“To say that the law of force is abandoned because force is regular, unopposed, and beneficially exercised, is to say that day and night are now such well-established institutions that the sun and moon are mere superfluities.”

—  James Fitzjames Stephen

Source: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873-1874), Ch. 5

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To say that the law of force is abandoned because force is regular, unopposed, and beneficially exercised, is to say th…" by James Fitzjames Stephen?
James Fitzjames Stephen photo
James Fitzjames Stephen12
Indian judge 1829–1894

Related quotes

Thomas Robert Malthus photo

“The moon is not kept in her orbit round the earth, nor the earth in her orbit round the sun, by a force that varies merely in the inverse ratio of the squares of the distances.”

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) British political economist

Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter XIII, paragraph 2, lines 19-22

Ramakrishna photo

“You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? O man, because you cannot find God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is no God.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

Source: Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960), p. 1

Nicole Oresme photo

“The heavenly bodies move with such regularity, orderliness, and symmetry that it is truly a marvel; and they continue always to act in this manner ceaselessly, following the established system, without increasing or reducing speed and continuing without respite, as the Scripture says: Summer and winter, night and day they never rest.”

Nicole Oresme (1323–1382) French philosopher

Book II, Ch. 2, p. 283.
Le livre du ciel et du monde (1377)

Gwendolyn Brooks photo

“Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

You will be right.
Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward

Ramana Maharshi photo

“15. As in the night when the sun is not present, one sees the light in the moon, the man who is not present in the heart, sees merely the mind.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

The Science of the Heart

Henry Ward Beecher photo

“When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist

Source: Life Thoughts (1858), p. 34

Émile Durkheim photo

“At the moment when this solidarity exercises its force, our personality vanishes, as our definition permits us to say, for we are no longer ourselves, but the collective life.”

Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) French sociologist (1858-1917)

Source: The Division of Labor in Society (1893), p. 130 (in 1933 edition)

Harrison Ford photo

“I don't think I have something that's pronounceable as a philosophy. … When it was fashionable to say, "May the Force be with you," I always said, "Force yourself." … I'll say again then, "The Force is within you. Force yourself."”

Harrison Ford (1942) American film actor and producer

Barbara Walters interview

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law; peace is considered already broken.”

Ernesto Che Guevara book Guerrilla Warfare

Source: Guerrilla Warfare (1961), Ch. I: 1. Essence of Guerrilla Warfare

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced' upon the Government. The Government will not use force unless force is used against it.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Source: 1860s, Speech in Independence Hall (1861)

Related topics