
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 17
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)
As quoted in The Columbia Book of Quotations (1993) edited by R. Andrews http://books.google.com/books?id=4cl5c4T9LWkC, p. 894.
Original quote from Herodotus, The Histories http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.%208.111&lang=original (8.111): "(2)...for the men of that place, the first islanders of whom Themistocles demanded money, would not give it. When, however, Themistocles gave them to understand that the Athenians had come with two great gods to aid them, Persuasion and Necessity, and that the Andrians must therefore certainly give money, they said in response, “It is then but reasonable that Athens is great and prosperous, being blessed with serviceable gods."
Herodotus: Original Greek http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0125%3Abook%3D8%3Achapter%3D111: (2) πρῶτοι γὰρ Ἄνδριοι νησιωτέων αἰτηθέντες πρὸς Θεμιστοκλέος χρήματα οὐκ ἔδοσαν, ἀλλὰ προϊσχομένου Θεμιστοκλέος λόγον τόνδε, ὡς ἥκοιεν Ἀθηναῖοι περὶ ἑωυτοὺς ἔχοντες δύο θεοὺς μεγάλους, πειθώ τε καὶ ἀναγκαίην, οὕτω τέ σφι κάρτα δοτέα εἶναι χρήματα, ὑπεκρίναντο πρὸς ταῦτα λέγοντες ὡς κατὰ λόγον ἦσαν ἄρα αἱ Ἀθῆναι μεγάλαι τε καὶ εὐδαίμονες, αἳ καὶ θεῶν χρηστῶν ἥκοιεν εὖ... (via Perseus Project)
Herodotus is quoted by Plutarch in Themistocles http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0066%3Achapter%3D21%3Asection%3D1 (21.1): he said he came escorting two gods, Persuasion and Compulsion. ( Greek http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0074%3Achapter%3D21%3Asection%3D1: "δύο γὰρ ἥκειν ἔφη θεοὺς κομίζων, Πειθὼ καὶ Βίαν")
NOTE the two different sets of "gods" in the Original Greek: πειθώ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*peiqw%5C&la=greek&can=*peiqw%5C0&prior=komi/zwn&d=Perseus:text:2008.01.0074:chapter=21:section=1&i=1 τε καὶ ἀναγκαίην http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a%29nagkai%2Fhn&la=greek&can=a%29nagkai%2Fhn0&prior=kai\&d=Perseus:text:1999.01.0125:book=8:chapter=111&i=1 (Herodotus); Πειθὼ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*peiqw%5C&la=greek&can=*peiqw%5C0&prior=komi/zwn&d=Perseus:text:2008.01.0074:chapter=21:section=1&i=1 καὶ Βίαν http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*bi%2Fan&la=greek&can=*bi%2Fan0&prior=kai\&d=Perseus:text:2008.01.0074:chapter=21:section=1&i=1 (Plutarch)
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 17
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)
The smartest of my pupils would get all my attention, and the rest would have to fend for themselves. And I can’t handle being interrupted.
Writing is the answer. Whatever I have to teach, my students will select themselves by buying the book. And nobody interrupts a printed page.
Foreword: Playgrounds for the Mind (pp. 26-27)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)
Am wenigsten widerstehen kann ich dem Zweifel. Ich bezweifle alles, selbst meinen Zweifel. Ich glaube wenig und auch das nicht ganz. Skepsis ist für mich keine der «schönen Künste », sondern Teil meiner Existenz.
deschner.info http://www.deschner.info/de/person/zitate.htm
“I am free by compulsion, whether I wish to be or not.”
“Man has no nature”
History as a System (1962)
Context: Be it well understood, I am free by compulsion, whether I wish to be or not. Freedom is not an activity pursued by an entity that, apart from and previous to such pursuit, is already possessed of a fixed being. To be free means to be lacking in constitutive identity, not to have subscribed to a determined being, to be able to be other than what one was, to be unable to install oneself once and for all in any given being. The only attribute of the fixed, stable being in the free being is this constitutive instability.