“There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.”
Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
“Indifference from this point on is impossible.”
The Spirit of Revolt (1880)
Context: Whoever has a slight knowledge of history and a fairly clear head knows perfectly well from the beginning that theoretical propaganda for revolution will necessarily express itself in action long before the theoreticians have decided that the moment to act has come. Nevertheless, the cautious theoreticians are angry at these madmen, they excommunicate them, they anathematize them. But the madmen win sympathy, the mass of the people secretly applaud their courage, and they find imitators. In proportion as the pioneers go to fill the jails and the penal colonies, others continue their work; acts of illegal protest, of revolt, of vengeance, multiply.
Indifference from this point on is impossible. Those who at the beginning never so much as asked what the "madmen" wanted, are compelled to think about them, to discuss their ideas, to take sides for or against. By actions which compel general attention, the new idea seeps into people's minds and wins converts. One such act may, in a few days, make more propaganda than thousands of pamphlets.
Above all, it awakens the spirit of revolt: it breeds daring. The old order, supported by the police, the magistrates, the gendarmes and the soldiers, appeared unshakable, like the old fortress of the Bastille, which also appeared impregnable to the eyes of the unarmed people gathered beneath its high walls equipped with loaded cannon. But soon it became apparent that the established order has not the force one had supposed.
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Peter Kropotkin 141
Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scie… 1842–1921Related quotes
Berthe Morisot
(1841–1895) painter from France
quote in her letter to sister Edma, circa 1872/73, after Manet had forgotten to show one of her paintings to art-dealer Durand-Ruel; as cited in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, with her family and friends, Denish Rouart - newly introduced by Kathleen Adler and Tamer Garb; Camden Press London 1986, pp. 89-90
1871 - 1880
Source: The Return of the Native
Anatole France
(1844–1924) French writer
Il est à peu près impossible de constituer systématiquement une morale naturelle. La nature n'a pas de principes. Elle ne nous fournit aucune raison de croire que la vie humaine est respectable. La nature, indifférente, ne fait nulle distinction du bien et du mal.
La Révolte des Anges [The Revolt of the Angels] (1914), ch. XXVII
William C. Davis
(1946) American historian
The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy (1996)
John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge
(1820–1894) British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician
In re Brandreth (1891), L. J. 60 Q. B. D. 504.
“Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour 'gainst indifference.”
Robertson Davies
(1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
A Prologue (1939) to Oliver Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man (1768).
Context: Our fate lies in your hands, to you we pray
For an indulgent hearing of our play;
Laugh if you can, or failing that, give vent
In hissing fury to your discontent;
Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour 'gainst indifference.
“Indifference of every kind is reprehensible, even indifference towards one’s self.”
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
(1830–1916) Austrian writer
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 82.