WIST Quotations

Barzun, Jacques -- Lecture (1987-07-17), “Of What Use the Classics Today?” St. John’s College

Dave — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 21:08:04 +0000

The need for a body of common knowledge and common reference does not disappear when a society is largely pluralistic, as ours has become. On the contrary, it grows more necessary, so that people of different origins and occupation may quickly find familiar ground and, as we say, speak a common language. It not only saves time and embarrassment, but it also ensures a kind of mutual confidence and good will. One is not addressing an alien, blank as a stone wall, but a responsive creature whose mind is filled with the same images, memories, and vocabulary as oneself.

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Lecture (1987-07-17), “Of What Use the Classics Today?” St. John’s College
(Source)

Collected in Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (1991).

Stanley, Jason -- How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 10 (2018)

Dave — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:38:52 +0000

Democratic citizenship requires a degree of empathy, insight, and kindness that demands a great deal of all of us. There are easier ways to live.

Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 10 (2018)
(Source)

Lippmann, Walter -- “The Indispensable Opposition,” The Atlantic Monthly (Aug 1939)

Dave — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:39:02 +0000

The national unity of a free people depends upon a sufficiently even balance of political power to make it impracticable for the administration to be arbitrary and for the opposition to be revolutionary and irreconcilable. Where that balance no longer exists, democracy perishes. For unless all the citizens of a state are forced by circumstances to compromise, unless they feel that they can affect policy but that no one can wholly dominate it, unless by habit and necessity they have to give and take, freedom cannot be maintained.

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist and author
“The Indispensable Opposition,” The Atlantic Monthly (Aug 1939)
(Source)

Commager, Henry Steele -- Essay (1947-00), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 4, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168

Dave — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:56:38 +0000

[Loyalty] is a tradition, an ideal, and a principle. It is a willingness to subordinate every private advantage for the larger good. It is an appreciation of the rich and diverse contributions that can come from the most varied sources. It is allegiance to the traditions that have guided our greatest statesmen and inspired our most eloquent poets — the traditions of freedom, equality, democracy, tolerance, the tradition of the higher law, of experimentation, co-operation, and pluralism. It is a realization that America was born of revolt, flourished on dissent, became great through experimentation.

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1947-00), “Who Is Loyal to America?” sec. 4, Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 195, No. 1168
(Source)

Reprinted in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954).

King, Martin Luther -- Playboy interview (Jan 1965)

Dave — Sun, 05 May 2019 22:15:19 +0000

I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in god. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken and by whom? Legally, constitutionally or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Playboy interview (Jan 1965)
(Source)

On the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to ban school-led prayer.

Cuomo, Mario -- “Religious Belief and Public Morality,” John A. O’Brien Lecture, U. of Notre Dame (13 Sep 1984)

Dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 12:13:19 +0000

In addition to all the weaknesses, dilemmas and temptations that impede every pilgrim’s progress, the Catholic who holds political office in a pluralistic democracy — who is elected to serve Jews and Muslims, atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics — bears special responsibility. He or she undertakes to help create conditions under which all can live with a maximum of dignity and with a reasonable degree of freedom; where everyone who chooses may hold beliefs different from specifically Catholic ones — sometimes contradictory to them; where the laws protect people’s right to divorce, to use birth control and even to choose abortion. In fact, Catholic public officials take an oath to preserve the Constitution that guarantees this freedom. And they do so gladly. Not because they love what others do with their freedom, but because they realize that in guaranteeing freedom for all, they guarantee our right to be Catholics: our right to pray, to use the sacraments, to refuse birth control devices, to reject abortion, not to divorce and remarry if we believe it to be wrong.

Mario Cuomo (1932–2015) American politician
“Religious Belief and Public Morality,” John A. O’Brien Lecture, U. of Notre Dame (13 Sep 1984)
(Source)