“In human affairs, all that endures is what men think.”
Source: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 15
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“In human affairs, all that endures is what men think.”
Source: The God of the Machine (1943), p. 15
Writing in Reason and Passion: Justice Brennan's Enduring Influence (1997).
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Quoted in: Alan Rusbridger " The Snowden Leaks and the Public http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/nov/21/snowden-leaks-and-public/" at nybooks.com, November 21, 2013.
“Push your limit to the absolute extreme.”
“It's self centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.”
The Quotable Sir John
Context: The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be. It's self centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.
"For the Defense Written for the Associated Press, for use in my obituary" (20 November 1940)
1940s–present
Context: Having lived all my life in a country swarming with messiahs, I have been mistaken, perhaps quite naturally, for one myself, especially by the others. It would be hard to imagine anything more preposterous. I am, in fact, the complete anti-Messiah, and detest converts almost as much as I detest missionaries. My writings, such as they are, have had only one purpose: to attain for H. L. Mencken that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk. Further than that, I have had no interest in the matter whatsoever. It has never given me any satisfaction to encounter one who said my notions had pleased him. My preference has always been for people with notions of their own. I have believed all my life in free thought and free speech—up to and including the utmost limits of the endurable.
“Surely a limit boundet every woe,
But mine enduring anguish hath no end”
Poem A Song of Redemption
“Our tendency to think that we're not predictable is probably one of our more predictable traits.”
TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)