“The immediate teaching of philosophers may be gentle, but the theory behind their teaching is without compunction—and that’s why so much bloodshed and misery has always attended the paths of their followers, who claim to live by those teachings. More blood’s been spilled by the militant adherents of prophets of change than by any other group of people down through the history of man.”

Source: Tactics of Mistake (1971), Chapter 6 (p. 195)

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 "The immediate teaching of philosophers may be gentle, but the theory behind their teaching is without compunction—and t…" by Gordon R. Dickson?
Gordon R. Dickson photo
Gordon R. Dickson 19
Canadian-American science fiction writer 1923–2001

Related quotes

Marc Chagall photo

“.. In spite of everything, there is still no more wonderful vocation than to continue to tolerate events and to work on in the name of our mission, in the name of that spirit which lives on in our teaching and in our vision of humanity and art, the spirit which can lead us Jews down the true and just path. But along the way, peoples will spill our blood, and that of others.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

In the last lines of his lecture at the Congress of the Jewish Scientific Institute Vilnius, in 1935, as quoted in Marc Chagall - the Russian years 1906 – 1922, editor Christoph Vitali, exhibition catalogue, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 1991, p. 58
after 1930

Eugen Drewermann photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Philip Pullman photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Woody Allen photo

“Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Source: Annie Hall: Screenplay

Max Müller photo

Related topics