“I say that Auschwitz is an extreme manifestation of an attitude that still thrives in our midst.”
pg 309
Farewell to Reason (1987)
Context: I say that Auschwitz is an extreme manifestation of an attitude that still thrives in our midst. It shows itself in the treatment of minorities in industrial democracies; in education, education to a humanitarian point of view included, which most of the time consists of turning wonderful young people into colorless and self-righteous copies of their teachers; it becomes manifest in the nuclear threat, the constant increase in the number and power of deadly weapons and the readiness of some so-called patriots to start a war compared with which the holocaust will shrink into insignificance. It shows itself in the killing of nature and of "primitive" cultures with never a thought spent on those thus deprived of meaning for their lives; in the colossal conceit of our intellectuals, their belief that they know precisely what humanity needs and their relentless efforts to recreate people in their sorry image; in the infantile megalomania of some of our physicians who blackmail their patients with fear, mutilate them and then persecute them with large bills; in the lack of feeling of so many so-called searchers for truth who systematically torture animals, study their discomfort and receive prizes for their cruelty. As far as I am concerned there exists no difference between the henchmen of Aushwitz and these "benefactors of mankind."
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Paul Karl Feyerabend 81
Austrian-born philosopher of science 1924–1994Related quotes
“Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.”
Section 8
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Source: The Meaning of Culture (1929), pp. 27-28
“Openness to all attitudes no matter how extreme or unrealistic they may seem”
Carl Rogers on Personal Power (1977)
“Even though a disgrace, machine-made, ornament stayed and still thrives.”
A Testament (1957)
Source: River out of Eden (1995), Ch. 5: The Replication Bomb
1963, American University speech
Context: Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament — and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude — as individuals and as a Nation — for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward — by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.
Sans, Jerome. China Talks: Interviews with 32 Contemporary Artists. Beijing: Timezone8, 2009. P. 9.
2000-09, 2009
“You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”
"The Embattled Woman Who Relishes Crosswords, Children...and Running India," People (June 30, 1975).