Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian
The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1944)
Source: The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses
“To make a contented slave it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.”
Source: 1840s, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), Ch. 10
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Frederick Douglass274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895Related quotes
“It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”
Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher
Section 56
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Context: It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs.
Context: The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life.... For self-sacrifice is an unreasonable act.... All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world.... by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it.... To rely on the evidence of senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs.
John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian
Thoughts Upon Slavery (1774)
Context: I deny that villany is ever necessary. It is impossible that it should ever be necessary for any reasonable creature to violate all the laws of justice, mercy, and truth. No circumstances can make it necessary for a man to burst in sunder all the ties of humanity. It can never be necessary for a rational being to sink himself below a brute. A man can be under no necessity of degrading himself into a wolf. The absurdity of the supposition is so glaring, that one would wonder any one can help seeing it.
“It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.”
José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader
Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
“In order to be happy oneself it is necessary to make at least one other person happy.”
Theodor Reik (1888–1969) austrian-american psychoanalytist
Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India
Source: Philosophy of Education, p. 86.
“Thank you for making this day necessary.”
Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach
The Yogi book: I really didn't say everything I said!, Workman Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0761110909, p. 10.
Said on Yogi Berra day in 1947 in St. Louis. By his account, he asked a teammate to write a speech, and he misspoke, saying "necessary" instead of "possible."
Yogiisms
“Necessary turnback makes a great comeback”
Josephs Quartzy (1999) Tanzanian actor
Source: Philosophies from an old Journal
Étienne Gilson (1884–1978) French historian and philosopher
Methodical Realism
“Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Considerations by the Way
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)