Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), II : The Starting-Point
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 7
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), II : The Starting-Point
“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.”
Jack London (1876–1916) American author, journalist, and social activist
Letter to Charles Warren Stoddard (21 August 1903)
“I live on hope and that I think do all
Who come into this world.”
Robert Seymour Bridges (1844–1930) British writer
Sonnet LXXIII.
Poetry
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Voces (1943)
“I do think that the modern India does belong to writers who are living in India.”
Kiran Desai (1971) Indian author
Kiran Desai Talk Asia interview http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/talkasia.desai/ (April 24, 2007), CNN
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
"A Liberal Decalogue" http://www.panarchy.org/russell/decalogue.1951.html, from "The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism", New York Times Magazine (16/December/1951); later printed in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1969), vol. 3: 1944-1967, pp. 71-2 <br class="br">1950s <br class="br">Context: The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:<br>1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.<br>2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.<br>3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.<br>4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.<br>5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.<br>6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.<br>7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.<br>8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.<br>9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.<br>10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project
2000s, Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation (2001)
Context: !-- I was getting 8 to 10 orders [for tapes of Emacs] a month. And, if necessary, I could have lived on just that, because --> I've always lived cheaply. I live like a student, basically. And I like that, because it means that money is not telling me what to do. I can do what I think is important for me to do. It freed me to do what seemed worth doing. So make a real effort to avoid getting sucked into all the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans. Because if you do that, then people with the money will dictate what you do with your life. You won't be able to do what's really important to you.<!-- line 422