Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
“It is confidently expected that the period is at hand, when man, through ignorance, shall not much longer inflict unnecessary misery on man; because the mass of mankind will become enlightened, and will clearly discern that by so acting they will inevitably create misery to themselves.”
A New View of Society (1813-1816)
Context: It is confidently expected that the period is at hand, when man, through ignorance, shall not much longer inflict unnecessary misery on man; because the mass of mankind will become enlightened, and will clearly discern that by so acting they will inevitably create misery to themselves. As soon as the public mind shall be sufficiently prepared to receive it, the practical detail of this system shall be fully developed. For the extensive knowledge of the facts which present themselves on the globe, makes it evident to those whose reasoning faculties have not been entirely paralysed, that all mankind firmly believe, that everybody except themselves has been grievously deceived in his fundamental principles; and feel the utmost astonishment that the nations of the world could embrace such gross inconsistencies for divine or political truths. Most persons are now also prepared to understand, that these weaknesses are firmly and conscientiously fixed in the minds of millions, who, when born, possessed equal faculties with themselves. And although they plainly discern in others what they deem inconceivable aberrations of the mental powers, yet, in despite of such facts, they are taught to believe that they themselves could not have been so deceived; and this impression is made upon the infant mind with the greatest ease, whether it be to create followers of the most ignorant, or of the most enlightened systems.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "It is confidently expected that the period is at hand, when man, through ignorance, shall not much longer inflict unnec…" by Robert Owen?
Robert Owen 29
Welsh social reformer 1771–1858Related quotes
Jorge Luis Borges
(1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
"Guayaquil", in Brodie's Report (1970); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998)
"This Be The Verse," High Windows (1974) [April ? 1971]
This Be The Verse (1974)
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
Trinculo, Act II, scene ii.
Source: The Tempest (1611)
“The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.”
Frederick Douglass
(1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
Eleanor Roosevelt
(1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
As quoted in "On The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Issues of Democracy Vol. 3, No. 3 (October 1998), p. 11
the desire for pleasure. The monks and the sannyasis of the world have tried to go beyond it, have forced themselves to worship an ideal, an image, a symbol. But desire is always there like a flame, burning. And to find out, to probe into the nature of desire, the complexity of desire, its activities, its demands, its fulfilments — ever more and more desire for power, position, prestige, status, the desire for the unnameable, that which is beyond all our daily life — has made man do all kinds of ugly and brutal things. Desire is the outcome of sensation the outcome with all the images that thought has built. And this desire not only breeds discontent but a sense of hopelessness. Never suppress it, never discipline it but probe into the nature of it — what is the origin, the purpose, the intricacies of it? To delve deep into it is not another desire, for it has no motive; it is like understanding the beauty of a flower, to sit down beside it and look at it. And as you look it begins to reveal itself as it actually is — the extraordinarily delicate colour, the perfume, the petals, the stem and the earth out of which it has grown. So look at this desire and its nature without thought which is always shaping sensations, pleasure and pain, reward and punishment. Then one understands, not verbally, nor intellectually, the whole causation of desire, the root of desire. The very perception of it, the subtle perception of it, that in itself is intelligence. And that intelligence will always act sanely and rationally in dealing with desire.
Krishnamurti to Himself (1987) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=16&chid=609 - ISBN 0-06-250649-8 1993 edition; J.Krishnamurti Online. Serial No. 60039
1980s
“To prevent the recurrence of misery is, alas! beyond the power of man.”
Thomas Robert Malthus
(1766–1834) British political economist
Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter V, paragraph 25, lines 4-5
Benjamin Creme
(1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist
The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (1980)