Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)
Context: The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period. This division is not very different from Marx’s concept of "human nature in general", to be distinguished from "human nature as modified in each historical period". The same distinction exists in Marx when he distinguishes between "constant" or "fixed" drives and "relative" drives. The constant drives "exist under all circumstances and … can be changed by social conditions only as far as form and direction are concerned". The relative drives "owe their origin only to a certain type of social organization".
“In general, "historical necessity" turns out to be merely a name for human stupidity.”
Sucesivos Escolios a un Texto Implícito (1992)
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Nicolás Gómez Dávila 20
Colombian writer and philosopher 1913–1994Related quotes
“Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political mistakes.”
Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923) - Full text online http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200811h.html
1920s
Nam June Paik (1965), as cited in: David Dunn, " A History of Electronic Music Pioneers http://vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_Eigenwelt/pdf/021-062.pdf." ders.(Hrsg.), Eigenwelt der Apparate-Welt.(Katalog), Linz (1992): 21-62.
1960s
Benedetto Croce, The Philosophy of Giambattista Vico. trans. R. G. Collingwood, London 1923.
(Berlin Institute of Advanced Studies, Nov 2005).
Attributed
"The Wond'rous Wise Man", in Mother Goose in Prose (1897)
Short stories
“It turned out that, like Satan, cancer had many names.”
Source: El caçador d'estels
George Boole, quoted in Kenneth E. Iverson's 1979 Turing Award Lecture
Attributed from posthumous publications
Gene, on war.
Source: A Separate Peace (1959), P. 193