#dualism

It's not just that people sacrifice their love relationships, and the care of their children, to pursue their careers. Something like this has perhaps always existed. The point is that today many people feel called to do this, feel they ought to do this, feel their lives would be somehow wasted or unfulfilled if they didn't do it. ↗

— Charles Taylor

#love

But, of course, what mattered most of all was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism, my lawlessness. No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word INTERFERENCE. But Christianity placed at the centre what then seemed to me a transcendental Interferer. If its picture were true then no sort of 'treaty with reality' could ever be possible. There was no region even in the innermost depth of one's soul (nay, there least of all) which one could surround with a barbed wire fence and guard with a notice No Admittance. And that was what I wanted; some area, however small, of which I could say to all other beings, 'This is my business and mine only. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#christianity #god #individualism #morality #business

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#inspirational #inspirational

And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride. This god, this one word: 'I. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#philosophy #men

We are on strike against martyrdom—and against the moral code that demands it. We are on strike against those who believe that one man must exist for the sake of another. We are on strike against the morality of cannibals, be it practiced in body or in spirit. We will not deal with men on any terms but ours—and our terms are a moral code which holds that man is an end in himself and not the means to any end of others. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#ayn-rand #individualism #objectivism #rational-egoism #men

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. ↗

— C.P. Snow

#freedom #humanity #individualism #obedience #rebellion

Typography fostered the modern idea of individuality, but it destroyed the medieval sense of community and integration ↗

— Neil Postman

#individuality #typography #age

I didn't want to be in the teeming mass of the working class.[...] I didn't want to live and die in the same place with only a week at the seaside in between. I dreamed of escape - but what is terrible about industrialisation is that it makes escape necessary. In a system that generates masses, individualism is the only way out. But then what happens to community - to society? ↗

— Jeanette Winterson

#industrialisation #society #working-class #dreams

If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer’s day. Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse. ↗

— Anthon St. Maarten

#blessing #blessings #blessings-in-disguise #curse #dark-night-of-the-soul

The political vision of the religious right is for the most part an individualistic politics of righteousness, not a communal politics of compassion. ↗

— Marcus J. Borg

#individualism #politics #religious-right #righteousness #faith