“If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
The Art of Persuasion
Source: A talk at Slush 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9gnLKw8P0 November 2015
“If we do not secure the foundation, we cannot secure the edifice.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
The Art of Persuasion
Bill Mollison (1928–2016) Australian permaculturist
Source: Permaculture: A Designers' Manual (1988), chapter 14.2
“In securing the equal rights of these we shall secure the equal rights of all.”
Henry George (1839–1897) American economist
Source: Social Problems (1883), Ch. 21 : Conclusion
Context: Those who are most to be considered, those for whose help the struggle must be made, if labor is to be enfranchised, and social justice won, are those least able to help or struggle for themselves, those who have no advantage of property or skill or intelligence, — the men and women who are at the very bottom of the social scale. In securing the equal rights of these we shall secure the equal rights of all.
Hence it is, as Mazzini said, that it is around the standard of duty rather than around the standard of self-interest that men must rally to win the rights of man. And herein may we see the deep philosophy of Him who bade men love their neighbors as themselves.
In that spirit, and in no other, is the power to solve social problems and carry civilization onward.
Karl Popper book The Open Society and Its Enemies
Vol. 2, Ch. 21 "An Evaluation of the Prophecy"
The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Call to Service in Colorado Springs, CO (2 July 2008) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt2yGzHfy7s <br class="br">2008
Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations
Truman Library address (2006)
Context: No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other’s security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.
— And, I would add that this responsibility is not simply a matter of States being ready to come to each other’s aid when attacked — important though that is. It also includes our shared responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity — a responsibility solemnly accepted by all nations at last year’s UN world summit. That means that respect for national sovereignty can no longer be used as a shield by Governments intent on massacring their own people, or as an excuse for the rest of us to do nothing when heinous crimes are committed.
“We all have our security blankets in this world. Some are just sharper than others.”
Rob Thurman (1950) American writer
Source: Nightlife
Ignatius Ayau Kaigama (1958) Nigerian Catholic archbishop
Archbp. Kaigama calls on Gvt and Intl Community to protect Nigerians https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-12/nigeria-kidnappings-scholars-priests-lawlessness-appeal-kaigama.html (18 December 2020)
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
Bernice King (1963) American minister, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"A Call for Prayer – and Action -- Against Violence in America" (2012)