Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point.. Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she denounced Julia and sent her to her death because she resented her, and because Julia is a Jew.I thought in this simple contrast between the civilized and the barbaric, but I was wrong. It is the civilized who are the truly barbaric, and the [Nazi] Germans are merely the supreme expression of it.
Iain Pears
Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts.
purpose philosophy mind men action soul body rationality reason practice mankind teaching civilization affairs public materialism irrationality combat rational
[T]he concern of man is not his future but his present, not the world but his soul. We must be just, we must strive, we must engage ourselves with the business of the world for our own sake, because through that, and through contemplation in equal measure, our soul is purified and brought closer to the divine... Thought and deed conjoined are crucial... The attempt must be made; the outcome is irrelevant. Right action is a pale material reflection of the divine, but reflection it is, nonetheless. Define your goal and exert reason to accomplish it by virtuous action; successs or failure is secondary.
philosophy failure deeds man action business success soul future thought world reason present mankind divine divinity goal accomplish measure reflection deed contemplation souls concern made closer goals
Father is a school.. He always wanted to write books. But he became rich instead, so is not allowed.
wealth wishes writing aspirations school write father rich books
Every cataclysm is welcomed by somebody; there is always someone to rejoice at disaster and see in it the prospect of a new beginning and a better world.
disaster life death world beginning
Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.
faith religion disagreement judaism independent-thought jews doctrine argument freedom-of-thought discussion
She had lost herself in this old work, her personality dissolving into it, so that she had been set free. The immortality of the soul lies in its dissolution; this was the cryptic comment that so frustrated Olivier and which Julien had only ever grasped as evidence for the history of a particular school of thought. He had known all about its history, but Julia knew what it meant. He found the realization strangely reassuring.
philosophy soul meaning thought immortality liberation freedom
Considering he was neither priest nor scholar, the young man gave sensible, thoughtful replies -- the more so, perhaps, for being untrained, for he had not learned what he should believe or should not believe. Present a statement to him in flagrant contradiction to all Christian doctrine and he could be persuaded to agree on its good sense, unless he remembered it was the sort of thing of which pyres are made for the incautious.
philosophy persecution rationality education reason independent-thought catholicism doctrine freedom-of-thought inquisition schooling freedom-of-religion freedom
And here was the moment. The end of it all, for civilization was merely another name for friendship, and friendship was coming to an end.
friendship civilization
Philosophy cannot be extinguished, though men will try.. The spirit seeks the light, that is its nature. It wishes to return to its origin, and must forever try to reach enlightenment.
philosophy enlightenment
Manlius.. Took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surprising if such a man did know anything of philosophy, and even if it was explained, he would not wish to understand.
philosophy power education knowledge understanding civilization materialism plato vulgarity
Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless.
philosophy life wisdom power justice tyranny virtue
[H]e initially conceived of Olivier as a man of the greatest promise destroyed by a fatal flaw, the unreasoning passion for a woman dissolving into violence, desperately weakening everything he tried to do. For how could learning and poetry be defended when it produced such dreadful results and was advanced by such imperfect creatures? At least Julien did not see the desperate fate of the ruined lover as a nineteenth-century novelist or a poet might have done, recasting the tale to create some appealing romantic hero, dashed to pieces against the unyielding society that produced him. Rather, his initial opinion -- held almost to the last -- was of Olivier as a failure, ruined by a terible weakness.
poetry perception passion destruction romanticism
Diplomacy and virtue do not make easy companions.
politics virtue diplomacy
His idleness was his refuge, and in this he was like many others in [occupied] France in that period; laziness became political.
idleness politics war laziness wwii
war resentment evil good jews civilization barbarism wwii nazis ordinariness pettiness
Showing 1 to 15 of 27 results
You must log in to post a comment.
There are no comments yet.