“But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?”
Source: So You've Been Publicly Shamed
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Jon Ronson 11
British journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter … 1967Related quotes
Speaking before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on September 21, 1983, in reference to members of the U.S. Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing
1980s
Yane Sandanski (1901), in: Note by Katerina Tsilka, cited in: Teresa Carpenter. The Miss Stone Affair: America's First Modern Hostage Crisis https://books.google.nl/books?id=az0Skf467RwC&pg=PA40, 2003. p. 40-41
Context: Yane Sandanski was speaking to Miss Stone and Katerina Tsilka, the two hostages in the Miss Stone Affair.
Letter to Arsacius, High-priest of Galatia (June? 362), as translated by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright, in The Works of the Emperor Julian, Volume III (1913)
General sources
Context: The Hellenic religion does not yet prosper as I desire, and it is the fault of those who profess it; for the worship of the gods is on a splendid and magnificent scale, surpassing every prayer and every hope. May Adrasteia pardon my words, for indeed no one, a little while ago, would have ventured even to pray for a change of such a sort or so complete within so short a time. Why, then, do we think that this is enough, why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to increase atheism? I believe that we ought really and truly to practise every one of these virtues. And it is not enough for you alone to practise them, but so must all the priests in Galatia, without exception. … In every city establish frequent hostels in order that strangers may profit by our benevolence; I do not mean for our own people only, but for others also who are in need of money. I have but now made a plan by which you may be well provided for this; for I have given directions that 30,000 modii of corn shall be assigned every year for the whole of Galatia, and 60,000 pints of wine. I order that one-fifth of this be used for the poor who serve the priests, and the remainder be distributed by us to strangers and beggars. For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us. Teach those of the Hellenic faith to contribute to public service of this sort, and the Hellenic villages to offer their first fruits to the gods; and accustom those who love the Hellenic religion to these good works by teaching them that this was our practice of old.
can strike us as perplexing – and also, perhaps, a little unsettling. On general principle, it is a good idea to challenge ourselves in this way about anything we have come to take for granted; the more habitual, the more valuable this line of inquiry.
Punished by Rewards
Source: Value-free science?: Purity and power in modern knowledge, 1991, p. 13
