Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quoteShare via Email Print this Page Daily Quotes Archives2018-11-27 Nov 27, 2018Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the reflexive, and are ignorant and unreasonable by simple nature. We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive, to acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason. The examined life is impossible if we cannot examine, order, classify, define, distinguish, always in minute particulars.~ Richard MitchellLearning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.~ Abigail AdamsBut how shall we educate men to goodness, to a sense of one another, to a love of truth? And more urgently, how shall we do this in a bad time?~ Daniel Joseph Berrigan Nov 26, 2018Remind students that one of the central missions of the university, which justifies its existence, is to get at the truth. That requires honest debate, patience, intellectual honesty, investigation, and a lot of hard work. But it also is not for the faint of heart. And that is a lesson that is almost never transmitted today. That offense, bruising thoughts, and unpleasant facts simply go with the territory. They are an intrinsic feature of an open society, and they never can be entirely avoided.~ Amy WaxOur lack of constant awareness has also permitted us to accept definitions of freedom that are not necessarily consistent with the actuality of being free. Because we have learned to confuse the word with the reality the word seeks to describe, our vocabulary has become riddled with distorted and contradictory meanings smuggled into the language.~ Butler D. ShafferFreedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights~ Dr. Benjamin Rush Nov 23, 2018The experience that was had in ... the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in community, by a commonwealth ... was found to breed much confusion and discontent; and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit.... For the young men that were most able and fit for labor and service objected that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children, without any recompense.... The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men, who were ranked and equalized in labor, food, clothes, etc., with the meaner and younger ones, thought it some indignity and disrespect to them.~ William BradfordThere is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.~ Thomas JeffersonToward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of opinion.~ James Russell Lowell Nov 22, 2018Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.~ BuddhaWhen I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough; I've done my duty, and I've done no more.~ Henry FieldingI thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.~ Matthew Henry Nov 21, 2018The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.~ Charles de MontesquieuAll bad precedents began as justifiable measures.~ Gaius Julius CaesarNever could an increase of comfort or security be a sufficient good to be bought at the price of liberty.~ Hilaire Belloc Previous week's quotes Next week's quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print