“Since then two experiences have dominated me: philosophy, and the tragic disorder of our whole terrestrial hive.”
Introduction
Philosophy and Living (1939)
Context: My childhood, which lasted some twenty-five years, was moulded chiefly by the Suez Canal, Abbotsholme, and Balliol. Since those days I have attempted several careers, in each case escaping before the otherwise inevitable disaster. First, as a schoolmaster, I swotted up Bible stories on the eve of the scripture lesson. Then, in a Liverpool shipping office, I spoiled bills of lading, and in Port Said I innocently let skippers have more coal than they needed. Next I determined to create an Educated Democracy. Workington miners, Barrow riveters, Crewe railway-men, gave me a better education than I could give them. Since then two experiences have dominated me: philosophy, and the tragic disorder of our whole terrestrial hive. After a belated attack on academic philosophy, I wrote a couple of books on philosophical subjects and several works of fantastic fiction dealing with the career of mankind. One of them, Last and First Men, is in this series.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Olaf Stapledon 113
British novelist and philosopher 1886–1950Related quotes
The Social Contract: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins of Order and Disorder (1970)
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p.. 21
Source: Introduction to Systems Philosophy (1972), p. 120.
“We live for books. A sweet mission in this world dominated by disorder and decay.”
Source: The Name of the Rose
“Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.”
Letter to Gilbert Murray, December 28, 1902
1900s
As quoted in Statesman and Friend: Correspondence of John Adams with Benjamin Waterhouse, 1784–1822 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026646540;view=1up;seq=69 (1927), edited by Worthington C. Ford, Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, and Company. p. 57
Attributed
