Marion Woodman (1928–2018) Canadian writer
Source: Addiction to Perfection (1982), p. 15
Marion Woodman (1928–2018) Canadian writer
Source: Addiction to Perfection (1982), p. 15
Newton Lee American computer scientist
Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Reported in "'Left-Wing' Communism, An Infantile Disorder", V. I. Lenin; Selected Works (1938), vol. 10, p. 95.
1900s
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704) French bishop and theologian
"Panegyric in honor of St. Francis of Assisi", as quoted in The Bourgeois: Catholicism vs. Capitalism in Eighteenth-Century France (1968), p. 84
Anthony Watts (1958) American television meteorologist
Quote of the week #8 – Monbiot: "looks like I’ve boobed" http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/17/quote-of-the-week-8-monbiot-looks-like-ive-boobed/, wattsupwiththat.com, May 17, 2009. <br class="br">2009
Henry M. Morris (1918–2006) American young earth creationist and Christian apologist
" The Anti-Creationist http://www.icr.org/article/179/" (1981)
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
1920s, Ways to Peace (1926)
Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator
Neil DeGrasse Tyson Debunks 2012 Armageddon http://www.tompainesghost.com/2010/06/neil-degrasse-tyson-debunks-2012.html<!-- starting ~1m50s --> after the James Webb telescope panel discussion in Battery Park at the World Science Festival, June 4th, 2010 <br class="br">2010s
K. M. Panikkar (1895–1963) Indian diplomat, academic and historian
Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945
Wesley Clark (1944) American general and former Democratic Party presidential candidate
Interview with Laura Knoy, New Hampshire Public Radio (5 November 2003) http://www.nhpr.org/node/5339
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American sociologist, historian, activist and writer
The Autobiography of W.E. Burghardt Du Bois (1968), Ch. IV : The Soviet Union; he later states in Ch. XVI : My Character: "I think the greatest gift of the Soviet Union to modern civilization was the dethronement of the clergy and the refusal to let religion be taught in the public schools."
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Edinburgh (29 November 1879), quoted in W. E. Gladstone, Midlothian Speeches 1879 (Leicester University Press, 1971), p. 152.
1870s
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)
On attempts at an alcohol prohibition amendment, in his Diary (9 October 1883)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Lewis Mumford book The Myth of the Machine
Megatechnic Costs and Benefits
The Myth of the Machine (1967-1970), The Pentagon of Power (1970)
Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader
New Morning of Glory (1978-01-22 http://www.unification.net/1978/780122.html)
Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker
<nowiki>Re: [ 00/19 http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=137392506516022&w=2, 3.10.1-stable review</nowiki>, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-07-15, 2013-07-17] <br class="br">2010s, 2013
Donald Davidson (philosopher) (1917–2003) scriitor amator
Davidson. Subjective, Intersubjective, Objective, (2001) p. 208, as cited in: Dermot Moran (ed). The Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century Philosophy, (2008), p. 681
Perry Anderson (1938) British historian
Spectrum: From Right to Left in the World of Ideas (2005), Ch. 7. "Arms and Rights, The Adjustable Centre" (1998)
“Designers should only innovate as a last resort.”
Charles Eames (1907–1978) American designer, half of duo the Eames
Source: Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century. 1998, p. 373: Attributed to Charles Eames
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Andrew Jackson (3 December 1806)
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician
I say, "No. The probability, though not the certainty, but surely at least the possibility, is that no such point would come, whatever the course of the conflict." <br class="br"> Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1967/mar/06/defence-army-estimates-1967-68-vote-a in the House of Commons (1 March 1967) <br class="br">1960s
François Bernier (1620–1688) French physician and traveller
Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 1
Travels in the Mogul Empire (1656-1668)
Hussein of Jordan (1935–1999) King of Jordan
King Hussein http://www.kinghussein.gov.jo/views_envi.html<br>Cited in: Arab Information Center, The Arab World https://books.google.nl/books?id=_7AMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Jordan+itself+is+a+beautiful+country.+It+is+wild,+with+limitless+deserts+where+the+Bedouin+roam,+but+the+mountains+of+the+north+are+clothed+in+green+forests,+and+where+the+Jordan+River+flows+it+is+fertile+and+warm+in+winter.+Jordan+has+a+strange,+haunting+beauty+and+a+sense+of+timelessness.+Dotted+with+the+ruins+of+empires+once+great,+it+is+the+last+resort+of+yesterday+in+the+world+of+tomorrow.+I+love+every+inch+of+it%22&dq=%22Jordan+itself+is+a+beautiful+country.+It+is+wild,+with+limitless+deserts+where+the+Bedouin+roam,+but+the+mountains+of+the+north+are+clothed+in+green+forests,+and+where+the+Jordan+River+flows+it+is+fertile+and+warm+in+winter.+Jordan+has+a+strange,+haunting+beauty+and+a+sense+of+timelessness.+Dotted+with+the+ruins+of+empires+once+great,+it+is+the+last+resort+of+yesterday+in+the+world+of+tomorrow.+I+love+every+inch+of+it%22&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE34nT8Z_LAhWGLA8KHbTAAH0Q6AEIJTAB, 1965, p. 30
John Marshall (1755–1835) fourth Chief Justice of the United States
17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 424
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Context: [.. ] it can scarcely be necessary to say that the existence of State banks can have no possible influence on the question. No trace is to be found in the Constitution of an intention to create a dependence of the Government of the Union on those of the States, for the execution of the great powers assigned to it. Its means are adequate to its ends, and on those means alone was it expected to rely for the accomplishment of its ends. To impose on it the necessity of resorting to means which it cannot control, which another Government may furnish or withhold, would render its course precarious, the result of its measures uncertain, and create a dependence on other Governments which might disappoint its most important designs, and is incompatible with the language of the Constitution. But were it otherwise, the choice of means implies a right to choose a national bank in preference to State banks, and Congress alone can make the election. After the most deliberate consideration, it is the unanimous and decided opinion of this Court that the act to incorporate the Bank of the United States is a law made in pursuance of the Constitution, and is a part of the supreme law of the land.
Michael Ignatieff (1947) professor at Harvard Kennedy School and former Canadian politician
New York Times magazine op-ed piece, May 2, 2004
Walter Rodney book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Source: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), p. 63.
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) English painter, specialising in portraits
Quoted in Time magazine December 8, 1930
Other
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in the House of Commons, July 8, 1920 "Amritsar" http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/churchill/am-text.htm <br class="br">Early career years (1898–1929)
Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor
'This was highly approved by all the nobles; and the Emperor ordered all the gold en and silver idols to be broken, and the temple destroyed.
Kanzul-Mahfuz (Kanzu-l Mahfuz), in: Elliot and Dowson, Vol. VIII, pp. 38 -39.
Quotes from late medieval histories
Kirby Page (1890–1957) American clergyman
The Personality of Jesus (1932)
Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain
The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness (2004)
“In the day of prosperity we have many refuges to resort to; in the day of adversity, only one.”
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889) British minister and poet
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 7.
Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches
What is Patriotism? (1908)
Edward Hall Alderson (1787–1857) Lawyer and jurist
Edward Hall Alderson, counsel employed in opposition to the proposed Liverpool & Manchester Railway. On 25th April, 1825, George Stephenson gave evidence to the House of Commons committee looking into the proposed railway.
Ze Frank (1972) American online performance artist
http://www.zefrank.com/wiki/index.php/the_show:_06-21-06 <br class="br">"The Show" (www.zefrank.com/theshow/)
Shelby Foote book The Civil War: A Narrative
The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958)
Roy Jenkins (1920–2003) British politician, historian and writer
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1966/jul/22/medical-termination-of-pregnancy-bill in the House of Commons in favour of the Bill legalising abortion (22 July 1966) <br class="br">1960s
Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel (1945) Iranian politician
http://www2.irna.com/en/news/view/line-24/0706067461150947.htm
Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) British poet and academic
Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality (1889)
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Interview by Tom Ashbrook, October 03, 2006 https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2006/10/03/the-chomsky-interview <br class="br">Quotes 2000s, 2006
Paul Krugman (1953) American economist
"Who Was Milton Friedman?", The New York Review of Books (February 15, 2007)
The New York Review of Books articles
Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309–1388) Tughluq sultan
Delhi. Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. Elliot and Dowson. Vol. III, p. 365 ff https://archive.org/stream/cu31924073036737#page/n379/mode/2up Quoted in Shourie, Arun (2014). Eminent historians: Their technology, their line, their fraud. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins Publishers.
Walter Rodney book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Source: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), p. 365.
Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman
Letter to F. Cobden (5 July 1835) during his visit to the United States, quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905), pp. 33-34.
1830s
John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman
Loud cheers, the audience rising.
Speech in Manchester (25 September 1866), quoted in The Times (26 September 1866), p. 9.
1860s
Roman Polanski (1933) Polish-French film director, producer, writer, actor, and rapist
Roman by Polanski (1984)
Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire
As quoted by Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html#attila, translated by Charles C. Mierow
George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Appendix B: The System in its Ethical Necessity and its Practical Bearings, p.399
George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States
RNC acceptance speech (1988)
Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018) American journalist
2000s, 2001, The Enemy is not Islam. It is Nihilism (2001)
Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director
Never Scared (Album Version, 2005)
“Finally she resorts to the oldest tactic of all, telling the truth.”
John Barnes book Mother of Storms
Source: Mother of Storms (1994), pp. 545-546
Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter
Quote of Klee (Munich, c. 1910); as cited by Gualtieri Di San Lazzaro, Klee, Praeger, New York, 1957, p. 16
Klee was married, had a young son then and did the housework, living in an suburb of Munich
1903 - 1910
Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland
Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 16. How the Stranger Vainly Endeavoured to Reveal to Me in Words the Mysteries of Spaceland
“Men! When you cannot win an argument, you either run away or resort to force.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer
Egwene al'Vere
(15 November 1990)
James K. Morrow book Only Begotten Daughter
Source: Only Begotten Daughter (1990), Chapter 15 (p. 254)
Richard A. Posner (1939) United States federal judge
" Against Creative Capitalism https://web.archive.org/web/20080813084622/http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com:80/creative_capitalism/2008/06/against-creativ.html" (2008), published in Creative Capitalism: A Conversation with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Other Economic Leaders.
John James Cowperthwaite (1915–2006) British colonial administrator
But I would rather go back to the old days when even the most modest attempt by Government to intervene in commerce and industry was rudely rebuffed.
March 27, 1968, page 213.
Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council
Abdullah Öcalan (1949) Founder of the PKK
Translation of his defense testimony at his 1999 trial http://web.archive.org/20020203190623/www.geocities.com/kurdifi/ocelan.html. <br class="br">Context: Every ideology and mode of belief can, if true, implement itself by using the resources of technology and above all those of the media without having to resort to violence. In other words, violence has become unnecessary. In fact things have got to the point where violence cannot be afforded. The rich variety of institutions and practices the democratic system offers is built on this social and scientific-technological development, and whatever problem it tackles, it offers a certain solution. It itself is the solution.<br>To go through the examples, the solution to religious wars is secularism. Here the standard and the implementation involve taking the approach that everyone is free to follow their religious beliefs and democratic criteria will apply to all of them. Democracy offers definite freedom of belief and this is the antidote to religious wars.<br>Again the same applies to the fields of thought and ideology. There is freedom of thought and conviction. It is allowed to work as one wants and implement one's beliefs as long as one does not infringe the rights of others in this respect. This also applies to political ideas and their expression in the form of parties. As long as it adheres to the democratic system and its state structure, every party can offer a solution without resorting to violence. There is no question here of either imposing a religion by force or breaking and shattering the structure of the state. Religion, thought and the parties based on them know to meet the standards of the democratic system of the state because they are based on them. If they don't know how to do this, then democracy gets the right to defend itself.<br>It is clear here that regardless of the social group they are based on (which might be a nation or an ethnic or religious group), beliefs, ideas and the parties through which they are expressed cannot, in the name of these beliefs and ideas, force the limits on which the state is based. There is no need for this, because it will render the problem they claim to be solving even worse. Consequently, there is no need for it, and, in any case, there are solutions within the system. These are the democratic rights of those groups. They are their freedoms of belief and thought. They are the parties. They are all types of coalitions. In the area of language and culture, the democratic solution is even more striking. This is the area where the greatest successes have been achieved. Because the intermingling of language and culture, these values that many national groups have assimilated together for centuries, do not want to separate and get weak and monotonous, but prefer to stay together to get enriched and achieve variety, strength and life. And the school and laboratory for this is democracy and its implementation with conviction.<br>Democracy is almost a garden of language and culture. The most developed and powerful principles of our day once again express this clearly. All European countries and North America are clear proofs of it. The attempt to suppress new religious, linguistic, cultural, intellectual and political developments during past centuries was the cause of all major wars, and resistance against suppression gave to wars which could be seen as understandable. Particularly in European countries this experience led to the development of a determined democracy in the wake of all these wars and led to the supremacy of the West. Western civilisation can, in this sense, be termed democratic civilisation. The democratic system is at least as important as scientific and technological superiority. Feeding off each other, they both became strong and achieved the status of world civilisation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)
Context: A second way that oppressed people sometimes deal with oppression is to resort to physical violence and corroding hatred. Violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
1930s, Mein Weltbild (My World-view) (1931)
Context: I am strongly drawn to the simple life and am often oppressed by the feeling that I am engrossing an unnecessary amount of the labour of my fellow-men. I regard class differences as contrary to justice and, in the last resort, based on force. I also consider that plain living is good for everybody, physically and mentally.
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1860s, The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery? (1860)
Context: My argument against the dissolution of the American Union is this. It would place the slave system more exclusively under the control of the slave-holding states, and withdraw it from the power in the northern states which is opposed to slavery. Slavery is essentially barbarous in its character. It, above all things else, dreads the presence of an advanced civilization. It flourishes best where it meets no reproving frowns, and hears no condemning voices. While in the Union it will meet with both. Its hope of life, in the last resort, is to get out of the Union. I am, therefore, for drawing the bond of the Union more completely under the power of the free states. What they most dread, that I most desire. I have much confidence in the instincts of the slaveholders. They see that the Constitution will afford slavery no protection when it shall cease to be administered by slaveholders. They see, moreover, that if there is once a will in the people of America to abolish slavery, this is no word, no syllable in the Constitution to forbid that result. They see that the Constitution has not saved slavery in Rhode Island, in Connecticut, in New York, or Pennsylvania; that the Free States have only added three to their original number. There were twelve Slave States at the beginning of the Government: there are fifteen now.
George Müller (1805–1898) German-English clergyman
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, Fourth Part.
Fourth Part of Narrative
Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Source: The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (2004, 2008), Ch. 13, p. 254–255
Context: It is beyond belief that we know so little about how people get rich or poor, about how it is they come to dwell in comfort and health or die in penury and disease. Financial markets are the machines in which much of human welfare is decided; yet we know more about how our car engines work than about how our global financial system functions. We lurch from crisis to crisis. In a networked world, mayhem in one market spreads instantaneously to all others—and we have only the vaguest of notions how this happens, or how to regulate it. So limited is our knowledge that we resort, not to science, but to shamans. We place control of the world's largest economy in the hands of a few elderly men, the central bankers.
Martin Esslin (1918–2002) Playwright, theatre critic, scholar
Introduction to Absurd Drama (1965)
Context: The Theatre of the Absurd attacks the comfortable certainties of religious or political orthodoxy. It aims to shock its audience out of complacency, to bring it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as these writers see it. But the challenge behind this message is anything but one of despair. It is a challenge to accept the human condition as it is, in all its mystery and absurdity, and to bear it with dignity, nobly, responsibly; precisely because there are no easy solutions to the mysteries of existence, because ultimately man is alone in a meaningless world. The shedding of easy solutions, of comforting illusions, may be painful, but it leaves behind it a sense of freedom and relief. And that is why, in the last resort, the Theatre of the Absurd does not provoke tears of despair but the laughter of liberation.
Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler
I Ain't Got Time To Bleed (1999)
Context: We shouldn't be wasting so much time and so many resources on prosecuting consensual crimes such as prostitution and drug possession. I hold drug possession and drug dealing as two totally different concepts. The drug dealers who resort to deadly street violence should be dealt with severely as the criminals they are.
But we have to become willing to admit as a nation that our war against drugs has failed. And we have to start looking for other solutions. I want the drug business stopped. But I know it never will stop as long as people want the drugs. It's supply and demand. You can even get drugs in prison.
John Tyndall (1820–1893) British scientist
New Fragments (1892)
Context: To legislation... the Puritans resorted. Instead of guiding, they repressed, and thus pitted themselves against the unconquerable impulses of human nature. Believing that nature to be depraved, they felt themselves logically warranted in putting it in irons. But they failed; and their failure ought to be a warning to their successors.<!--p.34
Albert Pike book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. III : The Master, p. 63
Context: To present a visible symbol to the eye of another, is not necessarily to inform him of the meaning which that symbol has to you. Hence the philosopher soon superadded to the symbols explanations addressed to the ear, susceptible of more precision, but less effective and impressive than the painted or sculptured forms which he endeavored to explain. Out of these explanations grew by degrees a variety of narrations, whose true object and meaning were gradually forgotten, or lost in contradictions and incongruities. And when these were abandoned, and Philosophy resorted to definitions and formulas, its language was but a more complicated symbolism, attempting in the dark to grapple with and picture ideas impossible to be expressed. For as with the visible symbol, so with the word: to utter it to you does not inform you of the exact meaning which it has to me; and thus religion and philosophy became to a great extent disputes as to the meaning of words. The most abstract expression for Deity, which language can supply, is but a sign or symbol for an object beyond our comprehension, and not more truthful and adequate than the images of Osiris and Vishnu, or their names, except as being less sensuous and explicit We avoid sensuousness, only by resorting to simple negation. We come at last to define spirit by saying that it is not matter. Spirit is — spirit.
Proclus (412–485) Greek philosopher
Source: The Philosophical and Mathematical Commentaries of Proclus on the First Book of Euclid's Elements Vol. 1 (1788), Ch. IV.
Mark W. Clark (1896–1984) American general
Source: From the Danube to the Yalu (1954), p. 493
Context: In the Italian campaign we had demonstrated as never before how a polyglot army could be welded into a team of allies with the strength and unity and determination to prevail over formidable odds. But in Austria and elsewhere in postwar Europe, we had learned another lesson about allies. The Russians were not interested in teamwork. They wanted to keep things boiling. They were ready to resort to lying, to betrayal, to the repudiation of solemn pledges. They were accustomed to the use of Force. They were skilled in exploiting any sign of weakness or uncertainty or appeasement. This was their national policy.
Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966) United States Navy fleet admiral
Employment of Naval Forces (1948)
Context: Naval forces are able, without resorting to diplomatic channels, to establish offshore anywhere in the world, air fields completely equipped with machine shops, ammunition dumps, tank farms, warehouses, together with quarters and all types of accommodations for personnel. Such task forces are virtually as complete as any air base ever established. They constitute the only air bases that can be made available near enemy territory without assault and conquest; and furthermore, they are mobile offensive bases, that can be employed with the unique attributes of secrecy and surprise — which attributes contribute equally to their defensive as well as offensive effectiveness.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States
Source: 1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885), Ch. 16.
Context: The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. But any people or part of a people who resort to this remedy, stake their lives, their property, and every claim for protection given by citizenship — on the issue. Victory, or the conditions imposed by the conqueror — must be the result.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964)
Context: Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time — the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts… Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia
Address to the United Nations (1963)
Context: Conflicts between nations will continue to arise. The real issue is whether they are to be resolved by force, or by resort to peaceful methods and procedures, administered by impartial institutions. This very Organization itself is the greatest such institution, and it is in a more powerful United Nations that we seek, and it is here that we shall find, the assurance of a peaceful future.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist
J 65
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook J (1789)
Context: A great speech is easy to learn by heart and a great poem even easier. How hard it would be to memorize as many words linked together senselessly, or a speech in a foreign tongue! Sense and understanding thus come to the aid of memory. Sense is order and order is in the last resort conformity with our nature. When we speak rationally we are only speaking in accordance with the nature of our being. That is why we devise genera and species in the case of plants and animals. The hypotheses we make belong here too: we are obliged to have them because otherwise we would unable to retain things... The question is, however, whether everything is legible to us. Certainly experiment and reflection enable us to introduce a significance into what is not legible, either to us or at all: thus we see faces or landscapes in the sand, though they are certainly not there. The introducion of symmetries belongs here too, silhouettes in inkblots, etc. Likewise the gradation we establish in the order of creatures: all this is not in the things but in us. In general we cannot remember too often that when we observe nature, and especially the ordering of nature, it is always ourselves alone we are observing.
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) American judge
319 U.S. 640-641
Judicial opinions, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
1920s, The Doctrine Of The Sword (1920)
Context: I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor.
But I believe that nonviolence is infinitely superior to violence, forgiveness is more manly than punishment, forgiveness adorns a soldier. But abstinence is forgiveness only when there is the power to punish, it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature. A mouse hardly forgives cat when it allows itself to be torn to pieces by her. … I do not believe myself to be a helpless creature. Only I want to use India's and my strength for better purpose.
Let me not be misunderstood. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist
Individual Liberty (1926), Passive Resistance
Context: When a physician sees that his patient's strength is being exhausted so rapidly by the intensity of his agony that he will die of exhaustion before the medical processes inaugurated have a chance to do their curative work, he administers an opiate. But a good physician is always loath to do so, knowing that one of the influences of the opiate is to interfere with and defeat the medical processes themselves. He never does it except as a choice of evils. It is the same with the use of force, whether of the mob or of the State, upon diseased society; and not only those who prescribe its indiscriminate use as a sovereign remedy and a permanent tonic, but all who ever propose it as a cure, and even all who would lightly and unnecessarily resort to it, not as a cure, but as an expedient, are social quacks.
Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) American judge
Statement by Justice Jackson on War Trials Agreement http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/jack02.htm (12 August 1945) <br class="br">Quotes from the Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946)
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul
The Better Part (1901)
Context: Mankind is governed by the worst — the strongest example of this is to be seen in American municipalities, but it is true of every government. We are governed by rogues who hold their grip upon us by and through statute law. Were it not for law the people could protect themselves against these thieves, but now we are powerless and are robbed legally. One mild form of coercion these rogues resort to is to call us unpatriotic when we speak the truth about them. Not long ago they would have cut off our heads. The world moves. Governments cannot be done away with instantaneously, but progress will come, as it has in the past by lessening the number of laws. We want less governing, and the ideal government will arrive when there is no government at all.
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs. So long as men are clubbed, robbed, imprisoned, disgraced, hanged by the governing class, just so long will the idea of violence and brutality be born in the souls of men.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (1956) 6th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
2005, Address to the United Nations General Assembly (17 September 2005)
William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist
Book II, "Of Rights"
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)