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Sean Quinn

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“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”
― Adam Smith

tags: communism, democracy, freedom, history, hope, individualism, philosophy, politics, revolution, socialism

405 likes

“There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.”
― James Joyce

tags: heresy

82 likes

“This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken.”
― Stephen R. Donaldson, The Wounded Land

tags: broken, hurt, leprosy, loss, pain, suffering

27 likes

“Those who wish to seek out the cause of miracles and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious, and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adores as the interpreters of nature and the gods. For these men know that, once ignorance is put aside, that wonderment would be taken away, which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.”
― Baruch De Spinoza, Ethics

tags: adoration, astonishment, authority, causation, cause, foolish, fools, gods, heresy, heretical, ignorance, impious, interpret, knowledge, miracles, mob, nature, philosopher, piety, preservation, stare, the-gods, thinking, truth, understanding, wonder

210 likes

“In the nomadic age, the shepherd (nomeus) was the typical symbol of rule. In Statesman, Plato distinguishes the shepherd from the statesman: the nemein of the shepherd is concerned with the nourishment (trophe) of his flock, and the shepherd is a kind of god in relation to the animals he herds. In contrast, the statesman does not stand as far above the people he governs as does the shepherd above his flock. Thus, the image of the shepherd is applicable only when an illustration of the relation of a god to human beings is intended. The statesman does not nourish; he only tends to, provides for, looks after, takes care of. The apparently materialistic viewpoint of nourishment is based more on the concept of a god than on the political viewpoint separated from him, which leads to secularization. The separation of economics and politics, of private and public law, still today considered by noted teachers of law to be an essential guarantee of freedom.”
― Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth: In the International Law of the Jus Publicum Europaeum

6 likes

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