Brides
A Guide to Men (1922)
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”
“Politics follows the lines of physics: every action creates an equal and opposite reaction.”
Source: The Rise of Political Extremism and the Decline of Decency, April 8, 2010, US News http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2010/04/08/the-rise-of-political-extremism-and-the-decline-of-decency,
Context: It's part of a continuum. Whenever I interview someone at a protest carrying an "Obama is Hitler" sign, and I go up to ask to talk to them to see what they're thinking, invariably they've said, "Well, they started it. They called our president 'Hitler' and nobody complained." And the reality is that politics follows the lines of physics. Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. And the extremes incite each other. What's especially frustrating to me is that we're talking about a relatively small group of people. There's a huge, untapped center in America that is frustrated with the agitated status quo. And, I think there's a real need to stand up.
Pt. I.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822-1856)
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), Rousseau and the Sentimentalists
“Action is man's free will right, but the reaction is nature's.”
Source: A New Concept of the Universe (1953), p. 132
Human, All Too Human (1878)
Speech to the Virginia Convention (1861)
Context: These are pregnant statements; they avow a sentiment, a political principle of action, a sentiment of hatred to slavery as extreme as hatred can exist. The political principle here avowed is, that his action against slavery is not to be restrained by the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States. I say, if you can find any degree of hatred greater than that, I should like to see it. This is the sentiment of the chosen leader of the Black Republican party; and can you doubt that it is not entertained by every solitary member of that same party? You cannot, I think. He is a representative man; his sentiments are the sentiments of his party; his principles of political action are the principles of political action of his party. I say, then; it is true, at least, that the Republican party of the North hates slavery.
Source: Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), Who Stands Fast?, p. 5.
