Literature and Quotes Worth Reading

Some incredibly insightful quotes from a few of the favorite writers in the ASM Collection:

"Walden & Other Writings" - Henry David Thoreau

"This curious world which we inhabit is more wonderful than it is convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used."

"The Affluent Society" - J. K. Galbraith

"To furnish a barren room is one thing. To continue to crowd in furniture until the foundations buckle is quite another. To have failed to solve the problem of producing goods would have been to continue man in his oldest and most grievous misfortune. But to fail to see that we have solved it and to fail to proceed thence to the next task would be fully as tragic."

"Australian Self Image" - Neil Douglas

"The character of the bush has something about it which we don't really miss at all. I think if we miss it, it's deliberate. It's because we're after an identity of some kind that we deliberately hate the bush, even when we're in the act of paying tribute to it. The thing I want to suggest as a result of this introduction, is that we Humans will not have any identity whatsoever unless we can face the prospect of no identity. The thing we desperately search for in our hearts is justice & god & happiness, community work & community relationships. But the bush says: "there is no justice, there is no order". Human beings have no identity. They are part of the accidental behaviour of Natural circumstances. Now, until we can encompass this emptiness in the Universe, we cannot be Humanists. We cannot have a true relation with another Human Being. The whole thing is based on sentiment. Childish, naive, innocent sentimentality."

"Darkness at Noon" - Aurthur Koestler

"History has taught us that often lies serve her better than the truth; for humans are sluggish and have to be led through the desert for fourty years before each step in their development. They have to be driven through the desert with threats and promises, by imaginary terrors and imaginary consolations, so that they should not sit down prematurely to rest and divert themselves by worshipping golden calves."

Walter Pukatiwara

"A house is a good thing. You can lock it up and go live anywhere you like."

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce'

"Let me be a free human, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers and mothers, free to talk, think and act for myself - and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty."

John Berger

"Authenticity comes from a single faithfulness: that to the ambiguity of experience. Its energy is to be found in how one event leads to another. Its mystery is not in the words but on the page."

Nicolas Berdiaeff

"Utopias seem much more attainable than one may have previously thought. And we are now faced with a much more frightening thought; how do we prevent their permanent fulfillment? Utopias are attainable. The way of life points towards them. But perhaps a new Century will begin, a Century in which intellectuals and the educated classes will find means of preventing Utopias, and will return to a non-utopian Society, which may be less perfect but will offer more freedom."

Author Unknown

"At odds with the beliefs of many, unlikely to mislead."

Wilfred Laurier

"What is hateful is not rebellion but the despotism which induces rebellion; what is hateful are not rebels but the Humans, who, having the enjoyment of power, do not discharge the duties of power; they are the Humans who, having the power to redress wrongs, refuse to listen to the petitioners that are sent to them; they are the Humans who, when they are asked for a loaf, give a stone."

Cardinal Richelieu

"Punishment and rewards are the two most important instruments of Government. Power is the cause of fear. It is certain that of all the forces capable of producing results in Public Affairs, fear, if based upon esteem and reverence, is the most effective, since it can drive everyone to their duty."

Rousseau

"Usurpers always choose troubled times to enact, in the atmosphere of general panic, laws which the public would never adopt when passions were cool. One of the surest ways of distinguishing the work of tyrants is to note the moment they choose to give a people its constitution."

Erasmus

"They will smother me beneath six hundred dogmas; they will call me heretic and they are nevertheless folly's servants. They are surrounded with a bodyguard of definitions, conclusions, corollaries, propositions explicit and propositions implicit. Those more fully initiated explain further whethet god can become the substance of a woman, of an ass, of a pumpkin, and whether, if so, a pumpkin could work miracles, or be crucified........they are looking in utter darkness for that which has no existence whatever."

"The Obvious" - R. D. Laing

"An action can be regarded as irrational if it is ostensibly a means towards an end, such that this means leads to an end it purports to avoid."

"The Prince" - Machiavelli

"Occassionally words must serve to veil the facts. But this must happen in such a way that no-one becomes aware of it; or, if it should be noticed, excuses must be at hand, to be produced immediately."

Boris Pasternak

"The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune."

Henry David Thoreau

"These farmers are endeavouring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get their shoe strings they speculate in herds of cattle."

"The gross feeder is the Human in the larva stage."

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