Communism" in Fede (28 October 1923); also in What Is Anarchism? : An Introduction edited by Donald Rooum (1992, 1995) p. 59