Hugo Black (1886–1971) U.S. Supreme Court justice
Concurring in New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
That Everything is to be undertaken with Circumspection, Chap. xv.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Hugo Black (1886–1971) U.S. Supreme Court justice
Concurring in New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Journal entry, Gilleleie (1 August 1835) Journals 1A; this is considered to be one of the earliest statements of existentialist thought.
Variant translation: My focus should be on what I do in life, not knowing everything, excluding knowledge on what you do. The is key to find a purpose, whatever it truly is that God wills me to do; it's crucial to find a truth which is true to me, to find the idea which I am willing to live and die for.
Later variant: What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. … I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of knowledge and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing.
Later expression of such thoughts in a letter to Peter Wilhelm Lund (31 August 1835)
Variant translation: I must find a truth that is true for me.
1830s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1830s
Context: What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die.
Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871) British mathematician, philosopher and university teacher (1806-1871)
The portion of the Integral Calculus, which properly belongs to any given portion of the Differential Calculus increases its power a hundred-fold...
The Differential and Integral Calculus (1836)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Immortality <br class="br">1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)
R. Scott Bakker book The Darkness That Comes Before
AJENCIS, THE THIRD ANALYTIC OF MEN
The Darkness That Comes Before (2004)
“31: Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.”
Alan Perlis Epigrams on Programming
Epigrams on Programming, 1982
“… talk should precede, not follow, the issuance of orders.”
Dean Acheson book Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (1969), Principles