“The fact that there is a spiritual power in us, that is to say, a power which testifies to the unity of our life with the life of others, which impels us to regard others as other selves — this fact conies home to us even more forcibly in sorrow than in joy. It is thrown into clearest relief on the background of pain.
In the glow of achievement we are apt to be full of a false self-importance. But in moments of weakness we realise, through contrast, the infinitely superior strength of the power whose very humble organs and ministers we are. It is then we come to understand that, isolated from it, we are nothing; at one with it, identified with it, we participate in its eternal nature, in its resistless course.”

— Felix Adler

Section 1 : The Meaning of Life
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)

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Felix Adler 99

German American professor of political and social ethics, r… 1851–1933

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Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
Or others — that we are not always strong,
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That we should ever weak or heartless be,
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“[President George W. Bush] has a vision which can be described with two other words: Manichaean paranoia… the notion that he is leading the forces of good against the empire of evil, that in that setting, the fact that we are morally superior justifies us committing immoral acts. And that is a very dangerous posture for the country that is the number one global power. … The fact is he squandered our credibility, our legitimacy, and even respect for our power.”

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Sec. 13
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Source: Eating Animals

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comfort for every sorrow,
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Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

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