If we apply the term revolution to what happened in North America between 1776 and 1829, it has a special meaning. Normally, the w...ord describes the process by which man transforms himself from one kind of man, living in one kind of society, with one way of looking at the world, into another kind of man, another society, another conception of life.... The American case is different: it is not a question of the Old Man transforming himself into the New, but of the New Man becoming alive to the fact that he is new, that he has been transformed already without his having realized it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I learned early to understand that there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people se...e it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The damage such perception did to me I have felt ever since ... I could never belong entirely to one side of any question.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Is encouragement what the poet needs? Open question. Maybe he needs discouragement. In fact, quite a few of them need more discour...agement, the most discouragement possible.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In view of the fact that the number of people living too long has risen catastrophically and still continues to rise.... Question:... Must we live as long as modern medicine enables us to?... We control our entry into life, it is time we began to control our exit.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There is no assurance of the great fact in question [namely, immortality]. All the arguments are mere probabilities, analogies, fa...ncies, whims. We believe, or disbelieve, or are in doubt according to our own make-up--to accidents, to education, to environment. For myself, I do not reach either faith or belief ... that I--the conscious person talking to you--will meet you in the world beyond--you being yourself a conscious person--the same person now reading what I say.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Women endure all sorts of devitalizing conditions better than men: starvation, exposure, fatigue, shock, illness, and the like. Th...is immediately raises the question of the supposed "weakness" of the female. Is not the female supposed to be "the weaker vessel"? "Weakness" is a misleading word that has, in this connection, confused most people. "Feminine weakness" has generally meant that the female is more fragile and in general less strong than the male. But the fact is that the female is constitutionally stronger than the male and muscularly less powerful; she has greater stamina and lives longer. The male pays heavily for his larger body build and muscular power. Because his expenditure of energy is greater than that of the female, he burns himself out more rapidly and hence dies at an earlier age. The metabolic rate of the male ... is some 6 to 7 per cent higher than that of the female.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What are we? Well, if you are asking me a question, I will answer you. Here it is: we are this country and it is nothing without u...s, nothing at all.... And in spite of all this, we are poor, it is true; we are indigent, that's true; we are miserable, that's true too. But, brother, do you know why? Because of our ignorance: we do not yet know that we are a force, a unified force--all of us, the peasants, the Negroes of the plains and of the mountains put together. One day, we will have understood this fact, and we will rise from one end of the country to another, and we will form the general assembly of the masters of the dew, the great coumbite of the workers of the earth to clear away misery and plant a new life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The question of "unreality" ... is a very important one. Misled by grammar, the great majority of those logicians who have dealt w...ith this question have dealt with it on mistaken lines. They have regarded grammatical form as a surer guide in analysis than, in fact, it is. And they have not known what differences in grammatical form are important.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To find the point where hypothesis and fact meet; the delicate equilibrium between dream and reality; the place where fantasy and ...earthly things are metamorphosed into a work of art; the hour when faith in the future becomes knowledge of the past; to lay down one's power for others in need; to shake off the old ordeal and get ready for the new; to question, knowing that never can the full answer be found; to accept uncertainties quietly, even our incomplete knowledge of God; this is what man's journey is about, I think.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Some minds are as little logical or argumentative as nature; they can offer no reason or "guess," but they exhibit the solemn and ...incontrovertible fact. If a historical question arises, they cause the tombs to be opened. Their silent and practical logic convinces the reason and the understanding at the same time. Of such sort is always the only pertinent question and the only satisfactory reply.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »