Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise
Source: Enemies of Promise (1938), Part 1: Predicament, Ch. 2: The Mandarin Dialect (p. 13)
Refusing the Nobel Prize, New York Times (22 October 1964)
Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise
Source: Enemies of Promise (1938), Part 1: Predicament, Ch. 2: The Mandarin Dialect (p. 13)
Laura Riding Jackson (1901–1991) poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer
"On Ambiguity" in Rational Meaning and Supplementary Essays (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1997).
Leszek Kolakowski (1927–2009) Philosopher, historian of ideas
pg. 515
Main Currents Of Marxism (1978), Three Volume edition, Volume II, The Golden Age
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
Magick Book IV : Liber ABA, Part III : Magick in Theory and Practice (1929)
Context: The Magician must be wary in his use of his powers; he must make every act not only accord with his Will, but with the properties of his position at the time. It might be my Will to reach the foot of a cliff; but the easiest way — also the speediest, most direct least obstructed, the way of minimum effort — would be simply to jump. I should have destroyed my Will in the act of fulfilling it, or what I mistook for it; for the True Will has no goal; its nature being To Go.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Book III, Chapter 9.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
“ASAP. Whatever that means. It must mean, 'Act swiftly awesome pacyderm!”
Source: Horton Hears a Who!
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" (31 March 1968)
1960s
Variant: There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Context: On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
Context: On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.
“Words take their meaning from the original word.”
Michael Elmore-Meegan (1959) British humanitarian
All Will be Well (2004)