Greg Craven American teacher and writer
Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 1 "The Decision Grid" (p. 31)
Source: The Meaning of a Liberal Education (1926), p. 183
Greg Craven American teacher and writer
Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 1 "The Decision Grid" (p. 31)
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
" The Ecclesiastical Ministry http://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/voleccle.html" <br class="br">Citas, Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
Jack Kerouac book On the Road
Part Three, Ch. 11
Source: On the Road (1957)
Context: In 1942 I was the star in one of the filthiest dramas of all time. I was a seaman, and went to the Imperial Café on Scollay Square in Boston to drink; I drank sixty glasses of beer and retired to the toilet, where I wrapped myself around the toilet bowl and went to sleep. During the night at least a hundred seamen and assorted civilians came in and cast their sentient debouchements on me till I was unrecognizably caked. What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.
Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science
"On Freedom" in All Life is Problem Solving (1999)
Context: When I speak of reason or rationalism, all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism. A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others. The emphasis here is on the idea of criticism or, to be more precise, critical discussion. The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff. He is well aware that acceptance or rejection of an idea is never a purely rational matter; but he thinks that only critical discussion can give us the maturity to see an idea from more and more sides and to make a correct judgement of it.
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools
The Functions of Criticism at the Present Time (1864)
W. Cleon Skousen book The Naked Communist
The Naked Communist (1958)
“If art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally.”
George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator
Letter to Charles Bray (5 July 1859)
Charles A. Reich book The Greening of America
Source: The Greening of America (1970), Chapter V : Anatomy Of The Corporate State, p. 107
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer
Source: Cakes and Ale: Or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930), p. 137