
“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.”
Plato, Phaedo
Letter to Lord Holland (28 July 1795), quoted in L. G. Mitchell, Charles James Fox (London: Penguin, 1997), p. 160.
1790s
“There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.”
Plato, Phaedo
“Fear of evil is greater than the evil itself.”
Sono maggiori li spaventi ch'e mali.
Act III, scene xi
The Mandrake (1524)
“But orthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought.”
Darwiniana: the Origin of Species (1860) http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8thdr10.txt
1860s
Context: It is true that if philosophers have suffered their cause has been amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules; and history records that whenever science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain. But orthodoxy is the Bourbon of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it forget; and though, at present, bewildered and afraid to move, it is as willing as ever to insist that the first chapter of Genesis contains the beginning and the end of sound science...
Jokes and their Relation to the Cognitive Unconscious (1980)
Source: (1776), Book IV, Chapter I, p. 469.
“In every enterprise is no greater evil than bad companionship”
ἐν παντὶ πράγει δ᾽ ἔσθ᾽ ὁμιλίας κακῆς
κάκιον οὐδέν
Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), lines 599–600 (tr. David Grene)
“There is no greater social evil than religion. It is the cancer in the body of humanity.”
Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 9, “Evil” (p. 34)
Oprah.com http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Life-Lessons-We-All-Need-to-Learn-Brene-Brown#ixzz28s3kPWdP
Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Context: Belonging is not fitting in... Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. When we don't have that, we shape-shift and turn into chameleons; we hustle for the worthiness we already possess.