“The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.”

Part I, The Present Condition of Russia, Ch. 1: What Is Hoped From Bolshevism
1920s, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but the…" by Bertrand Russell?
Bertrand Russell photo
Bertrand Russell 562
logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970

Related quotes

Joseph Goebbels photo

“I should like to be a parson on this island. Explain the Sermon on the Mount to ordinary people and let the world be the world.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Ich möchte Pastor auf dieser Insel sein. Einfachen Menschen die Bergpredigt erklären und die Welt Welt sein lassen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.”

Nous aimons toujours ceux qui nous admirent; et nous n'aimons pas toujours ceux que nous admirons.
Maxim 294.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

John Hall photo

“The text should sustain, suggest, and give tone to the sermon. The main thought of the text should usually be the main thought of the sermon. A text must not be a pretext.”

John Hall (1829–1898) Presbyterian pastor from Northern Ireland in New York, died 1898

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 482.

Mandell Creighton photo

“No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good.”

Mandell Creighton (1843–1901) English historian and ecclesiastic

Quoted by Louise Creighton in Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton, vol. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=XFrIeWud0_wC&q=%22no+people+do+so+much+harm+as+those+who+go+about+doing+good%22&pg=PA501#v=onepage. (1905)

Gustave Flaubert photo
James K. Morrow photo
Dorothy Day photo

“We stand at the present time with the Communists, who are also opposing war…. The Sermon on the Mount is our Christian manifesto.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

"Our Stand," Catholic Worker (June 1940)

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free.”

This passage was used for Kazantzakis' epitaph: "Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα, δε φοβούμαι τίποτα, είμαι λεύτερος<!--[sic]-->."
I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.
Variant translation: I expect nothing. I fear no one. I am free.
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Nothing exists! Neither life nor death. I watch mind and matter hunting each other like two nonexistent erotic phantasms — merging, begetting, disappearing — and I say: "This is what I want!"
I know now: I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free. [Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα, δεν φοβούμαι τίποτα, λυτρώθηκα από το νου κι από την καρδιά, ανέβηκα πιο πάνω, είμαι λεύτερος. ] This is what I want. I want nothing more. I have been seeking freedom.

Related topics