
“Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.”
22 August 1944
My Day (1935–1962)
Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
The Lessons of History (1968), p. 72 (co-authored with Ariel Durant)
“Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.”
22 August 1944
My Day (1935–1962)
Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
“The only real justice is that which the individual creates for himself”
Source: The Anarchist Cookbook (1971), Chapter Three: "Natural, Nonlethal, and Lethal Weapons", p. 78.
Context: I have no patience with individuals who claim that everything will be beautiful if guns and other weapons are outlawed. These people do not have the foresight to realise that, if weapons are made illegal, they will only be possessed by enemies of the people (i. e., the army, the police, outlaws, and madmen). I feel very strongly that every person should be armed and that he or she should be prepared for the worst. There is no justice left in the system. The only real justice is that which the individual creates for himself, and the individual is helpless without a gun. This may sound like the dogma expounded by radical right-wing groups, like the Minute Men. It is.
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
“The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.”
“Poetry belongs to the real things—to the realm of the ideal which is "the only real."”
On poetry
Other rewards do not count, comparatively. The joy of leisure is an illusion. The chief reason for my liking serials for as long as I did was because they kept me constantly at work, whereas feature pictures do permit of a week or more idleness in between.
The True Story of My Life http://www.public.asu.edu/~bruce/Taylor57.txt (November 8 - December 13, 1924)
“The real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is already reproduced, the hyper-real.”
Simulations (1983), New York: Semiotext, p. 146
1980s
“Contentment is the only real wealth”