Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Poetry
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist
Poetry
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature
“The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.”
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
"Shadows from the Big Woods", p. 223
The Journey Home (1977)
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
As quoted in Mao's Road to Power: Revolutionary Writings, 1912-49: v. 5: Toward the Second United Front, January 1935-July 1937: Revolutionary Writings, 1912-49 https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=USEvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT861 (2017), p. 861, Routledge.
Lawrence Lessig book The Future of Ideas
The Future of Ideas (2001)
Context: A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense. Power runs with ideas that only the crazy would draw into doubt. The "taken for granted" is the test of sanity; "what everyone knows" is the line between us and them.
This means that sometimes a society gets stuck. Sometimes these unquestioned ideas interfere, as the cost of questioning becomes too great. In these times, the hardest task for social or political activists is to find a way to get people to wonder again about what we all believe is true. The challenge is to sow doubt.
“Doubt is brother-devil to Despair.”
John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) Irish-born poet and novelist
Prometheus.
Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966) United States Navy fleet admiral
Speech at the University of California, Berkeley (22 March 1950)
Context: That is not to say that we can relax our readiness to defend ourselves. Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.