Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French novelist and philosopher
Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1787)
Section 26
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French novelist and philosopher
Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1787)
Ivar Ekeland (1944) French mathematician
Source: The Best of All Possible Worlds (2006), Chapter 7, May The Best One Win, p. 141.
Starhawk (1951) American author, activist and Neopagan
Toward an Activist Spirituality (2003)
Context: Systems don't change easily. Systems try to maintain themselves, and seek equilibrium. To change a system, you need to shake it up, disrupt the equilibrium. That often requires conflict.
To me, conflict is a deeply spiritual place. It's the high-energy place where power meets power, where change and transformation can occur.
Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) physical chemist
Ilya Prigogine (1996) "The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature". p. 64. Cited in: Ilya Prigogine http://www.eoht.info/page/Ilya+Prigogine at echt info. By Sadi-Carnot et all., Jan 28 2013.
“A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.”
William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania
537-539
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
Context: A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God's sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist
The Principles of Biology, Vol. I (1864), Part III: The Evolution of Life, Ch. 7: Indirect Equilibration
Principles of Biology (1864)
Context: It cannot but happen that those individuals whose functions are most out of equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces, will be those to die; and that those will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium with the modified aggregate of external forces.
But this survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest. Out of the fittest thus multiplied, there will, as before, be an overthrowing of the moving equilibrium wherever it presents the least opposing force to the new incident force.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
Source: Earthsea Books, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), Chapter 3 (Master Hand)
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher
Jean Baudrillard in: Eldon Taylor What Does That Mean?: Exploring Mind, Meaning, and Mysteries http://books.google.co.in/books?id=pTAIRTJbENgC&pg=PA171, Hay House, Inc, 15 January 2010, p. 171 <br class="br">New millennium