Notable Quotable 326

Sep 13, 2024

Modern man is therefore indifferent to religion as he knows it, and yet his nervous recklessness, his chronic sense of frustration, his love of sensationalism as an escape, his fitful use of every substitute for religion from state-worship to getting drunk, show his soul still desires that release from itself, that infusion of life and meaning through being possessed by a power greater than itself, which is found perfectly in union with God alone.

- Alan Watts, Behold the Spirit

Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are fond of talking about "liberty"; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "progress"; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about "education"; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, "Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty." This is, logically rendered, "Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it." He says, "Away with your old moral formulae; I am for progress." This, logically stated, means, "Let us not settle what is good; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it." He says, "Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education." This, clearly expressed, means, "We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.

- G.K. Chesterton

The regime of diversions, surrogates, and tranquilizers that pass for today's 'distractions' and 'amusements' does not yet allow the modern woman to foresee the crisis that awaits her when she recognizes how meaningless are those male occupations for which she has fought, when the illusions and the euphoria of her conquests vanish, and when she realizes that, given the climate of dissolution, family and children can no longer give her a sense of satisfaction in life.

- Julius Evola

To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him is the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.

- Saint Augustine

We have to follow our instincts, but convince our reason to lend them a helping hand with good arguments.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

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When you’re on the field, play as if nothing else matters.

When you’re off the field, remember that the game doesn’t matter at all.

- James Clear

There is a source of power in each of us that we don't realize until we take responsibility.

- Diane Nash

Eternity is not unending time; it is an indestructible present, for Christ did not say, ‘Before Abraham was, I was,’ but, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’

- Alan Watts, Behold the Spirit

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

- Aristotle

Is progress real? We frolic in our emancipation from theology, but have we developed a natural ethic–a moral code independent of religion–strong enough to keep our instincts of acquisition, pugnacity, and sex from debasing our civilization into a mire of greed, crime, and promiscuity? Have we really outgrown intolerance, or merely transferred it from religious to national, ideological, or racial hostilities? Are our manners better than before, or worse?... Have our laws offered the criminal too much protection against society and the state? Have we given ourselves more freedom than our intelligence can digest? Or are we nearing such moral and social disorder that frightened parents will run back to Mother Church and beg her to discipline their children, at whatever cost to intellectual liberty? Has all the progress of philosophy since Descartes been a mistake through its failure to recognize the role of myth in the consolation and control of man?

- Will Durant