“The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.”
La connaissance des pratiques féodales « est la raison pour laquelle je fus peut-être le plus redoutable fléau de la féodalité. »
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 13, 27082 2892-7]
On feudalism
1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors.
Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964), as quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By Any Means Necessary (1970)
Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904)
“The arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves.”
"Introduction: Thinkability"
Einstein's Monsters (1987)
“Knowledge is a better weapon than a sword.”
Source: Raven's Shadow
Inauguration of Library of Birmingham, Jan 2013
