St. 2
1790s, The Tyger (1794)
“I am writing with my burnt hand about the nature of fire.”
“But his ambition is limitless. He dares to do what men and women don't even dare to think.”
Thorold, in Ch. 2 : The Witches
His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)
Context: Lord Asriel is just a man, with human power, no more than that. But his ambition is limitless. He dares to do what men and women don't even dare to think.
Dr. Theodore Faron About Xan.
The Children of Men (1992)
A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa (2012)
Context: Most Africans cannot think freely or express their doubts openly because these religions have placed a huge price on freethinking and critical inquiry. Because these belief systems rely on paranormal claims themselves, Africans feel they cannot speak out against superstition as a whole, or they will be ostracized or even killed by religious zealots. Belief in demonic possession, faith healing, and the “restorative” power of holy water can have deadly consequences for believers and whole communities. Africans must reject superstitious indoctrination and dogmatization in public institutions. Africans need to adopt this cultural motto: Dare to think. Dare to doubt. Dare to question everything in spite of what the superstitious around you teach and preach. Africans must begin to think freely in order to ‘emancipate themselves from mental slavery’ and generate ideas that can ignite the flame of an African enlightenment.
“He was now in that state of fire that she loved. She wanted to be burnt.”
Source: Delta of Venus
“A burnt child loves the fire.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The burnt child dreads the fire.”
Act I, scene 2
The Devil Is an Ass (performed 1616; published 1631)
Part II, chapter 2.
Proverbs (1546), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Crescentius from The London Literary Gazette (19th July 1823) Execution of Crescentius
The Improvisatrice (1824)
