From “On Liberty & Utilitarianism.”
A civilization that can thus succumb to its vanquished enemy, must first have become so degenerate, that neither its appointed priests and teachers, nor anybody else, has the capacity, or will take the trouble, to stand up for it. If this be so, the sooner such a civilization receives notice to quit, the better. It can only go from bad to worse, until destroyed and regenerated (like the Western Empire) by energetic barbarians.
Dread not the day that endeth all life’s ills;
For fear of death all joy in living kills.
Our pathetic clandestine hectographs, our homemade clandestine hand-presses were what we pitted against the rotary presses of lying officialdom and licensed liberalism. Was it not like fighting Krupp’s guns with a Stone-Age ax? They had laughed at us. And now, in the October days, the Stone-Age ax had won. The revolutionary word was out in the open, astonished and intoxicated by its own power.
Trotsky in “1905”.
Virtuous indignation is a crutch for the intellectually crippled.
(Hat tip to the Samuel Johnson site, where you will many another entertaining quote.)
“écrasez l’infâme”
“We have ploughed the sea.”
“Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
We are all strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others. François de La Rochefoucauld
