“He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face. ”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his f…" by Benjamin Franklin?
Benjamin Franklin photo
Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

Related quotes

Blaise Pascal photo
Josh Billings photo

“Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just, But four times he who gets his blow in fust”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Affurisms. From Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)

Marcus Aurelius photo
Tamora Pierce photo
Angela Merkel photo

“I understand why he has to do this; to prove he's a man… He's afraid of his own weakness. Russia has nothing, no successful politics or economy. All they have is this.”

Angela Merkel (1954) Chancellor of Germany

As quoted in "The Quiet German" http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/quiet-german (1 December 2014), by George Paker, The New Yorker.
2014

H.L. Mencken photo

“He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. . . . They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"Aftermath" in the Baltimore Evening Sun http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/menck05.htm#SCOPESD (14 September 1925)
1920s
Context: Once more, alas, I find myself unable to follow the best Liberal thought. What the World's contention amounts to, at bottom, is simply the doctrine that a man engaged in combat with superstition should be very polite to superstition. This, I fear, is nonsense. The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.
True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them.... They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy.
The meaning of religious freedom, I fear, is sometimes greatly misapprehended. It is taken to be a sort of immunity, not merely from governmental control but also from public opinion. A dunderhead gets himself a long-tailed coat, rises behind the sacred desk, and emits such bilge as would gag a Hottentot. Is it to pass unchallenged? If so, then what we have is not religious freedom at all, but the most intolerable and outrageous variety of religious despotism. Any fool, once he is admitted to holy orders, becomes infallible. Any half-wit, by the simple device of ascribing his delusions to revelation, takes on an authority that is denied to all the rest of us.... What should be a civilized man's attitude toward such superstitions? It seems to me that the only attitude possible to him is one of contempt. If he admits that they have any intellectual dignity whatever, he admits that he himself has none. If he pretends to a respect for those who believe in them, he pretends falsely, and sinks almost to their level. When he is challenged he must answer honestly, regardless of tender feelings.

Richard Cobden photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

“When one has had all his conceit taken out of him, when he has lost all his illusions, his feathers will soon soak through, and he will fly no more.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Frederik Pohl photo

“Anybody who sets out to turn the world upside down has no right to complain if he gets caught in its gears.”

Source: The Space Merchants (1953), Chapter 8 (p. 105)

Related topics