#cs

History doesn't remember gardens. … You forgot the wise administrators, those who kept the peace, those who brought prosperity. You needn’t feel embarrassed, though. So did history. ↗

— Andrew Ashling

#history-politics #peacekeepers #wisdom-inspirational #inspirational

The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that. ↗

— John Burdett

#capitalism #economics #politics #western-civilization #inspirational

I am a democrat [proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. . . . I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#democracy #slavery #men

Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for wise and able men to improve into useful matter. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#men

There are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: "In the long run we are all dead." And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom. ↗

— Henry Hazlitt

#fdr #keynes #obama #progressivism #men

An ethics of desire is good news for those of us who have become allergic to an ethics of law. ↗

— Jean Vanier

#inspirational #l-arche #inspirational

If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#government #politics #men

Will any of those men under you ever really understand all this? They're professional cynics, and it's too late for them. Why do you want to go back with them? So you can keep up with the Joneses? To buy a gyro just like the Smith has? To listen to music with your pocketbook instead of your glands? ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#feeling #music #understanding #men

Pray without ceasing on behalf of other men...For cannot he that falls rise again? ↗

— St. Ignatius of Antioch

#early-christianity #patristics #saints #men

Who says great literatue has to be written by men? Who says great literature has to be about scary, creepy stuff like adulterers being punished and black slaves breaking loose and giant whales eating people? Why can't literature just be stories about women? Refined, respectable women have just as much to say as ignorant black slaves or bloodthirsty Indians or mad white whaling captains. Why do we have to pretend those people's lives matter more than our own? ↗

— Anna Quindlen

#men