„How can we expect a righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone who will give himself up undividedly to a righteous cause?“

Hagakure (c. 1716)
Kontext: To hate injustice and stand on righteousness is a difficult thing. Furthermore, to think that being righteous is the best one can do and to do one's utmost to be righteous will, on the contrary, bring many mistakes. The Way is in a higher place than righteousness. This is very difficult to discover, but it is the highest wisdom. When seen from this standpoint, things like righteousness are rather shallow. If one does not understand this on his own, it cannot be known. There is a method of getting to this Way, however, even if one cannot discover it by himself. This is found in consultation with others. Even a person who has not attained this Way sees others from the side. It is like the saying from the game of go: "He who sees from the side has eight eyes." The saying, "Thought by thought we see our own mistakes," also means that the highest Way is in discussion with others.

Quelle: Sister of My Heart

Quelle: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 96.

Quelle: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 2 : Writing for the Stage

Stanza 6.
Resolution and Independence (1807)

El que no se hallare con ánimo de sufrir apele al retiro de sí mismo, si es que aun a sí mismo se ha de poder tolerar.
Maxim 159 (p. 90)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Quelle: The Swan Thieves

Quelle: The Angel's Game

"The Freedom of the Press", unused preface to Animal Farm (1945), published in Times Literary Supplement (15 September 1972)
Kontext: At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.

Vol. I : Part I : The Being and Attributes of God, § 1 : Of the existence of God, and those attributes which art deduced from his being considered as uncaused himself, and the cause of every thing else (1772)
Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion (1772–1774)

Quelle: Al Capone Does My Shirts

Quelle: Selected Essays (1904), "Priest and Prophet" (1893), p. 133

Quoted in Amnesty International's essay "From Prisoner to President – A Tribute" http://www.artforamnesty.org/aoc/biog_havel.html

Quelle: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 9, “...And Then You Die” (p. 207)

Quelle: Dust & Decay

A 11
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook A (1765-1770)

Quelle: The Secret Life of Prince Charming