George Chapman The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
Act III, scene i.
The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608)
Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1887/mar/28/motion-for-leave-first-reading#column_1656 in the House of Commons (28 March 1887) introducing the Irish Crimes Bill <br class="br">Chief Secretary for Ireland
George Chapman The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron
Act III, scene i.
The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608)
Charles Darwin book On the Origin of Species (1859)
Source: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter XV: "Recapitulation and Conclusion", page 421 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=449&itemID=F391&viewtype=image, in the sixth (1872) edition <br class="br">Source: The Origin of Species
Michael Walzer (1935) American philosopher
"The Obligation to Disobey," Ethics, Vol. 77, No. 3 (April 1967), p. 163
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Source: A Companion to Jan Hus (2015), p. 231.
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
On Antitrust law: Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings, 8/5/1986, transcript http://a255.g.akamaitech.net/7/255/2422/22sep20051120/www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh99-1064/31-110.pdf at p. 36). <br class="br">1980s
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Rediscovering Lost Values (1954)
Context: Now that isn't the only thing that convinces me that we've strayed away from this attitude, this principle. The other thing is that we have adopted a sort of a pragmatic test for right and wrong—whatever works is right. If it works, it's all right. Nothing is wrong but that which does not work. If you don't get caught, it's right. [laughter] That's the attitude, isn't it? It's all right to disobey the Ten Commandments, but just don't disobey the eleventh, "Thou shall not get caught." [laughter] That's the attitude. That's the prevailing attitude in our culture. No matter what you do, just do it with a bit of finesse. You know, a sort of attitude of the survival of the slickest. Not the Darwinian survival of the fittest, but the survival of the slickest—whoever can be the slickest is the one who right. It's all right to lie, but lie with dignity. [laughter] It's all right to steal and to rob and extort, but do it with a bit of finesse. It's even all right to hate, but just dress your hate up in the garments of love and make it appear that you are loving when you are actually hating. Just get by! That's the thing that's right according to this new ethic. My friends, that attitude is destroying the soul of our culture. It's destroying our nation.
William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) American philosopher
Preface (20 May 1926), p. vii.
Present Status of the Philosophy of Law and of Rights (1926)
Context: For those who have only to obey, law is what the sovereign commands. For the sovereign, in the throes of deciding what he ought to command, this view of law is singularly empty of light and leading. In the dispersed sovereignty of modern states, and especially in times of rapid social change, law must look to the future as well as to history and precedent, and to what is possible and right as well as to what is actual.
Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast
Youtube, Other, The Damn Commandments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u3z69YpLx0 (January 7, 2015)
“I don't see any reason why I should look for someone who never took the trouble to love me.”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
“Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.”
Ferdinand de Saussure book Course in General Linguistics
Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 77
Context: The causes of continuity are a priori within the scope of the observer, but the causes of change in time are not. It is better not to attempt giving an exact account at this point, but to restrict discussion to the shifting of relationships in general. Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.