Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher
Karl Marx, in his letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, 31 May 1858 [original in German]
M - R
James Clerk Maxwell, Matter and Motion (1876)
Context: Descartes... fell back on his original confusion of matter with space—space being, according to him, the only form of substance, and all existing things but affections of space. This error... forms one of the ultimate foundations of the system of Spinoza.
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher
Karl Marx, in his letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, 31 May 1858 [original in German]
M - R
René Daumal (1908–1944) French poet and writer
Vol. 2, Essais et Notes
The Lie of the Truth (1938)
“To err is human; to manage error is system.”
Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)
Paul Churchland (1942) Canadian philosopher
Source: Matter and Consciousness, 1984/1988/2013, p. 96; As cited in: Peter Zachar (2000) Psychological Concepts and Biological Psychiatry. p. 132
“Absolute ideas must take relative forms if they are not to fail because of an error in form.”
José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader
Our America (1881)
Context: The youth of America are rolling up their sleeves, digging their hands in the dough, and making it rise with the sweat of their brows. They realize that there is too much imitation, and that creation holds the key to salvation. "Create" is the password of this generation. The wine is made from plantain, but even if it turns sour, it is our own wine! That a country's form of government must be in keeping with its natural elements is a foregone conclusion. Absolute ideas must take relative forms if they are not to fail because of an error in form. Freedom, to be viable, has to be sincere and complete. If a republic refuses to open its arms to all, and move ahead with all, it dies.
George Mallory (1886–1924) British mountaineer
Letter to his wife Ruth Mallory (1921), acquitted in Everest: The Mountaineering History (2000) by Walt Unsworth, p. 47; also The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory (2001) by Peter Gillman and Leni Gillman, p. 13
“Zaire's one-party system is the most elaborate form of democracy.”
Mobutu Sésé Seko (1930–1997) President of Zaïre
Ayittey, p. 210
David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist
Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Seven, "Honor and Degradation", p. 168