— Paul Churchland Canadian philosopher 1942
Quelle: Matter and Consciousness, 1984/1988/2013, p. 96; As cited in: Peter Zachar (2000) Psychological Concepts and Biological Psychiatry. p. 132
"On Relativism" (1925)
Kontext: Socialism is good when it comes to wages, but it tells me nothing when it comes to other questions in life that are more private and painful, for which I must seek answers elsewhere. Relativism is not indifference; on the contrary, passionate indifference is necessary in order for you not to hear the voices that oppose your absolute decrees … Relativism is neither a method of fighting, nor a method of creating, for both of these are uncompromising and at times even ruthless; rather, it is a method of cognition. If one must fight or create, it is necessary that this be preceded by the broadest possible knowledge... One of the worst muddles of this age is its confusing of the ideas behind combative and cognitive activity. Cognition is not fighting, but once someone knows a lot, he will have much to fight for, so much that he will be called a relativist because of it.
— Paul Churchland Canadian philosopher 1942
Quelle: Matter and Consciousness, 1984/1988/2013, p. 96; As cited in: Peter Zachar (2000) Psychological Concepts and Biological Psychiatry. p. 132
— Samuel Butler novelist 1835 - 1902
Samuel Butler's Notebooks http://books.google.com/books?id=cjk3AAAAIAAJ&q=%22One+of+the+first+businesses+of+a+sensible+man+is+to+know+when+he+is+beaten+and+to+leave+off+fighting+at+once%22&pg=PA186#v=onepage (1951)
— George Holmes Howison American philosopher 1834 - 1916
Quelle: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Later German Philosophy, p.175
— Simone Weil French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909 - 1943
Quelle: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), The Power of Words (1937), p. 222
Kontext: There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought. Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought. In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends. To keep to the social level, our political universe is peopled exclusively by myths and monsters; all it contains is absolutes and abstract entities. This is illustrated by all the words of our political and social vocabulary: nation, security, capitalism, communism, fascism, order, authority, property, democracy. We never use them in phrases such as: There is democracy to the extent that... or: There is capitalism in so far as... The use of expressions like "to the extent that" is beyond our intellectual capacity. Each of these words seems to represent for us an absolute reality, unaffected by conditions, or an absolute objective, independent of methods of action, or an absolute evil; and at the same time we make all these words mean, successively or simultaneously, anything whatsoever. Our lives are lived, in actual fact, among changing, varying realities, subject to the casual play of external necessities, and modifying themselves according to specific conditions within specific limits; and yet we act and strive and sacrifice ourselves and others by reference to fixed and isolated abstractions which cannot possibly be related either to one another or to any concrete facts. In this so-called age of technicians, the only battles we know how to fight are battles against windmills.
— Curtis LeMay American general and politician 1906 - 1990
Sherry, Michael (September 10, 1989). <i>The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon</i>, p. 287 (from "LeMay's interview with Sherry," interview "after the war," p. 408 n. 108). Yale University Press. ISBN-13: 978-0300044140.
— Michael Scheuer American counterterrorism analyst 1952
Hardball with Chris Matthews, November 16 2004.
2000s
„He's somewhat lewd; but a well-meaning mind;
Weeps much; fights little; but is wond'rous kind.“
— John Dryden, All for Love
Prologue
All for Love (1678)
— Paul Graham English programmer, venture capitalist, and essayist 1964
"Mean People Fail", November 2014
— Robert L. Kahn American psychologist 1918 - 2019
Rowe, John W., and Robert L. Kahn. " Successful aging http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/4/433.full.pdf." The gerontologist 37.4 (1997): 433-440.
— Oliver Cromwell English military and political leader 1599 - 1658
Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
— Imre Kertész Hungarian writer 1929 - 2016
Quelle: Detective Story (2008), p. 69.
Kontext: If a person resolves to fight, he ought to know what he is fighting for. Otherwise it makes no sense. A person usually fights against a power in order to gain power himself. Or else because the power in question is threatening his life.
— Ernesto Che Guevara Argentine Marxist revolutionary 1928 - 1967
As quoted in It Has Been 50 Years Since Che Guevara Was Murdered http://www.thenation.com/article/archive/it-has-been-50-years-since-che-guevara-was-murdered/, by Bill Ayers and Michael Steven Smith
— Terence McKenna American ethnobotanist 1946 - 2000
"New Maps of Hyperspace" (1989); originally published in Magical Blend magazine, also in The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History (1992) http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/mckenna_terence/mckenna_terence_maps_hyperspace.shtml
Kontext: There is a spiritual obligation, there is a task to be done. It is not, however, something as simple as following a set of somebody else's rules. The noetic enterprise is a primary obligation toward being. Our salvation is linked to it. Not everyone has to read alchemical texts or study superconducting biomolecules to make the transition. Most people make it naively by thinking clearly about the present at hand, but we intellectuals are trapped in a world of too much information. Innocence is gone for us. We cannot expect to cross the rainbow bridge through a good act of contrition; that will not be sufficient.
We have to understand. Whitehead said, "Understanding is the apperception of pattern as such"; to fear death is to misunderstand life. Cognitive activity is the defining act of humanness. Language, thought, analysis, art, dance, poetry, mythmaking: these are the things that point the way toward the realm of the eschaton. We humans may be released into a realm of pure self-engineering. The imagination is everything. This was Blake's perception. This is where we came from. This is where we are going. And it is only to be approached through cognitive activity.
— Lennox Lewis British-Canadian boxer 1965
Reply to a question while being interviewed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/forum/566535.stm
— Ludwig Feuerbach German philosopher and anthropologist 1804 - 1872
Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 67
Towards a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy (1839)
— Rodrigo Duterte Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines 1945
Original: (tl) Kulong? Ay 'sus. Kulong, eh noong teenager ako pasok-labas-pasok ako sa kulungan. Rambol dito, rambol – at the age of 16, may pinatay na ako. Tao talaga. Rambol. Saksak. Noong 16 years old iyon, nagkatinginan lang.
Duterte claims he stabbed someone to death as a 16-year-old https://www.rappler.com/nation/187906-rodrigo-duterte-stab-16-years-old(November 9, 2017)
— Bernard Cornwell British writer 1944
Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 136
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Prey (2001)
— Karin Housley American politician 1964
The Thoroughly Modern Marriage of Phil and Karin Housley http://buffalonews.com/2017/11/23/the-thoroughly-modern-marriage-of-phil-and-karin-housley (November 23, 2017)