“No contrast is greater than a man on the pinnacle, erect in stature, confident, supercilious; and the same man in the pit, bent, irresolute, and servile. Some observers insist that, in the pit, a man usually loses his moral principles; but, on the pinnacle, is virtuously inclined, sensitive of reputation, faithful of trusts.”
The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)
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Alexander Bryan Johnson35
United States philosopher and banker 1786–1867Related quotes
Larisa Alexandrovna (1971) Ukrainian-American journalist, essayist, poet
Bush's Colon - Or the Neutering of Karl Rove http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/bushs-colon-or-the-neu_b_14264.html.
“A cultured, sensitive, observant man is a pleasure to be with in any age.”
Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time
Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 9 (p. 97)
“No longer can I complain that the unrighteous man reaches the highest pinnacle of success. He is raised aloft that he may be hurled down in more headlong ruin.”
Iam non ad culmina rerum<br/>iniustos crevisse queror; tolluntur in altum<br/>ut lapsu graviore ruant.
Claudian (370–404) Roman Latin poet
Iam non ad culmina rerum<br>iniustos crevisse queror; tolluntur in altum<br>ut lapsu graviore ruant. <br class="br"> In Rufinum, Bk. I, lines 21-23 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Claudian/In_Rufinum/1*.html#21.
Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter
Source: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
“No harder than walking a tightrope over a pit. A deep pit. Filled with sharks. Radioactive sharks.”
John C. Wright (1961) American novelist and technical writer
Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 10, “Love’s Proper Hue” Section 7 (p. 157)
“A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Source: Meditations
Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist
Source: Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, p. 89
Context: But why,' (some ask), 'why, if you have a serious comment to make on the real life of men, must you do it by talking about a phantasmagoric never-never land of your own?' Because, I take it, one of the main things the author wants to say is that the real life of men is of that mythical and heroic quality. One can see the principle at work in his characterization. Much that in a realistic work would be done by 'character delineation' is here done simply by making the character an elf, a dwarf, or a hobbit. The imagined beings have their insides on the outside; they are visible souls. And Man as a whole, Man pitted against the universe, have we seen him at all till we see that he is like a hero in a fairy tale?