“Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.”
Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), Human Personality (1943), p. 61
Context: The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.
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Simone Weil193
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909–1943Related quotes
“He would not, with a peremptory tone,
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Source: Conversation (1782), Line 121.
Elliott Carter (1908–2012) American composer
Elliott Carter (1977). The Writings of Elliott Carter, p.186. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Cited in Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226012670.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French artist
Source: 1900s, Notes d'un Peintre (Notes of a Painter) (1908), p. 411
“My works are 12-tone compositions, not 12-tone compositions”
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) Austrian-American composer
Stuckenschmidt, Hans Heinz. 1977, in Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work; translated from the German by Humphrey Searle. p. 349.
after 1930
Stendhal book The Charterhouse of Parma
Comme on craint peu de choquer la vanité, on arrive fort vite en Italie au ton de l'intimité, et à dire des choses personnelles.
Source: La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma) (1839), Ch. 6
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Speech on Women in a changing World (26 July 1982) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105007 <br class="br">First term as Prime Minister