1960, The New Frontier
Context: For the harsh facts of the matter are that we stand on this frontier at a turning-point in history. We must prove all over again whether this nation — or any nation so conceived — can long endure — whether our society — with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives — can compete with the single-minded advance of the Communist system. Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That is the real question. Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction — but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside of men's minds? Are we up to the task — are we equal to the challenge? Are we willing to match the Russian sacrifice of the present for the future — or must we sacrifice our future in order to enjoy the present? That is the question of the New Frontier. That is the choice our nation must make — a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort — between national greatness and national decline — between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of "normalcy" — between determined dedication and creeping mediocrity. All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we will do. We cannot fail their trust, we cannot fail to try.
“Our dignity is not in what we do, but in what we understand. The whole world is doing things.”
Source: Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion (1913), p. 199
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George Santayana 109
20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with P… 1863–1952Related quotes
Source: Love and Will (1969), p. 100
Context: When we "fall" in love, as the expressive verb puts it, the world shakes and changes around us, not only in the way it looks but in our whole experience of what we are doing in the world. Generally, the shaking is consciously felt in its positive aspects … Love is the answer, we sing. … our Western culture seems to be engaged in a romantic — albeit desperate — conspiracy to enforce the illusion that that is all there is to eros.
Michael Franti Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s75CPceiCw&feature=related
“What in the world would we do without our libraries?”
“… we
do not admire what
we cannot understand.”
Source: Complete Poems
“We all fear what we do not understand.”
Variant: Open your minds, my friends. We all fear what we do not understand.
Source: The Lost Symbol
Source: Who Fears Death (2010), Chapter 21, “Gadi” (p. 139)
"The Path of the Law," Address to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts at the dedication of the new hall of the Boston University School of Law (8 January 1897), published in Harvard Law Review, Vol. 10 (25 March 1897).
1890s
“We need to understand what we can do and how. Otherwise we will never do it.”
Preface, p. x
Building Entopia - 1975
1950s, Address at the Philadelphia Convention Hall (1956)