The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877)
Context: The way was paved for absolute monarchy to triumph over the spirit and institutions of a better age, not by isolated acts of wickedness, but by a studied philosophy of crime, and so thorough a perversion of the moral sense that the like of it had not been since the Stoics reformed the morality of paganism.
The clergy who had in so many ways served the cause of freedom during the prolonged strife against feudalism and slavery, were associated now with the interest of royalty.
“Philosophy triumphs easily over past and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.”
La philosophie triomphe aisément des maux passés et des maux à venir. Mais les maux présents triomphent d'elle.
Maxim 22. Compare: "This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey", Oliver Goldsmith, The Good-Natured Man, Act i.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
1 October 1849
Journal Intime (1882), Journal entries
Context: Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh — that is to say, over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of sickness, of isolation, and of death. There is no serious piety without heroism. Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.
Source: General System Theory (1968), 1. Introduction, p. 9
“The curious crime, the fine
Felicity and flower of wickedness.”
Book X: The Pope, line 590.
The Ring and the Book (1868-69)
Source: 1980s, Laws of Media: The New Science (with Eric McLuhan) (1988), p. 42
Source: The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (2004), Chapter 56 “At Last, the Box, Explained” (p. 320)
“If the way to hell is paved with good intentions, the way to defeat is paved with illusions.”
No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)
2000s, The Sacred Warrior (2000)
Context: His philosophy of Satyagraha is both a personal and a social struggle to realize the Truth, which he identifies as God, the Absolute Morality. He seeks this Truth, not in isolation, self-centeredly, but with the people. He said, "I want to find God, and because I want to find God, I have to find God along with other people. I don't believe I can find God alone. If I did, I would be running to the Himalayas to find God in some cave there. But since I believe that nobody can find God alone, I have to work with people. I have to take them with me. Alone I can't come to Him."
Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Water Book
Source: The End of the American Era (2002), Chapter eight: The Rebirth of History
