John Taylor Gatto on Self-Education and Personal Responsibility
“The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainly not to be trusted.”
John Taylor Gatto
Quote by Leo Tolstoy about the Meaning of Life
“The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God.”
Leo Tolstoi
Quote by Walter Lippmann on Life and War
“It is in time of peace that the value of life is fixed. The test of war reveals it.”
Walter Lippmann
“I Only Read Books Over 2,000 Years Old” – Hans-Georg Gadamer
“I basically only read books that are over 2,000 years old.”
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Social Contract and Absolutism – Quote by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
“Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations that it must regulate — something like squaring the circle, or finding perpetual motion? That is the reason why, wearied of the struggle, you fall back on absolutism and force.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Quote by Walter Lippmann on Bombing and Foot Soldiers
“Nobody has yet found a way of bombing that can prevent foot soldiers from walking.”
Walter Lippmann
Freedom – Quote by Ayn Rand
“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.”
Ayn Rand
Quote by Neil Postman on Printing and Identity
“Printing links the present with forever. It carries personal identity into realms unknown.”
Neil Postman
Childhood and Language – Neil Postman
“Childhood is analogous to language learning. It has a biological basis but cannot be realized unless a social environment triggers and nurtures it, that is, has need of it. If a culture is dominated by a medium that requires the segregation of the young in order that they learn unnatural, specialized, and complex skills and attitudes, then childhood, in one form or another, will emerge, articulate and indispensable.”
Neil Postman
Neil Postman on Sexism and Censorship in Language
“Make no mistake about it: the labeling of someone’s language as ‘sexist’ involves a political judgment and implies the desirability of a particular sociological doctrine. One may be in favor of that doctrine (as I believe I am) but it is quite another matter to force writers by edicts and censorship into accepting it.”
Neil Postman