William Barrett (philosopher) book Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy
Source: Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958), Chapter Six, The Flight From Laputa, p. 121
Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.
Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
This is not new. The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.
William Barrett (philosopher) book Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy
Source: Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958), Chapter Six, The Flight From Laputa, p. 121
“There is no human quality more attractive than the courage of the weak.”
Gene Wolfe book Home Fires
Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1
Fiction
Max Brooks book The Zombie Survival Guide
The Zombie Survival Guide
Context: Joy, sadness, confidence, anxiety, love, hatred, fear—all of these feelings and thousands more that make up the human “heart” are as useless to the living dead as the organ of the same name. Who knows if this is humanity’s greatest weakness or strength? The debate continues, and probably will forever.
“The weakness of men is the facade of strength; the strength of women is the facade of weakness.”
Warren Farrell book The Myth of Male Power
Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part 1: The Myth of Male Power, p. 13.
C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) American sociologist
"The Cultural Apparatus"
Power, Politics, and People (1963)
Susan Ashbrook Harvey (1953) Late antique and Byzantine Christian scholar
[Harvey, Susan Ashbrook, 4, Sohn, Justin, Brown-RISD Cornerstone, An Interview With Professor Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Fall 2015, 4, 1, 16, https://viewer.joomag.com/mag/0401098001450315834?feature=archive, 2022-04-30, en-US, https://web.archive.org/web/20220430014121/https://viewer.joomag.com/mag/0401098001450315834?feature=archive, 2022-04-30, live]
“More often than not, anger is actually an indication of weakness rather than of strength.”
Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant
Source: 1930s- 1950s, Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World (1959), p. 93-94