“You will readily understand my mental condition as I stand on the threshold of what the man-in-the-street would call a promising career.”
In a letter to his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose on 22 September 1920, as quoted in Life and times of Subhas Chandra Bose, as told in his own words (1978) by himself, p. 83
Context: You will readily understand my mental condition as I stand on the threshold of what the man-in-the-street would call a promising career. There is much to be said favour of such a service. It solves once for all what is paramount problem for each of us—the problem of bread and butter. One has not to go face life with risk or uncertainty as to success or failure. But for a man of my temperament who has been feeding on ideas which might be called eccentric—the line of least resistance is not the best to follow. Life loses half its interest if there is no struggle—if there are no risks to be taken. The uncertainties of life are not appalling to one who has not, at heart, worldly ambitions. Moreover, it is not possible to serve one's country in the best and fullest manner if one is chained to the Civil Service. In short, national and spiritual aspirations are not compatible with obedience to Civil Service Examinations.
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Subhas Chandra Bose 10
Indian nationalist leader and politician 1897–1945Related quotes
Quoted by Orson F. Whtiney, Life of Heber C. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Kimball Family, 1888), 322
Attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr.
What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide? (1900)
Context: What then is, or can be called, a moral guide? The shortest possible answer is one word: Intelligence. We want the experience of mankind, the true history of the race. We want the history of intellectual development, of the growth of the ethical, of the idea of justice, of conscience, of charity, of self-denial. We want to know the paths and roads that have been traveled by the human mind. These facts in general, these histories in outline, the results reached, the conclusions formed, the principles evolved, taken together, would form the best conceivable moral guide. We cannot depend on what are called “inspired books,” or the religions of the world. These religions are based on the supernatural, and according to them we are under obligation to worship and obey some supernatural being, or beings. All these religions are inconsistent with intellectual liberty. They are the enemies of thought, of investigation, of mental honesty. They destroy the manliness of man. They promise eternal rewards for belief, for credulity, for what they call faith. This is not only absurd, but it is immoral.
“I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul.”
Diary entry http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/diary.html, (1 March 1981), the first day of his hunger strike, in Skylark Sing your Lonely Song : An Anthology of the Writings of Bobby Sands (1991).
Other writings
My Disillusionment in Russia (1923)
Mr. Pitiful, co-written with Steve Cropper.
Song lyrics, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965)
"One-on-One with Robert Parish" https://web.archive.org/web/19990508215339/http://www.nba.com/history/parish_chat_060396.html, NBA.com (1998).
If you don't do it, many of the brightest of you will live in the middle ranks or in the shallows.
USC Law School Commencement Speech http://genius.com/Charlie-munger-usc-law-commencement-speech-annotated (2007-05-13)