German Flyer: Rotterdam, we destroy in two hours. Mrs. Miniver: There were thousands killed. Innocent people.... German Flyer: Not innocent--they were against us. Mrs. Miniver: Women and children. German Flyer: 30,000 in two hours. And we will do the same thing here!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 »
But in the intellectual world, there is room for all opposing forces: even that which never appears victorious in the real world c...ontinues to be effective as a dynamic force (in the intellectual world) and precisely the unfulfilled ideals prove to be the most invincible.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nothing that has ever been thought and said with a clear mind and pure ethical strength is totally in vain; even if it comes from ...a weak hand and is imperfectly formed, it inspires the ethical spirit to constantly renewed creation.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Only that which points the human spirit beyond its own limitations into what is universally human gives the individual strength su...perior to his own. Only in suprahuman demands which can hardly be fulfilled do human beings and peoples feel their true and sacred measure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
He who has been impoverished for a long time ... who has long stood before the door of the mighty in darkness and begged for alms,... has filled his heart with bitterness so that it resembles a sponge full of gall; he knows about the injustice and folly of all human action and sometimes his lips tremble with rage and a stifled scream.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself... remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every epoch which seeks renewal first projects its ideal into a human form. In order to comprehend its own essence tangibly, the s...pirit of the time chooses a human being as its prototype and raising this single individual, often one upon whom it has chanced to come, far beyond his measure, the spirit enthuses itself for its own enthusiasm.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The organic fundamental error of humanism was that it desired to educate the common people (on whom it looked down) from its lofty... stance instead of trying to understand them and to learn from them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Of course, in the reality of history, the Machiavellian view which glorifies the principle of violence has been able to dominate. ...Not the compromising conciliatory politics of humaneness, not the Erasmian, but rather the politics of vested power which firmly exploits every opportunity, politics in the sense of the "Principe," has determined the development of European history ever since.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »