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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:07:41 GMT 10
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts
I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day
I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction
There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being
Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home
Christopher Columbus, as everyone knows, is honored by posterity because he was the last to discover America
Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with ageJames JoyceIrish novelist & poet ( Dubliners, Ulysses, Finnigan's Wake) (Born this day 1882) A man's errors are his portals of discovery
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:09:59 GMT 10
What the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow
I would think until I found something I can never find, something lying on the ground, in the bottom of my mind
A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be allowed to rust
Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will
Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself
If a person desires to be a humorist it is necessary that the people around him shall be at least as wise as he is, otherwise his humor will not be comprehended
You must be fit to give before you can be fit to receiveJames StephensIrish novelist & poet (Irish myths & fairy tales) (Born this day 1882) Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:16:04 GMT 10
1 of 2:The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see
Every dictator is a mystic, and every mystic is a potential dictator. A mystic craves obedience from men, not their agreement. He wants them to surrender their consciousness to his assert- ions, his edicts, his wishes, his whims - as his consciousness is surrendered to theirs. He wants to deal with men by means of faith and force - he finds no satisfaction in their consent if he must earn it by means of facts and reason. Reason is the enemy he dreads and, simultaneously, considers precarious: reason, to him, is a means of deception, he feels that men possess some power more potent than reason - and only their causeless belief or their forced obedience can give him a sense of security, a proof that he has gained control of the mystic endowment he lacked. His lust is to command, not to convince: conviction requires an act of independence and press on the absolute of an objective reality. What he seeks is power over reality and over men’s means of perceiving it, their mind, the power to interpose his will between existence and consci- ousness, as if, by agreeing to fake the reality he orders them to fake, men would, in fact, create it
Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice
We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality
God … a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles
A gun is not an argumentAyn Rand, Russian-born US anti-intellectual, paranoid sociopathic cult leader and drug addicted fiction writer ( Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead) (Born this day 1905) The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities(“That is wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start” — Apu Nahasapeemapetilonfor starters, the "minority" she was defending in this instance was big business and the "individuals" were over-privileged and over-represented business czars!?)
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:17:38 GMT 10
2 of 2:The defense of minority rights is acclaimed today, virtually by everyone, as a moral principle of a high order. But this principle, which forbids discrimination, is applied by most of the “liberal” intellectuals in a discriminatory manner: it is applied only to racial or religious minorities. It is not applied to that small, exploited, denounced, defenseless minority which consists of businessmen. Yet every ugly, brutal aspect of injustice toward racial or religious minorities is being practiced toward businessmen
When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism — with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church
The right to vote is a consequence, not a primary cause, of a free social system — and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny
They [Native Americans] didn't have any rights to the land, and there was no reason for anyone to grant them rights which they had not conceived and were not using. What was it that they were fighting for, when they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a prim- itive existence, their 'right' to keep part of the earth untouched, unused and not even as property, but just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal, or a few caves above it. Any white person who brings the element of civilization has the right to take over this continent
But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself
Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them
Is there any doubt that drug addiction is an escape from an unbearable inner state — from a reality that one cannot deal with — from an atrophying mind one can never fully destroy?Ayn Rand, US drug addict (Born this day 1905) I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine(Rand ended up on welfare)
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:18:39 GMT 10
Art has arrived at the paradox that tradition itself requires the occurrence of radical attacks on tradition
The values to which the conservative appeals are inevitably caricatured by the individuals designated to put them into practice
The artist is obliged to invent the self who will paint his pictures
No degree of dullness can safeguard a work against the determination of critics to find it fascinating.
Only through apprehending, by means of present-day creations, how art is created, can the creations of other periods be genuinely appreciated
Abandoned by philosophy, politics, and sociology, historical determinism continues to hold out in formalist art criticism
What better way to prove that you understand a subject than to make money out of it?Harold RosenbergAmerican art critic, educator and historian (Born this day 1906) ( artist Elaine de Kooning, 1956) Whoever undertakes to create soon finds himself engaged in creating himself
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:19:31 GMT 10
Planned freedoms is the road to lasting progress
The problem is that we've got a sense of humor and (Republicans have) got guns. Will we die laughing?
All children ... feel a demonic sympathy with those things that cause disorder in the grown-up world
Jobs are like going to church: it’s nice once or twice a year to sing along and eat something and all that, but unless you really believe there’s something holy going on, it gets to be a drag going in every single week
There was nothing like shared meals, so the experts at IBM claimed, for overcoming one's basic disbelief in the existence of other people
The gods, after all, are only human, and once their rage has been placated they are perfectly capable of acts of mercy and grace
Though opposition is a hopeless task, acquiescence would be worseThomas M. DischAmerican science fiction author and poet (Born this day 1940) Much that is terrible we do not know. Much that is beautiful we shall still discover. Let's sail till we come to the edge
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:20:22 GMT 10
1 of 2:The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm
Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake
To modern educated people, it seems obvious that matters of fact are to be ascertained by observation, not by consulting ancient authorities
Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be recti- fied by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellect- ual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult, it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibil- ity. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster
No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other
Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happyBertrand Russell, FRSBritish philosopher & MP (Why I am Not a Christian) (Died this day 1970) Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:21:11 GMT 10
2 of 2:I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts
A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life
A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate
All movements go too farBertrand Russell, FRS(Died this day 1970) I believe in using words, not fists. I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:22:00 GMT 10
We know all their gods; they ignore ours. What they call our sins are our gods, and what they call their gods, we name otherwise
Fatalism is the lazy man's way of accepting the inevitable
Renouncement: the heroism of mediocrity
Would that well-thinking people should be replaced by thinking ones
How many inner resources one needs to tolerate a life of leisure without fatigue
My queerness is not a vice, is not deliberate, and harms no one
Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shedNatalie Clifford BarneyAmerican-French poet, memoirist and epigrammatist (Died this day 1972) If we keep an open mind, too much is likely to fall into it
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 2, 2014 18:27:15 GMT 10
Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind
For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge ... Einstein's results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge. But few realize that with this the whole classical structure of intellectual values falls in ruins and has to be replaced
Our empirical criterion for a series of theories is that it should produce new facts. The idea of growth and the concept of empirical character are soldered into one
Creative imagination is likely to find corroborating novel evidence even for the most 'absurd' programme, if the search has sufficient drive. This look-out for new confirming evidence is perfectly permissible
Scientists dream up phantasies and then pursue a highly selective hunt for new facts which fit these phantasies. This process may be described as 'science creating its own universe' (as long as one remembers that 'creating' here is used in a provocative-idiosyncratic sense)
A brilliant school of scholars (backed by a rich society to finance a few well-planned tests) might succeed in pushing any fantastic programme ahead, or alternatively, if so inclined, in overthrowing any arbitrarily chosen pillar of 'established knowledge'
It would be wrong to assume that one must stay with a research programme until it has exhausted all its heuristic power, that one must not introduce a rival programme before everybody agrees that the point of degeneration has probably been reachedImre LakatosHungarian philosopher of mathematics and science (Died this day 1974) Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime
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