Letter 8; Variant: The greater part of men are much too exhausted and enervated by their struggle with want to be able to engage in a new and severe contest with error. Satisfied if they themselves can escape from the hard labour of thought, they willingly abandon to others the guardianship of their thoughts.
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
Context: Dare to be wise! Energy and spirit is needed to overcome the obstacles which indolence of nature as well as cowardice of heart oppose to our instruction. It is not without significance that the old myth makes the goddess of Wisdom emerge fully armed from the head of Jupiter; for her very first function is warlike. Even in her birth she has to maintain a hard struggle with the senses, which do not want to be dragged from their sweet repose. The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error. Content if they themselves escape the hard labor of thought, men gladly resign to others the guardianship of their ideas, and if it happens that higher needs are stirred in them, they embrace with a eager faith the formulas which State and priesthood hold in readiness for such an occasion.
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
" VIII. ON "LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOSSOM LET A HUNDRED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT CONTEND" AND "LONG-TERM COEXISTENCE AND MUTUAL SUPERVISION" "
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman
"The Commercial Motive" Christian Century 40 (Feb 22, 1923)
Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader
Address before the Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi, India, April 5, 1956, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 131
1950s, Address before the Indian Council on World Affairs (1956)
“The greater part of our Body, of our Humanity itself, yet sleeps a deep sleep.”
Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer
Novalis (1829)
Context: Sleep is for the inhabitants of Planets only. In another time, Man will sleep and wake continually at once. The greater part of our Body, of our Humanity itself, yet sleeps a deep sleep.
Willa Cather book O Pioneers!
Part I, Ch. 9
O Pioneers! (1913)
Context: The great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes. It was from facing this vast hardness that the boy's mouth had become so bitter; because he felt that men were too weak to make any mark here, that the land wanted to be let alone, to preserve its own fierce strength, its peculiar, savage kind of beauty, its uninterrupted mournfulness.
“Those who struggle for virtue in community life will have greater merit”
Saint Nimatullah Kassab (1808–1858) Lebanese Maronite monk and saint
than hermits <br class="br"> Vatican biography of Nimatullah Kassab Al-Hardini, Vatican News Service http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040516_al-hardini_en.html (May 2004)
Friedrich Nietzsche book The Will to Power
Sec. 660 : The Body as a Political Structure
The Will to Power (1888)
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
