
By Neesha Mirchandani
Baba Amte's Words of Wisdom
Part 1, section 4.
The Cunning Man (1994)
By Neesha Mirchandani
Baba Amte's Words of Wisdom
“Benevolence is the characteristic element of humanity.”
Source: The Doctrine of the Mean
“The need to raise itself above humanity is humanity’s prime characteristic.”
Es ist der Menschheit eigen, dass sie sich über die Menschheit erheben muss.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 21
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 493.
“Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.”
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
George C. Homans (1962), "Autobiographical introduction", in: Sentiments & activities; essays in social science https://archive.org/stream/sentimentsactivi00homa#page/34/mode/2up, p. 35
“Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.”
Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 2
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)
“there's no clarity.
there was never meant to be clarity.”
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
Source: 1930s, Adventures of Ideas (1933), p. 91.
Context: In the study of ideas, it is necessary to remember that insistence on hard-headed clarity issues from sentimental feeling, as if it were a mist, cloaking the perplexities of fact. Insistence on clarity at all costs is based on sheer superstition as to the mode in which human intelligence functions. Our reasoning grasps at straws for premises and float on gossamer for deductions.
“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.”