Most awesome quote ever by Frederick Douglas:
The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions, yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it [...]
Archive for the 'Quotations' Category
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing
April 21st, 2009 Filed under: Quotations. 0 Comments
Snippets of wisdom
Bernard Avishai included this line in his recent blog entry:
…I loved the Torah, but hated what the rabbis did to it, but hated all the more what Nazis did to rabbis.
So well said.
I’m back in NYC from the Northwest, recharged and suppose I’m ready for another six months of life on this coast. I [...]
April 12th, 2009 Filed under: General and Quotations. 0 Comments
The opposite of obligatory reading
My father showed me his library, which seemed to me infinite, and he told me to read whatever I wanted, but that if something bored me I should put it down immediately, that is, the opposite of obligatory reading. Reading has to be a happiness, and philosophy gives us happiness, and that is the contemplation [...]
February 11th, 2008 Filed under: Quotations. 1 Comment
On Pain and Blindness
Happiness doesn’t require anything more; it’s an end in itself. Unhappiness has to be transformed into something else; it has to be elevated to beauty. For an artist everything that happens to him has to be clay for his mold, and he must try to feel things this way, even if these gifts might be [...]
February 10th, 2008 Filed under: Quotations. 0 Comments
