“The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end.”

— Clive Staples Lewis

The World's Last Night (1952)
Context: The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph.

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Clive Staples Lewis 272

Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist 1898–1963

John Rawls book A Theory of Justice

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter III, Section 23, pg. 135
Context: The claims of existing social arrangements and of self interest have been duly allowed for. We cannot at the end count them a second time because we do not like the result.

“The doctrine of the Second Coming has failed, so far as we are concerned, if it does not make us realize that at every moment of every year in our lives Donne's question "What if this present were the world's last night?"”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

is equally relevant.
The World's Last Night (1952)

“The saviors of the world do not come to foster inimical doctrinal divisions; their teachings should not be used toward that end. It is something of a misnomer even to refer to the New Testament as the "Christian" Bible, for it does not belong exclusively to any one sect. Truth is meant for the blessing and upliftment of the entire human race. As the Christ Consciousness is universal, so does Jesus Christ belong to all….”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, (2004) by Yogananda

“Impossible for me to know whether or not I take myself seriously. The drama of detachment is that we cannot measure its progress. We advance into a desert, and we never know where we are in it.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

“After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution.”

Kenzaburō Ōe (1935) Japanese author

Japan, The Ambiguous, and Myself (1994)
Context: After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution. The Japanese chose the principle of eternal peace as the basis of morality for our rebirth after the War.
I trust that the principle can best be understood in the West with its long tradition of tolerance for conscientious rejection of military service. In Japan itself there have all along been attempts by some to obliterate the article about renunciation of war from the Constitution and for this purpose they have taken every opportunity to make use of pressures from abroad. But to obliterate from the Constitution the principle of eternal peace will be nothing but an act of betrayal against the peoples of Asia and the victims of the Atom Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“The world must know that this administration will not blink in the face of danger, and will not tire when it comes to completing the missions that we said we would do.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Press conference, Crawford, Texas http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011228-1.html (December 28, 2001)
2000s, 2001

“What we know of the world comes to us through words, or, to look at it from the other direction, when we write a sentence, we create a world, which is not the world, but the world as is appears within a dimension of assessment.”

Stanley Fish (1938) American academic

Source: How To Write A Sentence And How To Read One (2011), Chapter 4, What Is A Good Sentence?, p. 39

“We cannot define anything precisely. If we attempt to, we get into that paralysis of thought that comes to philosophers, who sit opposite each other, one saying to the other, "You don't know what you are talking about!". The second one says, "What do you mean by know? What do you mean by talking?”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

What do you mean by you?"
volume I; lecture 8, "Motion"; section 8-1, "Description of motion"; p. 8-2
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

“Our nuclear weapons doctrine does not provide for a pre-emptive strike.... there is no provision for a pre-emptive strike in our nuclear weapons doctrine. Our concept is based on a reciprocal counter strike. We are prepared and will use nuclear weapons only when we know for certain that some potential aggressor is attacking Russia...Only when we know for certain – and this takes a few seconds to understand – that Russia is being attacked we will deliver a counter strike. This would be a reciprocal counter strike. Why do I say ‘counter’? Because we will counter missiles flying towards us by sending a missile in the direction of an aggressor. Of course, this amounts to a global catastrophe but I would like to repeat that we cannot be the initiators of such a catastrophe... any aggressor should know that retaliation is inevitable and they will be annihilated. And we as the victims of an aggression, we as martyrs would go to paradise while they will simply perish because they won’t even have time to repent their sins.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

2016 - 2020, Valdai Discussion Club: 15th Plenary Session (18 October 2018)

“I heard that these whites are coming to march again, they will announce a new date. I’m thinking national chair we must organise a counter-march and meet them half way. We cannot allow white people to do as they wish in this country, like they’re doing in Palestine. Let them announce the day they’re coming back. Let us meet them toe to toe, let us teach them who owns South Africa. We cannot be harassed in our own country during apartheid and be harassed in our own country during a democratic dispensation by a nonsense Afrikaner community. It must come to an end, let us meet them toe to toe.”

Julius Malema (1981) South African political activist

In response to the Black Monday protests, while addressing EFF members on 2 November 2017 outside the Israeli Embassy, Pretoria, How Malema plans to teach ‘nonsense’ Afrikaner community who really owns SA https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1714102/watch-how-malema-plans-to-teach-nonsense-afrikaner-community-who-really-owns-sa/, Citizen reporter (2 November 2017)

“The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end.”

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Clive Staples Lewis 272

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