“Morality without sense for paradox is vulgar.”
Moralität ohne Sinn für Paradoxie ist gemein.
“Ideas,” Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 76
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Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel67
German poet, critic and scholar 1772–1829Related quotes
Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben (1806–1849) Austrian psychiatrist, poet and philosopher
The Dietetics of the Soul; Or, True Mental Discipline (1838)
“Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America
Original text: À côté de ces hommes religieux, j'en découvre d'autres dont les regards sont tournés vers la terre plutôt que vers le ciel ; partisans de la liberté, non seulement parce qu'ils voient en elle l'origine des plus nobles vertus, mais surtout parce qu'ils la considèrent comme la source des plus grands biens, ils désirent sincèrement assurer son empire et faire goûter aux hommes ses bienfaits : je comprends que ceux-là vont se hâter d'appeler la religion à leur aide, car ils doivent savoir qu'on ne peut établir le règne de la liberté sans celui des mœurs, ni fonder les mœurs sans les croyances ; mais ils ont aperçu la religion dans les rangs de leurs adversaires, c'en est assez pour eux : les uns l'attaquent, et les autres n'osent la défendre.
Introduction.
Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835)
Context: By the side of these religious men I discern others whose looks are turned to the earth more than to Heaven; they are the partisans of liberty, not only as the source of the noblest virtues, but more especially as the root of all solid advantages; and they sincerely desire to extend its sway, and to impart its blessings to mankind. It is natural that they should hasten to invoke the assistance of religion, for they must know that liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith; but they have seen religion in the ranks of their adversaries, and they inquire no further; some of them attack it openly, and the remainder are afraid to defend it.
Ursula K. Le Guin book Four Ways to Forgiveness
"A Man of the People", p. 107
Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)
“That is more than morality; it's sense.”
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India
Interview by James Cameron in Picture Post (28 October 1950)
Context: If in the modern world wars have unfortunately to be fought (and they do, it seems) then they must be stopped at the first possible moment, otherwise they corrupt us, they create new problems and make our future even more uncertain. That is more than morality; it's sense.
Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) American theoretical physicist and professor of physics
Physics in the Contemporary World, Arthur D. Little Memorial Lecture at M.I.T. (25 November 1947)
Context: Despite the vision and farseeing wisdom of our wartime heads of state, the physicists have felt the peculiarly intimate responsibility for suggesting, for supporting, and in the end, in large measure, for achieving the realization of atomic weapons. Nor can we forget that these weapons, as they were in fact used, dramatized so mercilessly the inhumanity and evil of modern war. In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.
“Nothing penetrates the liberal's sense of moral outrage.”
Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor
Afterburner with Bill Whittle https://web.archive.org/web/20090225020338/http://www.pjtv.com/page/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/127/ ()