“It is not enough to accept a concept of order and live by it; that is cowardice, and such cowardice cannot result from freedom. Chaos must be faced. Real order must be preceded by a descent into chaos.”

—  Colin Wilson , book The Outsider

Source: The Outsider (1956), Chapter Three, The Romantic Outsider

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is not enough to accept a concept of order and live by it; that is cowardice, and such cowardice cannot result from …" by Colin Wilson?
Colin Wilson photo
Colin Wilson 192
author 1931–2013

Related quotes

Novalis photo
Tom Stoppard photo

“Since we cannot hope for order let us withdraw with style from the chaos.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

Source: Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966), Ch. I: Dramatis Personae and Other Coincidences.

Rick Riordan photo

“Too often the revolutionary is the man who must create order in the chaos left by failed conservatives.”

Bernard Crick (1929–2008) British political theorist and democratic socialist

Source: In Defence Of Politics (Second Edition) – 1981, Chapter 6, A Defence of Politics Against False Friends, p. 115.

Starhawk photo

“The Orderer seduces us with the belief that order can be imposed from without, that the answer to chaos is more rigid order.”

Starhawk (1951) American author, activist and Neopagan

The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979)
Context: The Orderer, whose core issue is control, splits us into Controller and Out-of-Control selves, tells us "Don't Feel", and generates anxiety, rigidity, and addictions. The Orderer seduces us with the belief that order can be imposed from without, that the answer to chaos is more rigid order.

Vince Cable photo

“The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from Stalin to Mr. Bean, creating chaos out of order, rather than order out of chaos.”

Vince Cable (1943) British Liberal Democrat politician

House of Commons' Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm071128/debtext/71128-0003.htm#71128-0003.htm_spnew0, 28 November 2007.
2007

Bernard Harcourt photo

“The different strands of radical thought seek to lift a veil from our eyes in order to emancipate us from domination, cowardice, or repression. They unmask in order to liberate.”

Bernard Harcourt (1963) American academic

“Radical Thought from Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, through Foucault, to the Present: Comments on Steven Lukes's ‘In Defense of False Consciousness,’” The University Of Chicago Legal Forum, 2011, p. 34

Mahatma Gandhi photo

“Coercion cannot but result in chaos in the end.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

As quoted in Mahatma, edit., D.G. Tendulkar, Vol. 7 (1945-1947), first edition, New Delhi, India, Publication Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (1953) p. 138 https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/Mahatma_Vol7.pdf
1940s

Colin Wilson photo
Richard Garriott photo

“Chaos and Order are not enemies, only opposites.”

Richard Garriott (1961) video game developer, astronaut and entrepreneur

Related topics