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 »
In his latest article (Feb. 1892) Prof. Garner says that the chatter of monkeys is not meaningless but that they are conveying ide...as to one another. This seems to me hazardous. The monkeys might with equal justice conclude that in our magazine articles or literary criticisms, we are not chattering idly but are conveying ideas to one another.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You know, there's a certain irony in the fact that our lives and perhaps the lives of everyone on Earth may depend on Captain Patt...erson's sex appeal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Personally I think we're over-specialized. Why it's getting so we have experts who concentrate only on the lower section of a spec...imen's left ear.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We must all die. There's nothing terrible about death. But to live on after death, a soul, earthbound, a vampire--you don't wish a...ny such fate for your beloved.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nitrates and phosphates for ammunition. The seeds of war. They're loading a full cargo of death. And when that ship takes it home,... the world will die a little more.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am not what is called a civilized man, professor. I have done with society for reasons that seem good to me. Therefore I do not ...obey its laws.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »