David Benatar (1966) South African philosopher
Source: The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017), Introduction, p. 14
Source: The Fabric of Reality (1997), Ch. 12
David Benatar (1966) South African philosopher
Source: The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017), Introduction, p. 14
“I ask no one who may read this book to accept my views. I ask him to think for himself.”
Henry George (1839–1897) American economist
Source: Social Problems (1883), Ch. 21 : Conclusion
Context: I ask no one who may read this book to accept my views. I ask him to think for himself.
Whoever, laying aside prejudice and self-interest, will honestly and carefully make up his own mind as to the causes and the cure of the social evils that are so apparent, does, in that, the most important thing in his power toward their removal. This primary obligation devolves upon us individually, as citizens and as men. Whatever else we may be able to do, this must come first. For "if the blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the ditch."
Social reform is not to be secured by noise and shouting; by complaints and denunciation; by the formation of parties, or the making of revolutions; but by the awakening of thought and the progress of ideas. Until there be correct thought, there cannot be right action; and when there is correct thought, right action will follow. Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
Edward German (1862–1936) English musician and composer
In a letter to Sir Seymour Hicks (December 1910)
Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist
Hope for the Troubled Heart: Finding God in the Midst of Pain (1991); the last statement of this anecdote has often become quoted as if it originated with Graham: "My home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world."
Context: In my travels, I have found that those who keep heaven in view remain serene and cheerful in the darkest day. If the glories of Heaven were more real to us, if we lived less for material things and more for things eternal and spiritual, we would be less easily disturbed by this present life.
A friend told me about stopping on a street corner in London and listening to a man play the bagpipes. He was playing "Amazing Grace" and smiling from ear to ear. My friend asked him if he was from Scotland, and he answered, “No sir, my home is in Heaven. I'm just traveling through this world.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: 1910s, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays http://archive.org/stream/mysticism00russuoft/mysticism00russuoft_djvu.txt (1918), Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic
Anne Fadiman (1953) American essayist, journalist and magazine editor
Source: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist
Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World
John Gray (1948) British philosopher
Sweet Morality (p. 224)
The Immortalization Commission: The Strange Quest to Cheat Death (2011)