WIST Quotations

Clark, Kenneth -- Civilisation, A Personal View, ch. 13 “Heroic Materialism” (1969)

Dave — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:36:14 +0000

We are so much accustomed to the humanitarian outlook that we forget how little it counted in earlier ages of civilisation. Ask any decent person in England or America what he thinks matters most in human conduct: five to one his answer will be “kindness.” It’s not a word that would have crossed the lips of any of the earlier heroes of this series. If you had asked St. Francis what mattered in life, he would, we know, have answered “chastity, obedience and poverty”; if you had asked Dante or Michelangelo, they might have answered “disdain of baseness and injustice”; if you had asked Goethe, he would have said “to live in the whole and the beautiful.” But kindness, never. Our ancestors didn’t use the word, and they did not greatly value the quality — except perhaps insofar as they valued compassion.

Kenneth Clark (1903-1983) British art historian, museum director, broadcaster
Civilisation, A Personal View, ch. 13 “Heroic Materialism” (1969)
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Diamond, Jared -- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, “Big Businesses and the Environment” (2005)

Dave — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 16:55:10 +0000

My views may seem to ignore a moral imperative that businesses should follow virtuous principles, whether or not it is most profitable for them to do so. Instead I prefer to recognize that, throughout human history, in all politically complex human societies in which people encounter other individuals with whom they have no ties of family or clan relationship, government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found to be necessary for the enforcement of moral principles. Invocation of moral principles is a necessary first step for eliciting virtuous behavior, but that alone is not a sufficient step.

Jared Diamond (b. 1937) American geographer, historian, ornithologist, author
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, “Big Businesses and the Environment” (2005)
(Source)

Adams, John -- Letter (1816-11-04) to Thomas Jefferson

Dave — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 17:19:47 +0000

We have now, it seems a National Bible Society, to propagate King James Bible, through all Nations. Would it not be better, to apply these pious Subscriptions, to purify Christendom from the corruptions of Christianity; than to propagate those Corruptions in Europe, Asia, Africa and America!

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-11-04) to Thomas Jefferson
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After the founding of the American Bible Society (11 May 1816).

King, Martin Luther -- “The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness,” Speech, National Urban League, New York (6 Sep 1960)

Dave — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 22:03:18 +0000

Whenever racial discrimination exists it is a tragic expression of man’s spiritual degeneracy and moral bankruptcy. Therefore, it must be removed not merely because it is diplomatically expedient, but because it is morally compelling.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousness,” Speech, National Urban League, New York (6 Sep 1960)
(Source)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Commencement, Dartmouth College (14 Jun 1953)

Dave — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:10:24 +0000

Unless each day can be looked back upon by an individual as one in which he has had some fun, some joy, some real satisfaction, that day is a loss. It is un-Christian and wicked, in my opinion, to allow such a thing to occur.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Commencement, Dartmouth College (14 Jun 1953)
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1854-05)

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2004 21:07:38 +0000

I am here to represent humanity: it is by no means necessary that I should live, but it is by all means necessary that I should act rightly.

Incorporated into “Essential Principles of Religion,” Lecture, Congregational Society, Boston (16 Mar 1862).

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1854-05)
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