Category: Thought

Meteors are not needed less than mountains.

Robinson Jeffers, from “Shine, Perishing Republic” (1925).

Civil liberty is the status of the man who is guaranteed by law and civil institutions the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare.

William Graham Sumner, “The Forgotten Man” (1883).

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs … has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.

John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1689.

The average man is either victorious or defeated and, depending on that, he becomes a persecutor or a victim. These two conditions are prevalent as long as one does not “see.” “Seeing” dispels the illusion of victory, or defeat, or suffering.

Carlos Castaneda, A Separate Reality (1971).

Democracy is old, very old; it is an attitude of man . . . Democracy is an imminent attitude, but one that has always been in crisis with authoritarianism.

José Mujica (Uruguay’s president, 2010–2015), from “A conversation with President José Mujica, M.R. and H.C. Montevideo,” The Economist (August 2014).

But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).