“Our first task therefore must be to persuade people.”
Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) Italian anarchist
An Anarchist Programme (1920)
“But most men must first be persuaded that the task lies ahead and not behind — that we are infants still, with loaded guns for toys.”
Source: Generation of Vipers (1942), p. 20
Context: The blame for Armageddon lies on man. And the millennium will come only when the average man exhibits a scientific integrity about all he is and does — instead of half of it. Many a psychological Archimedes has put signposts on the hard road man must follow if he is to avoid self-destruction and come into his own. A few very great modern scientists have added to the lore. Indications of what man may expect of himself are everywhere at hand. But most men must first be persuaded that the task lies ahead and not behind — that we are infants still, with loaded guns for toys.
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Philip Wylie12
American writer 1902–1971Related quotes
Jimmy Buffett (1946) American singer–songwriter and businessman
Son of a Son of a Sailor
Song lyrics, Son of a Son of a Sailor (1978)
Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) Indian nationalist leader and politician
Speech in Burma (July 1944) as quoted in The Great Speeches of Modern India (2011) https://books.google.com/books?id=z7dCH_IYbt8C&pg=PT137&lpg=PT137&dq=%22Gird+up+your+loins+for+the+task+that+now+lies+ahead.+I+had+asked+you+for+men,+money+and+materials%22&source=bl&ots=KiUxFbJQjT&sig=v7j_-1MYNUSCQFLxt8ElNpDicjc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tjIVVcyEFoLfoAS13oDQDA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Gird%20up%20your%20loins%20for%20the%20task%20that%20now%20lies%20ahead.%20I%20had%20asked%20you%20for%20men%2C%20money%20and%20materials%22&f=false by Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Part 1
Variant: A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.
Source: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
“Load up on guns, bring your friends.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Song lyrics, Nevermind (1991)
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door.”
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
Part 1
Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Commonly attributed to Twain in computer contexts and post-2000 inspirational books — the first sentence has also been attributed to Agatha Christie and Sally Berger.
Misattributed
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) English poet, illustrator, painter and translator
Fragment, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet.”
Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist