“I protest against any absolute conclusion.”

—  George Eliot , book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I protest against any absolute conclusion." by George Eliot?
George Eliot photo
George Eliot 300
English novelist, journalist and translator 1819–1880

Related quotes

Norodom Sihanouk photo
David Hume photo

“The conclusion [of the essay 'Of the Protestant Succession'] shows me a Whig, but a very sceptical one.”

David Hume (1711–1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian

Letter to Henry Home (9 February 1848), quoted in J. Y. T. Greig, The Letters of David Hume: Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), p. 111

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Jacques Ellul photo

“The point is not to enforce a particular view of society but to establish a counterbalance, a protest, a sign of cleavage. In face of an absolute power only a total confrontation has any meaning.”

Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarchist

Source: The Ethics of Freedom (1973 - 1974), p. 397
Context: The system absorbs those who think they can utilize it. Nor can there be any question of finding a modus vivendi or achieving attenuations. It has been demonstrated how the liberals state becomes an authoritarian state. The course is set and no accommodation will be either lasting or sufficient.
In face of this absolute power, only an absolutely negative position is viable. What we have in mind is the attitude that conscientous objectors take on a specific point, and not without good reason. In the present set-up the anarchist attitude of a total refusal of validity or legitimacy to any authority of any kind seems to me to be the only valid and viable one. The point is not to enforce a particular view of society but to establish a counterbalance, a protest, a sign of cleavage. In face of an absolute power only a total confrontation has any meaning.

Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

Terry Pratchett photo
Damon Runyon photo

“I long ago come to the conclusion that all life is six to five against.”

Damon Runyon (1880–1946) writer

A Nice Price
Compare with Tom Stoppard in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: "Life is a gamble, at terrible odds — if it was a bet you wouldn't take it."

Ram Dass photo

“Realizing later that it was not by choice that we remained mute but by a conscious effort on the part of those in power, I realized that my art could only be that of protest—a protest against what I felt to be a death sentence.”

Malaquías Montoya (1938) American artist

On how he used artwork as a form of protest (as quoted in “’What better function for art at this time than as a voice for the voiceless’: The Work of Chicano Artist Malaquías Montoya” https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/17/%E2%80%9Cwhat-better-function-art-time-voice-voiceless%E2%80%9D-work-chicano-artist-malaqu%C3%ADas; 2019 Feb 15)

Related topics