Source: The Meaning of God in Human Experience (1912), Ch. XII : The Will as a Maker of Truth, p. 140.
Context: For maturity is marked by the preference to be defeated rather than have a subjective success. We as mature persons can worship only that which we are compelled to worship. If we are offered a man-made God and a self-answering prayer, we will rather have no God and no prayer. There can be no valid worship except that in which man is involuntarily bent by the presence of the Most Real, beyond his will.
Trump and the Fall of Liberalism (November 11, 2016)
New York World, 10 May 1926
Message to the American Federation of Labor appealing for help in the General Strike.
Source: 1969 - 1980, In: "Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper," 1987, p. unknown : 'Notes from 1969'
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XXV: On Reformation
“Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.”
Lexie Darnell, Chapter 13, p. 205
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)
Context: In her new, more mature incarnation, she embraced the idea that maturity meant thinking about risk long before you pondered the reward, and that success and happiness in life were as much about avoiding mistakes as making your mark in the world.
“If life is all subjective, why not be subjectively happy rather than subjectively sad?”
On the Wisdom of America (1950), p. 155
On the defeat of the forces of Darius the Great of Persia at the Battle of Marathon, in Glimpses of World History; Being Further Letters to His Daughter, Written In Prison, And Containing A Rambling Account of History For Young People (1942); also in Nehru on World History (1960} edited by Saul K. Padover, p. 14
“I prefer the wicked rather than the foolish. The wicked sometimes rest.”
