In general, Machiavellism and Utopianism can be taken to be too sharply opposed; the one realistic and the other idealistic and dr...eamlike. Yet More's Utopia is an extraordinarily realistic book. It is, indeed, closer in attitude to The Prince than is generally conceded. More, like Machiavelli, was a statesman-writer who clearly perceived political reality and dealt with the actual problems of his time. He was also, like Machiavelli, a humanist who used classical models--in his case, Plato--as a means of going beyond the mirror-of-princes literature. He, too, tried to penetrate the causes of the political evils of his time and to offer concrete and carefully thought-out solutions in place of the conventional sentiments of the time. More's solutions, however, were vastly different from those of Machiavelli. They reflect the fact that he belonged to a different tradition from that of power politics followed by Machiavelli. More's tradition was one which, with its roots deep in Eng lish literature, went back to Chaucer and Langland. It is characterized by two traits: an intimate concern with the suffering of the common people, and a feeling that the state exists for its members.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Each of us, even the lowliest and most insignificant among us, was uprooted from his innermost existence by the almost constant vo...lcanic upheavals visited upon our European soil and, as one of countless human beings, I can't claim any special place for myself except that, as an Austrian, a Jew, writer, humanist and pacifist, I have always been precisely in those places where the effects of the thrusts were most violent.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As one who knows many things, the humanist loves the world precisely because of its manifold nature and the opposing forces in it ...do not frighten him. Nothing is further from him than the desire to resolve such conflicts ... and this is precisely the mark of the humanist spirit: not to evaluate contrasts as hostility but to seek human unity, that superior unity, for all that appears irreconcilable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known. This was the sound conclusion of the Academic sceptics..., who were the least surly of philosophers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Picture the prince, such as most of them are today: a man ignorant of the law, well-nigh an enemy to his people's advantage, while... intent on his personal convenience, a dedicated voluptuary, a hater of learning, freedom and truth, without a thought for the interests of his country, and measuring everything in terms of his own profit and desires.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Jupiter, not wanting man's life to be wholly gloomy and grim, has bestowed far more passion than reason--you could reckon the rati...on as twenty-four to one. Moreover, he confined reason to a cramped corner of the head and left all the rest of the body to the passions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The nearer people approach old age the closer they return to a semblance of childhood, until the time comes for them to depart thi...s life, again like children, neither tired of living nor aware of death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »