“This is our epoch, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, rich or poor — we did not choose it.”
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: This is our epoch, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, rich or poor — we did not choose it. This is our epoch, the air we breathe, the mud given us, the bread, the fire, the spirit!
Let us accept Necessity courageously. It is our lot to have fallen on fighting times. Let us tighten our belts, let us arm our hearts, our minds, and our bodies. Let us take our place in battle!
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Nikos Kazantzakis 222
Greek writer 1883–1957Related quotes
My Day (1935–1962)
Context: What is going on in the Un-American Activities Committee worries me primarily because little people have become frightened and we find ourselves living in the atmosphere of a police state, where people close doors before they state what they think or look over their shoulders apprehensively before they express an opinion.
I have been one of those who have carried the fight for complete freedom of information in the United Nations. And while accepting the fact that some of our press, our radio commentators, our prominent citizens and our movies may at times be blamed legitimately for things they have said and done, still I feel that the fundamental right of freedom of thought and expression is essential. If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do.
In our country we must trust the people to hear and see both the good and the bad and to choose the good. The Un-American Activities Committee seems to me to be better for a police state than for the USA. (29 October 1947)
"As I Please," Tribune (28 July 1944)<sup> http://alexpeak.com/twr/orwell/quotes/</sup>
As I Please (1943–1947)
“It is better to be beautiful then to be good, but it is better to be good then to be ugly.”
Variant: It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.
“Filipinos don't wallow in what is miserable and ugly. They recycle the bad into things of beauty.”
As quoted in "Homage to Imelda's shoes" at BBC News (16 February 2001)).
1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
