Quotes about harm
page 3

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.”

John Paul Jones (1747–1792) American naval officer

Letter to Le Ray de Chaumont (16 November 1778), as quoted in The Naval History of the United States (1890) by Willis John Abbot, p. 82

Way

“I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

As quoted in ‪If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? (2009) ‬by John Mitchinson, p. 87

People

“Come now, my child, if we were planning to harm you, do you think we'd be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”

Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972) American writer and poet

Thinking, Parting

“Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Ch. 28.

Personality

“How much energy they put into harming each other. How little into saving.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

“A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Love, God, Suffering, Passion

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.”

Charles F. Haanel book The Master Key System

Source: The Master Key System

Beauty, Strong

“Gertrude Stein did us the most harm when she said, 'You're all a lost generation.' That got around to certain people and we all said, 'Whee! We're lost.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

People

“You can never escape me. Bullets don't harm me. Nothing harms me. But I know pain. I KNOW pain. Sometimes I share it. With someone like you.”

Frank Miller book Batman: Year One

Source: Batman: Year One

Pain

“Every time you drink a glass of milk or eat a piece of cheese, you harm a mother. Please go vegan.”

Gary L. Francione (1954) American legal scholar

Drink, Time

“Choose not to be harmed—and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed—and you haven’t been.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

Source: The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage

Feeling, Hurtful

“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Variant translation: If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one ever was truly harmed. Harmed is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance.
VI, 21
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

Truth, Home, Search, Thinking

“I mean putting yourself out there in the way of overwhelming happiness and knowing you're also putting yourself in the way of terrible harm. I'm scared to be this happy. I'm scared to be this extreme.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Happiness, Way

“I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself. Satan can do me no harm whatever, but they can trouble me very much, particularly if they be confessors.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

Source: The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (c.1565), Ch. XXV. "Divine Locutions. Discussions on That Subject" ¶ 26 & 27
Variant translation: I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
Source: The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself
Context: May it please His Majesty that we fear Him whom we ought to fear, and understand that one venial sin can do us more harm than all hell together; for that is the truth. The evil spirits keep us in terror, because we expose ourselves to the assaults of terror by our attachments to honours, possessions, and pleasures. For then the evil spirits, uniting themselves with us, — we become our own enemies when we love and seek what we ought to hate, — do us great harm. We ourselves put weapons into their hands, that they may assail us; those very weapons with which we should defend ourselves. It is a great pity. But if, for the love of God, we hated all this, and embraced the cross, and set about His service in earnest, Satan would fly away before such realities, as from the plague. He is the friend of lies, and a lie himself. He will have nothing to do with those who walk in the truth. When he sees the understanding of any one obscured, he simply helps to pluck out his eyes; if he sees any one already blind, seeking peace in vanities, — for all the things of this world are so utterly vanity, that they seem to be but the playthings of a child, — he sees at once that such a one is a child; he treats him as a child, and ventures to wrestle with him — not once, but often.
May it please our Lord that I be not one of these; and may His Majesty give me grace to take that for peace which is really peace, that for honour which is really honour, and that for delight which is really a delight. Let me never mistake one thing for another — and then I snap my fingers at all the devils, for they shall be afraid of me. I do not understand those terrors which make us cry out, Satan, Satan! when we may say, God, God! and make Satan tremble. Do we not know that he cannot stir without the permission of God? What does it mean? I am really much more afraid of those people who have so great a fear of the devil, than I am of the devil himself. Satan can do me no harm whatever, but they can trouble me very much, particularly if they be confessors. I have spent some years of such great anxiety, that even now I am amazed that I was able to bear it. Blessed be our Lord, who has so effectually helped me!

People, Fear

“Technically, I am unarmed. But no one should ever underestimate the harm that fingernails can do. Especially if the target is unprepared.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“She was spirit and presence, as rare and brilliant as snowflakes in sunlight, and he could not bring himself to harm her.”

Shana Abe U.S. American novelist

Source: The Smoke Thief

“It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Way

“The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Notes on Hospitals 3rd Edition (1863), Preface
Variant: It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a hospital that it should do the sick no harm.
Source: Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not

“I can still tend the rabbits, George? I didn't mean no harm, George.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

“I wept because I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

World, Childhood

“The three most harmful negative emotions are anger, guilt, and fear. And anger is number one. It is also the strongest and most dangerous of all passions.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Living Beyond Your Feelings: Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You

Fear, Passion, Anger

“Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Source: Lying

Imagination

“Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away.

Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm

The final lines are barely audible.

Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen, Rue's song, p. 235
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)

Love, Dreams, Forgetting

“The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.”

Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Source: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Men, Pain, Suffering, Dependency

“My dad had limitations. That's what my good-hearted mom always told us. He had limitations, but he meant no harm. It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Moms, Heart, For Parents, For Mother

“To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

"Religion: A Dialogue."
Variant translation: To free a man from error does not mean to take something from him, but to give him something.
Essays
Source: Essays and Aphorisms
Context: To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it. Then give up deceiving people; confess ignorance of what you don't know, and leave everyone to form his own articles of faith for himself. Perhaps they won't turn out so bad, especially as they'll rub one another's corners down, and mutually rectify mistakes. The existence of many views will at any rate lay a foundation of tolerance. Those who possess knowledge and capacity may betake themselves to the study of philosophy, or even in their own persons carry the history of philosophy a step further.

Truth, Error, Knowledge, Falseness

“He looked as though I'd just run over his pet puppy (though no actual puppies were harmed in the formation of that metaphor).”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

“One doesn’t become a witch to run around being harmful, or to run around being helpful either, a district visitor on a broomstick. It’s to escape all that - to have a life of one’s own, not an existence doled out to by others.”

Sylvia Townsend Warner book Lolly Willowes

Source: Lolly Willowes

Life, Help

“There didn't seem to her any harm in it, and the make-believe was so comforting.”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Source: A Fine Balance

“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, 'I'm probably no better than you, but I'm certainly your equal.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

Truth, Thinking

“When you beat up someone physically, you get excercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

“A man wasn't equal to an animal, not one particle of him. Human life was stinking corrupt, and meanwhile there were beautiful creatures who lived with delicacy on the earth without doing anyone harm. "We should be dying." the judge almost wept.”

Kiran Desai book The Inheritance of Loss

Source: The Inheritance of Loss

Life, Beauty, Animals

“Everything is fine and bright. Day must follow every night. My power keeps me safe from harm. The Goddess holds me in her arms.”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Full Circle

Night

“What a quality of innocence people have when they don't expect to be harmed.”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

Source: Intimacy: das Buch zum Film von Patrice Chéreau

People

“Atheists’ anger doesn’t prove that we’re selfish, or joyless, or miserable. It shows that we have compassion, and a sense of justice. We’re angry because we see terrible harm all around us, and we feel desperately motivated to stop it.”

Greta Christina (1961) American activist

Source: Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless

Justice, Feeling, Motivation, Sense

“Good people aren't good because they never cause harm to others. They're good because they treat others the best way they know how, with the understanding that they have.”

Orson Scott Card book Rebekah

Source: Rebekah

People, Way, Understanding

“Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people… Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

People, Learning

“It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.
Resign yourself to be the fool you are…
… We must always take risks. That is our destiny…”

T.S. Eliot The Cocktail Party

Source: The Cocktail Party

Fools

“Spontaneous combustion IS a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

“She had not made a decision to give up sex, only the clamor of romance, because it was exhausting her, doing her no good and too much harm…”

Michelle Herman (1955) American writer

Source: Dog

Sex, Decision

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

When asked how the world had changed following the September 11, 2001 attacks <br class="br"> Has the world changed? http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersreflections/story/0,1367,567546,00.html, The Guardian (October 11, 2001)

People, Faith, Religion, Confidence

“Didn't I promise I'd always look after you and keep you from harm?”

Alyson Nöel book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

“I thought my heart was pure. We do like to have such good opinions of our own motives when we're about to do something harmful, to someone else.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Motivation, Heart

“I won’t snatch, harm, or scare to death people with you or use checking up on you as an excuse to cause trouble. You’re worse than my mother, Rachel.”
“Mine, too,” Jenks muttered.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: White Witch, Black Curse

Death, People

“Through the years, I have learned there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

Learning

“Wizard's Second Rule
The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.”

Terry Goodkind book Stone of Tears

Source: Stone of Tears

“No one can crave what truly harms him.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“Even if she be not harmed, her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors; and hereafter she may suffer--both in waking, from her nerves, and in sleep, from her dreams.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Dreams, Sleep, Suffering, Heart

“The Great Depression in the United States, far from being a sign of the inherent instability of the private enterprise system, is a testament to how much harm can be done by mistakes on the part of a few men when they wield vast power over the monetary system of a country.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Source: (1962), Ch. 3 The Control of Money, p. 50

Men, Parting, Country

“Sky and sea, keep harm from me. Earth and fire, bring… my desire.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Initiation / The Captive Part I

Sea

“The two men who have done the greatest harm to the world are Christ and Columbus. Christ taught us guilt and sacrifice, to live only in the other world, and Columbus discovered America and materialism.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Men, World, Christ

“If Fang is in any way harmed while I'm gone-if he gets a hangnail-you won't see another morning. Are we clear on that?”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

Way

“A mind at peace a mind centered and not focused on harming others is stronger than any physical force in the universe.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Peace, Universe

“I don't know about you, but I call impromptu vomiting harm.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

“You need Power,
only when you want
to do something harmful
otherwise
Love is enough to get everything done.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Love

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks During Signing of Defense Bill http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/aug/06/uselections2004.usa2 (5 August 2004). <br class="br">2000s, 2004

People, Way, Thinking, Country

“Wherever we go we do harm, forgiving
ourselves as wheels do cement for wearing
each other out. We set this house
on fire, forgetting that we live within.

(from "To a Meadowlark," for M. L. Smoker)”

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) American novelist, poet, essayist

Forgiveness, Housing, Forgetting

“They say there's no harm in daydreaming, but there is.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

“Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Thinking

“I flee what I can't fight. What can only do me harm.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Fight

“there is no harm in being afraid. The only harm is in doing what Fear tells you. Fear is not your master! Laugh in his face and he will run away.”

George MacDonald book Lilith

Source: Lilith

Fear

“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Truth, Thinking, Change, Personality

“The less we read, the more harmful it is what we read.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Reading

“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Men, Sleep, Night

“This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.
Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other,
for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it.”

Simon Armitage (1963) Poet, playwright, novelist

Source: The Death of King Arthur: A New Verse Translation

Home

“And let’s be honest, you weren’t exactly harmed. I even took you home.” “You dumped me on my doorstep. According to my mother, I looked half dead.” “Your mother exaggerates. A third dead at most.” I stared at him. Wow. Just wow.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Home, Dead

“Nothing can work damage to me except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me and never am a real sufferer except by my own fault.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Suffering

“Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book I, Ch. 25
Essais (1595), Book I
Source: The Complete Essays

Knowledge

“A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity.”

R. Scott Bakker book The Judging Eye

TRIAMIS I, JOURNALS AND DIALOGUES
Source: The Judging Eye (2009)

Stupidity, Suffering

“I was born a vegetarian. … I feel there is no need to cause another living thing pain or harm. There are so many other things we can eat. I have never eaten meat in my life, and I’m 5 foot 10 and not exactly wasting away. A wise man once said, ‘Animals are my friends, and I’m not in the habit of eating my friends.’ That is exactly how I feel.”

Joss Stone (1987) English singer and actress

Reported in "Introducing Joss Stone’s Vegetarian PSA", in peta2.com (13 March 2007) http://www.peta2.com/heroes/introducing-joss-stone-vegetarian-psa/. Also quoted in "Soul diva Stone in veggie ad", in Mirror.co.uk (15 March 2007) http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/soul-diva-stone-in-veggie-ad-458507.

Life, Pain, Feeling, Animals

“For long ages, too, no notice whatever was taken of the criminal’s “sin”; he was regarded as harmful, not guilty, and looked upon as a piece of destiny; and the criminal on his side took his punishment as a piece of destiny which had overtaken him, and bore it with the same fatalism … In general we may say that punishment tames the man, but does not make him “better.””

Georg Brandes (1842–1927) Danish literature critic and scholar

Source: An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889), pp. 38-39

Age

“The harm that I have not done, what harm it has done!”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

El mal que no he hecho, ¡cuánto mal ha hecho!
Voces (1943)

“Deep down, everything boils down ("au fond tout se ramène", Fr.) to the following simple question; Do we really want justice and the realization in this world of higher principles, or else do we want to serve selfish, short-sighted (à courte vue", Fr.) interests, which, when all is said and done, are also prejudicial (or detrimental, or harmful) to those very same that pursue them?”

African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 55.

World, Justice, Question, Selfishness

“Do not fall for the "permissive" school of psychology which says discipline will harm human development. Such thinking produces hoodlums with maladjusted personalities who are likely to fall for every "ism" that comes along. A child needs to know that he lives in an orderly world. Discipline is part of it- not extreme harshness but a reasonable and consistent enforcement of the rules.”

W. Cleon Skousen book The Naked Communist

The Naked Communist (1958)

World, School, Thinking, Parting

“No harm done – don’t feel harmed, you won’t be. Moving towards living stoically, fought these feelings of inadequacy when I started on this path at eighteen. No looks didn’t vex me, looked within’ and everything that happened, suited me. Tailored all life is.”

Marcus Orelias (1993) American actor, rapper, songwriter, author and entrepreneur

Elysium
20s A Difficult Age (2017)

Life, Feeling

“What determinate events is, beside national, dynastic and particular egoism, the instinct of domination and conquest, in one word, forceBold text. Judging by the history of humanity, harms that men have had to suffer, harms ("les maux", Fr.) that men have to suffer by their nature are minute in comparison ("en regard", Fr.) to these they inflict to each others. The most fantastic imagination might not ("ne saurait", Fr.) fabricate ("forger", Fr) some cruelties, injustices and perfidies (or perfidiousnesses) that men have not exceeded in practice.”

African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 55.

Men, Imagination, History, Nature

“May the slander, harm
And all forms of abuse
That anyone should direct towards me
Act as a cause of their enlightenment.”

Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar

Bodhicaryavatara

“You do not believe that souls are assigned, first to one body and then to another, and that our so-called death is merely a change of abode? You do not believe that in cattle, or in wild beasts, or in creatures of the deep, the soul of him who was once a man may linger? You do not believe that nothing on this earth is annihilated, but only changes its haunts? And that animals also have cycles of progress and, so to speak, an orbit for their souls, no less than the heavenly bodies, which revolve in fixed circuits? Great men have put faith in this idea; therefore, while holding to your own view, keep the whole question in abeyance in your mind. If the theory is true, it is a mark of purity to refrain from eating flesh; if it be false, it is economy. And what harm does it do to you to give such credence? I am merely depriving you of food which sustains lions and vultures.”

Sotion (Pythagorean) ancient greek philosopher

Quoted in Seneca the Younger, Moral letters to Lucilius, CVIII, 20-21.

Death, Men, Faith, Food

“Perhaps I'm unrealistic. As long as people do not fully realize the danger of inflation, they may well pressure for more inflation as a short-term remedy for evils. Though we may well be driven into more, until people have learned the lesson, but that means that inflation may still do more of a great deal of harm, before it will be cured.”

Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) Austrian and British economist and Nobel Prize for Economics laureate

1975 interview https://mises.org/library/hayek-meets-press-1975 on "Meet the Press." <br class="br">1960s–1970s

People, Learning, Evil

“The minority nationalities in our country number more than thirty million. Although they constitute only 6 per cent of the total population, they inhabit extensive regions which comprise 50 to 60 per cent of China's total area. It is thus imperative to foster good relation between the Han people and the minority nationalities. The key to this question lies in overcoming Han chauvinism. At the same time, efforts should also be made to overcome local-nationality chauvinism, wherever it exists among the minority nationalities. Both Han chauvinism and local-nationality chauvinism are harmful to the unity of the nationalities; they represent one kind of contradiction among the people which should be resolved.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

" VI. THE QUESTION OF THE MINORITY NATIONALITIES "
On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
Original: (zh-CN) 我国少数民族有三千多万人，虽然只占全国总人口的百分之六，但是居住地区广大，约占全国总面积的百分之五十至六十。所以汉族和少数民族的关系一定要搞好。这个问题的关键是克服大汉族主义。在存在有地方民族主义的少数民族中间，则应当同时克服地方民族主义。无论是大汉族主义或者地方民族主义，都不利于各族人民的团结，这是应当克服的一种人民内部的矛盾。

People, Question, Effort, Time

“I would like to express my regret for the harms and wounds that once existed in this island of Taiwan. I also want to extend my apologies to those afflicted with such long-standing and agonizing pains. We must not forget how many families were torn up and how their emotional sufferings have been passed down from generation to generation. I can now relate to such pains. My apology is long overdue.”

James Soong (1942) Chairman of People First Party, former Governor of Taiwan Province

James Soong (2015) cited in " Soong apologizes for his role in Martial Law era http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2015/08/22/2003625919/1" on Taipei Times, 22 August 2015

Pain, Family, Affliction, Suffering

“On sound volume and arrangement: "No, high volume levels cause less harm than the awkward arrangement of sounds. Assuming that the sound is a wave: if this wave is not balanced by itself, it causes great damage when it enters the ear. I have tested this on a few people in my studio. I made them listen to two tracks. The first track was considered too loud, whereas the second track was actually louder but more balanced".”

Vangelis (1943) Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock, and orchestral music

1979

People

“Take a course of good water and air, and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

"Mount Shasta" in Picturesque California (1888-1890) page 165; reprinted in Steep Trails (1918), chapter 5
1880s

Youth, Nature, Water

“Here we have drug that is not like opium. Opium has all of the good of Dr. Jekyll and all the evil of Mr. Hyde. This drug is entirely the monster Hyde, the harmful effect of which cannot be measured. Some people will fly into a delirious rage, and they are temporarily irresponsible and may commit violent crimes. Other people will laugh uncontrollably. It is impossible to say what the effect will be on any individual. Those research men who have tried it have always been under control. They have always insisted upon that. … It is dangerous to the mind and body, and particularly dangerous to the criminal type, because it releases all of the inhibitions.”

Harry J. Anslinger (1892–1975) 1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

Hearing on H.R. 6385 (April 1937)

Men, People, Rage, Evil

“Being an athlete, you have to consider whether your meals have enough of everything you need. As a vegetarian, you are forced to be creative, which I find makes me more adventurous with my cooking. Following a strict diet based on performance can be tedious, but because I enjoy the variety of my diet, it makes it easier to follow. … If any cyclists are thinking of becoming vegetarian, then I would suggest giving it a go. There’s definitely no harm in trying it! Be prepared to be experimental and open to new foods – you can’t just take out meat from your existing meals, you need to learn new ways of eating.”

Lizzie Deignan (1988) English track and road racing cyclist

"The Fuelling of a Champion: Lizzie Deignan" https://www.cycleplan.co.uk/blog/the-fuelling-of-a-champion-nutrition-of-pro-cyclist-lizzie-deignan, interview with The Cycleplan Blog (9 March 2018).

Food, Way, Thinking, Learning

“The flea, though he kill none, he does all the harm he can.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

Meditation 12
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)

“If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds of Ormuzds, Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas and Christs, from beliefs in Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and resurrections, from belief in the interference of the Gods in the external affairs of the universe, and above all, if they freed themselves from belief in the infallibility of all the various Vedas, Bibles, Gospels, Tripitakas, Korans, and the like, and also freed themselves from blind belief in a variety of scientific teachings about infinitely small atoms and molecules and in all the infinitely great and infinitely remote worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from faith in the infallibility of the scientific law to which humanity is at present subjected: the historic law, the economic laws, the law of struggle and survival, and so on, — if people only freed themselves from this terrible accumulation of futile exercises of our lower capacities of mind and memory called the "Sciences", and from the innumerable divisions of all sorts of histories, anthropologies, homiletics, bacteriologics, jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies — their name is legion — and freed themselves from all this harmful, stupefying ballast — the simple law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and solving all questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and obligatory.”

Leo Tolstoy A Letter to a Hindu

Source: A Letter to a Hindu (1908), VI

Love, God, People, World

“Making men live in three worlds at once — past, present and future has been the chief harm organized religion has done.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

Men, World, Religion, Past

“My choice is what I choose to do.
And if I'm causing no harm
It shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be.
And if your causin' no harm
Then you're alright with me.”

Ben Harper (1969) singer-songwriter and musician

Burn One Down.
Song lyrics, Fight for Your Mind (1995)

“The mere crossing of species, unaccompanied by selection, wise supervision, intelligent care, and the utmost patience, is not likely to result in marked good, and may result in vast harm. Unorganized effort is often most vicious in its tendencies.”

Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science

p, 125
The Training of the Human Plant (1907)

Intelligence, Effort, Patience

“Like when Jay Leno made jokes about Koreans eating dog, but the hidden messages, our invisibility, is more harmful to us than any of those fools on "board."”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, INVISIBILITY

Dogs, Fools

“But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

“…my commitment to Israel is because I am an active citizen. Although its neighbors have wanted to destroy Israel, they have defended democracy. Israel has only led defensive wars, Arafat has only gone to attack. They are murdering women and children in order to spread fear and terror. When Israel accidentally kills, it is not the intention to harm civilians like Arafat does.”

Carl I. Hagen (1944) Norwegian politician

Speech at a meeting in the independent Christian organisation Levende Ord in 2004, published in Dagbladet (14 July 2004) http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2004/07/14/403017.html

Women, War, Children, Fear

“If this is nothing more than a stipulation about how we ought to use the term ‘ideological’, then perhaps it will do no harm. But if it is a proposal about how historians ought to set about the business of explaining beliefs, then it seems to me fatal for just the reasons I have sought to give. It refuses to recognise that one of the reasons why someone may hold a certain belief is that there is good evidence in favour of it, that it fits well with their other beliefs, and so on – in a word, that it is rational for them to hold it. If we refuse to speak in these terms, we deprive ourselves of an indispensable means of identifying the most appropriate lines of enquiry to follow in any given case.”

Quentin Skinner (1940) British historian

Visions of Politics (2002), "Interpretation, rationality and truth"

Business

“In my opinion it is harmful to place important things in the hands of philanthropy, which in Russia is marked by a chance character. Nor should important matters depend on leftovers, which are never there. I would prefer that the government treasury take care of it.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.S. Suvorin (December 17, 1890)
Letters

Chance, Dependency

“Many conservative writers have contended that the tendency to equality in modern social movements is the expression of envy. In this way they seek to discredit this trend, attributing it to collectively harmful impulses.”

John Rawls book A Theory of Justice

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter IX, Section 82, p. 538

Way, Envy

“Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization.
I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

"Dutch paedophiles form political party" (5 June 2006) https://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20%28Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party%29 <br class="br">2000s

Children, Idea, Parent, Baby

“Some teachers of mankind — as Plato… the first Christians, the orthodox Muslims, and the Buddhists — have gone so far as to repudiate art. …[They consider it] so highly dangerous in its power to infect people against their wills, that mankind will lose far less by banishing all art than by tolerating each and every art. …such people were wrong in repudiating all art, for they denied that which cannot be denied — one of the indispensable means of communication, without which mankind could not exist. …Now there is only fear, lest we should be deprived of any pleasures art can afford, so any type of art is patronized. And I think the last error is much grosser than the first and that its consequences are far more harmful.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

What is Art? (1897)

People, Pleasure, Fear, Art