Source: The Windup Girl (2009), p. 280
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
The Pathway of Peace (1923)
Context: Time has shown how illusory are alliances of great powers so far as the maintenance of peace is concerned.
In considering the use of international force to secure peace, we are again brought to the fundamental necessity of common accord. If the feasibility of such a force be conceded for the purpose of maintaining adjudications of legal right, this is only because such an adjudication would proceed upon principles commonly accepted, and thus forming part of international law, and upon the common agreement to respect the decision of an impartial tribunal in the application of such principles. This is a limited field where force is rarely needed and where the sanctions of public opinion and the demands of national honor are generally quite sufficient to bring about acquiescence in judicial awards. But in the field of conflicting national policies, and what are deemed essential interests, when the smoldering fires of old grievances have been fanned into a flame by a passionate sense of immediate injury, or the imagination of peoples is dominated by apprehension of present danger to national safety, or by what is believed to be an assault upon national honor, what force is to control the outbreak? Great powers agreeing among themselves may indeed hold small powers in check. But who will hold great powers in check when great powers disagree?.
"Of Founders and the Political Constitution," p. 72
Against Rousseau (1795)
“Sin which men account small brings God's great wrath on men.”
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, 1652
“Great men are sometimes so even in small things.”
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 188.
“The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.”
As quoted in The Ibsen Calendar : A Quotation from the Works of Henrik Ibsen for Every Day (1913) by C. A. Arfwedson
Context: The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish. The great secret of action and victory is to be capable of living your life without ideals. Such is the sum of the whole world's wisdom.
Conversation with Anthony Eden, recounted in de Gaulle's Mémoires de guerre. Quoted in The Atlantic, November 1960.
World War II
“The possession of great powers, no doubt, carries with it a contempt for mere external show.”
“Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth”, Memorial address at Hiram College, (22 June 1876), in President Garfield and Education : Hiram College Memorial (1881) by B. A. Hinsdale, p. 420 http://books.google.com/books?id=rA4XAAAAYAAJ
1870s
“Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller.”
Ainsi les postes éminents rendent les grands hommes encore plus grands, et les petits beaucoup plus petits.
Aphorism 95
Les Caractères (1688), De l'Homme
