Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life (1974)
Context: Life is not meaningless for the man who considers certain actions wrong simply because they are wrong, whether or not they violate the law. This kind of moral code gives a person a focus, a basis on which to conduct himself. Certainly there is a temptation to let go of morals in order to do the expedient thing. But there is also a tremendous power in standing by what is right. Principle and accomplishment need not be incompatible.
A common thread moves through all the principles I have discussed: It is the desire to improve oneself and one's surroundings by actively participating in life. Too many succumb to the emotional preference of the comfortable solution instead of the difficult one. It is easy to do nothing. And to do nothing is also an act; an act of indifference or cowardice.
A person must prepare himself intellectually and professionally and then use his powers to their fullest extent.
“A man who is certain he is right is almost sure to be wrong.”
“I…regret…what I did. It was wrong. Very wrong. But regret is meaningless.”
Source: The Broken Kingdoms (2011), Chapter 16 “From the Depths to the Heights” (watercolor) (p. 283)
Source: Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer, (1985), pp. 139-140. (Chapter 17: “Who’s Afraid of No Government?”)
Pt. V, st. 29
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
“My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.”
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
“Misogyny is absolutely wrong whether it's a man against a woman or a woman against a man.”
Interviewed on the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58814271 (6 October 2021)
2020s, 2021
Webb v. Portland Manufacturing Co., 3 Sumn. Rep. 189 (1838).
“If you're certain, you're certainly wrong, because nothing deserves certainty.”
Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960), p. 14
1960s
As quoted in "Ted Cruz blames Obama for death of Harris County sheriff's deputy" http://www.chron.com/news/politics/tedcruz/article/Ted-Cruz-blames-Obama-for-death-of-Harris-County-6476309.php, by Matt Levin, Houston Chronicle (31 August 2015).
2010s
