“These are the Grand Inquisitors who imprison Christ and come to tell Him that His method is not correct, that universal happiness cannot be achieved by the immediate freedom of choosing between good and evil, but by the domination and unification of the world.”
Part 2: Metaphysical Rebellion
The Rebel (1951)
Context: Alyosha can, in fact, treat Ivan with compassion as a "real simpleton." The latter only made aa attempt at self-control and failed. Others will appear, with more serious intentions, who, on the basis of the same despairing nihilism, will insist on ruling the world. These are the Grand Inquisitors who imprison Christ and come to tell Him that His method is not correct, that universal happiness cannot be achieved by the immediate freedom of choosing between good and evil, but by the domination and unification of the world. The first step is to conquer and rule. The kingdom of heaven will, in fact, appear on earth, but it will be ruled over by men — a mere handful to begin with, who will be the Cassars, because they were the first to understand — and later, with time, by all men. The unity of all creation will be achieved by every possible means, since everything is permitted. The Grand Inquisitor is old and tired, for the knowledge he possesses is bitter. He knows that men are lazy rather than cowardly and that they prefer peace and death to the liberty of discerning between good and evil. He has pity, a cold pity, for the silent prisoner whom history endlessly deceives. He urges him to speak, to recognize his misdeeds, and, in one sense, to approve the actions of the Inquisitors and of the Caesars. But the prisoner does not speak.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Albert Camus 209
French author and journalist 1913–1960Related quotes
Source: Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974), p. 154
“Welt muss mehr denn je diese Botschaft hören,” Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung, Giessen, Germany, April 12, 2005.
Attributed
Source: Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938), p. 78
Final Statement of Geert Wilders at his Trial https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9404/wilders-trial-closing-statement (23 November 2016)
2010s
“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”
Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 68.
Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 73.
In a logical system, it is convenient to say that possibility passes over into actuality. However, in actuality it is not so convenient, and an intermediate term is required. The intermediate term is anxiety, but it no more explains the qualitative leap than it can justify it ethically. Anxiety is neither a category of necessity nor a category of freedom; it is entangled freedom, where freedom is not free in itself but entangled, not by necessity, but in itself.
Source: 1840s, The Concept of Anxiety (1844), p. 49
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”
Variant: No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.