Tragedy and Triumph of Reason (1985)
Context: Nuclear war, unless it is prevented, would lead to the extinction of life on Earth and possibly in the Universe. Can we take such a risk?
In our medical practice when we deal with a critical patient in order to save him, we mobilize all our energies and knowledge, sacrifice part of our hearts and enlist the cooperation of our most experienced colleagues. Today we face a seriously ill humanity, torn apart by distrust and fear of nuclear war. To save it we must arouse the conscience of the world's peoples, cultivate hatred for nuclear weapons, repudiate egoism and chauvinism, and create favorable atmosphere of trust. In the nuclear age we are all interdependent. The Earth is our only common home which we cannot abandon. The new suicidal situation calls for the new thinking. We must convince those who take political decisions.
Our professional duty is to protect life on Earth. True to the Hippocratic Oath, physicians will dedicate their knowledge, their hearts and their lives to the happiness of their patients and the well-being of the peoples of the world.
“The refutation of suicide: is it not inelegant to abandon a world which has so willingly put itself at the service of our melancholy?”
All Gall Is Divided (1952)
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Emil M. Cioran 531
Romanian philosopher and essayist 1911–1995Related quotes
Speech to the Labour Party Conference in Southport (2 October 1934) , quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1945), p. 17 and D. M. Touche, Britain's Lost Victory (London: The Individualist Bookshop, 1941).
1930s
Letter to John Norvell (11 June 1807). Original and transcript https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj1.038_0592_0594/?sp=2&st=text
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)
Context: To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, "by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only." Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.... I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.
Session 735, Page 574
The “Unknown” Reality: Volume Two, (1979)
Founding Address (1876), Some Characteristics of the American Ethical Movement (1925)