1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Context: In all cases, therefore, we will agree with the judicious Mrs. Glass: 'First catch your hare!' First get your man; all is got: he can learn to do all things, from making boots, to decreeing judgments, governing communities; and will do them like a man.
“A practical man can always make what he wants to do look like a noble sacrifice of personal inclinations to the welfare of the community.”
Source: The Pirates of Zan (1959), Chapter 6
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Murray Leinster 38
Novelist, short story writer 1896–1975Related quotes
Of course, there are obvious answers, like the average person can get involved in local politics, the average person can get involved in violence prevention programs in his or her own neighborhood, the average person can engage with local radio and TV talk shows on crime. I'm afraid, though, that's not a very good answer. I'm best at knowing what I can do personally, which is write and think about issues like these, point out problems, and hope that people like you can do a better job than I can of figuring out where to go next. I've always seen the formulation of public policy — and solutions to social problems — as a collaborative effort. I've always felt that my part of the job was to analyze and criticize in the hope that other people might use my work to forge solutions.
"6/24/95 Wendy Kaminer on Crime" (24 June 1995)
“Politicians always seemed to be willing to sacrifice the general welfare to win votes.”
Source: The Hercules Text (1986), Chapter 9 (p. 138)
Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 38
Context: Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake. What purports to be art begins to looks like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalised action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in an artistic creation the personality does not assert itself it serves another, higher and communal idea. The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling.
“Can't trust a fascist--truth is always your first sacrifice to the welfare of the state”
(I.3) Del Rey, p. 74
Blade of Tyshalle (2001)
Remalna's Children (Crown & Court 2.5, 2011)
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 534.