Quotes
Quotes about Pen
The wealth and prosperity of the country are only the comeliness of the body, the fullness of the flesh and fat; but the spirit is independent of them; it requires only muscle, bone and nerve for the true exercise of its functions. We cannot lose our liberty, because we cannot cease to think.
The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.
Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom.
...the case for individual freedom rests largely on the recognition of the inevitable and universal ignorance of all of us concerning a great many of the factors on which the achievements of our ends and welfare depend.
Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can't spend it.
What dazzles, for the moment spends its spirit; What's genuine, shall posterity inherit. [Ger., Was glanzt ist fur den Augenblick geboren; Das Aechte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren.]
Posterity gives to every man his true honor. [Lat., Suum cuique decus posteritas rependet.]
Chill penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.
Poverty is the openmouthed relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. And it is hell enough.
Hard as it may appear in individual cases, dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful.
Long open panegyric drags at best, And praise is only praise when well address'd.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd: Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd. His preaching much, but more his practice wrought; (A living sermon of the truths he taught:) For this by rules severe his life he squar'd: That all might see the doctrines which they heard.
The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfortâthe opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thingâthe opening a wonderfully joyous moment.
Professional men, they have no cares; whatever happens, they get theirs.
Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.
Progress is the process whereby the human race is getting rid of whiskers, the veriform appendix and God.
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, but the unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to him--therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.
There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny; the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.
Let your loins be girded about, and your light burning; And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
Benevolence is a commitment to achieving the values derivable from life with other people in society, by treating them as potential trading partners, recognizing their humanity, independence, and individuality, and the harmony between their interests and ours.
Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are no schools for creativeness. A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before. A genius is always a teacher, never a pupil; he is always self-made.
In the world of reality, life, and human action there is no such thing as interests independent of ideas, preceding them temporarily and logically. What a man considers his interest is the result of his ideas.
It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essential for the growth of reason that as individuals we should bow to forces and obey principles which we cannot hope fully to understand, yet on which the advance and even the preservation of civilization depend.
No man is an island- he is a holon. A Janus-faced entity who, looking inward, sees himself as a self-contained unique whole, looking outward as a dependent part. His self-assertive tendency is the dynamic manifestation of his unique wholeness, his autonomy and independence as a holon. Its equally universal antagonist, the integrative tendency, expresses his dependence on the larger whole to which he belongs: his 'part-ness.'.
