Eleanor Roosevelt

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Eleanor Roosevelt

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.
White House portrait
Chairwoman of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women
In office
January 20, 1961 – November 7, 1962
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Preceded by None
Succeeded by Esther Peterson
United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly
In office
December 31, 1946 – December 31, 1952
President Harry S. Truman
Chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office
1946–1951
Preceded by New creation
Succeeded by Charles Malik
United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
In office
1947–1953
Preceded by New creation
Succeeded by Mary Lord
First Lady of the United States
In office
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Preceded by Lou Hoover
Succeeded by Bess Truman
First Lady of New York
In office
January 1, 1929 – December 31, 1932
Preceded by Catherine A. Dunn
Succeeded by Edith Louise Altschul
Personal details
Born Anna Eleanor Roosevelt
October 11, 1884
New York City, U.S.
Died November 7, 1962 (aged 78)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Resting place Hyde Park, New York
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(m. 1905–1945; his death)
Relations
Children
Parents Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt
Anna Rebecca Hall
Occupation politician
Religion Episcopal
Signature

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

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WikiQuote

  • Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
    • As quoted in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1944; 1948) by Dale Carnegie; though Roosevelt has sometimes been credited with the originating the expression, “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t” is set in quote marks, indicating she herself was quoting a common expression in saying this. Actually, this saying was coined back even earlier, 1836, by evangelist Lorenzo Dow in his sermons about ministers saying the Bible contradicts itself, telling his listeners, “… those who preach it up, to make the Bible clash and contradict itself, by preaching somewhat like this: ‘You can and you can’t-You shall and you shan’t-You will and you won’t-And you will be damned if you do-And you will be damned if you don’t.’ “
  • Understanding is a two-way street.
    • As quoted in Modern Quotations for Ready Reference (1947) by Arthur Richmond, p. 455
  • It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
    • Voice of America broadcast (11 November 1951)
  • We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.
    • The New York Times (1960), as cited in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 156
  • To me who dreamed so much as a child, who made a dreamworld in which I was the heroine of an unending story, the lives of people around me continued to have a certain storybook quality. I learned something which has stood me in good stead many times — The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.
    • Preface (December 1960) to The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961), p. xvi; the last line was originally used in the initial edition of her autobiography: This Is My Story (1937).
  • Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.
    • Preface (December 1960) to The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (1961), p. xix
  • I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.
    • As quoted in Todays Health (October 1966)
  • When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
    • As quoted in Eleanor : The Years Alone (1972) by Joseph P. Lash
  • I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
    • As quoted in Peter’s Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1972) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 5
  • Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
    • As quoted in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 130
  • When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?
    • As quoted in “On The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Issues of Democracy Vol. 3, No. 3 (October 1998), p. 11
  • You get more joy out of the giving to others, and should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.
    • As quoted in Sheroes: Bold, Brash, and Absolutely Unabashed Superwomen from Susan B. Anthony to Xena (1998) by Varla Ventura, p. 150
  • I think I have a good deal of my Uncle Theodore in me, because I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on.
    • As quoted in The Three Roosevelts: Patrician Leaders Who Transformed America (2002) by James MacGregor Burns ad Susan Dunn, p. 563
    • Variant: I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on.

This Is My Story (1937)

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In stopping to think through the meaning of what I have learned, there is much that I believe intensely, much I am unsure of. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

  • Up to a certain point it is good for us to know that there are people in the world who will give us love and unquestioned loyalty to the limit of their ability. I doubt, however, if it is good for us to feel assured of this without the accompanying obligation of having to justify this devotion by our behavior.
  • The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.

You Learn by Living (1960)

  • One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. … All you need to do is to be curious, receptive, eager for experience. And there’s one strange thing: when you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
    • p. 14
  • You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
    • p. 29–30
  • A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.
    • p. 63
  • Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively.
    • p. 95
  • “Anxiety,” Kierkegaard said, “is the dizziness of freedom.” This freedom of which men speak, for which they fight, seems to some people a perilous thing. It has to be earned at a bitter cost and then — it has to be lived with. For freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.
    We must all face and unpalatable fact that we have, too often, a tendency to skim over; we proceed on the assumption that all men want freedom. This is not as true as we would like it to be. Many men and women who are far happier when they have relinquish their freedom, when someone else guides them, makes their decisions for them, takes the responsibility for them and their actions. They don’t want to make up their minds. They don’t want to stand on their own feet.

    • p. 152

My Day (1935–1962)

Her daily newspaper column : selections at PBS

At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want — for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war.

  • It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death. (1 April 1939)
  • I was one of those who was very happy when the original prohibition amendment passed. I thought innocently that a law in this country would automatically be complied with, and my own observation led me to feel rather ardently that the less strong liquor anyone consumed the better it was. During prohibition I observed the law meticulously, but I came gradually to see that laws are only observed with the consent of the individuals concerned and a moral change still depends on the individual and not on the passage of any law. (14 July 1939)
  • Little by little it dawned upon me that this law was not making people drink any less, but it was making hypocrites and law breakers of a great number of people. It seemed to me best to go back to the old situation in which, if a man or woman drank to excess, they were injuring themselves and their immediate family and friends and the act was a violation against their own sense of morality and no violation against the law of the land. (14 July 1939)
  • Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people? (16 October 1939)
  • No writing has any real value which is not the expression of genuine thought and feeling. (20 December 1939)
  • When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor. (23 February 1940)
  • I have a great belief in spiritual force, but I think we have to realize that spiritual force alone has to have material force with it so long as we live in a material world. The two together make a strong combination. (17 May 1940)
  • Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little. (1 July 1940)
  • One should always sleep in all of one’s guest beds, to make sure that they are comfortable. (11 September 1941)

I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.
  • Long ago, I made up my mind that when things were said involving only me, I would pay no attention to them, except when valid criticism was carried by which I could profit. (14 January 1942)
  • One of the blessings of age is to learn not to part on a note of sharpness, to treasure the moments spent with those we love, and to make them whenever possible good to remember, for time is short. (5 February 1943)
  • At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want — for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war. (15 April 1943)
  • One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education… The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted. (11 May 1943)
  • Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth. (22 August 1944)
  • I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could. (8 November 1944)
  • It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.[1][2] (15 June 1946)
  • I have waited a while before saying anything about the Un-American Activities Committee’s current investigation of the Hollywood film industry. I would not be very much surprised if some writers or actors or stagehands, or what not, were found to have Communist leanings, but I was surprised to find that, at the start of the inquiry, some of the big producers were so chicken-hearted about speaking up for the freedom of their industry.
    One thing is sure — none of the arts flourishes on censorship and repression. And by this time it should be evident that the American public is capable of doing its own censoring.     Certainly, the Thomas Committee is growing more ludicrous daily. (29 October 1947)
  • The film industry is a great industry with infinite possibilities for good and bad. Its primary purpose is to entertain people. On the side, it can do many other things. It can popularize certain ideals, it can make education palatable. But in the long run, the judge who decides whether what it does is good or bad is the man or woman who attends the movies. In a democratic country I do not think the public will tolerate a removal of its right to decide what it thinks of the ideas and performances of those who make the movie industry work. (29 October 1947)

This is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery.

  • What is going on in the Un-American Activities Committee worries me primarily because little people have become frightened and we find ourselves living in the atmosphere of a police state, where people close doors before they state what they think or look over their shoulders apprehensively before they express an opinion.
    I have been one of those who have carried the fight for complete freedom of information in the United Nations. And while accepting the fact that some of our press, our radio commentators, our prominent citizens and our movies may at times be blamed legitimately for things they have said and done, still I feel that the fundamental right of freedom of thought and expression is essential. If you curtail what the other fellow says and does, you curtail what you yourself may say and do.
    In our country we must trust the people to hear and see both the good and the bad and to choose the good. The Un-American Activities Committee seems to me to be better for a police state than for the USA. (29 October 1947)
  • The mobilization of world opinion and methods of negotiation should be developed and used by every nation in order to strengthen the United Nations. Then if we are forced into war, it will be because there has been no way to prevent it through negotiation and the mobilization of world opinion. In which case we should have the voluntary support of many nations, which is far better than the decision of one nation alone, or even of a few nations. (16 April 1954)
  • This is a time for action — not for war, but for mobilization of every bit of peace machinery. It is also a time for facing the fact that you cannot use a weapon, even though it is the weapon that gives you greater strength than other nations, if it is so destructive that it practically wipes out large areas of land and great numbers of innocent people. (16 April 1954 )
  • If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people. (5 November 1958)
  • The arts in every field — music, drama, sculpture, painting — we can learn to appreciate and enjoy. We need not be artists, but we should be able to appreciate the work of artists. (5 November 1958)
  • If man is to be liberated to enjoy more leisure, he must also be prepared to enjoy this leisure fully and creatively. For people to have more time to read, to take part in their civic obligations, to know more about how their government functions and who their officials are might mean in a democracy a great improvement in the democratic processes. Let’s begin, then, to think how we can prepare old and young for these new opportunities. Let’s not wait until they come upon us suddenly and we have a crisis that we will be ill prepared to meet. (5 November 1958)

As long as we are not actually destroyed, we can work to gain greater understanding of other peoples and to try to present to the peoples of the world the values of our own beliefs.

  • In times past, the question usually asked by women was “How can we best help to defend our nation?” I cannot remember a time when the question on so many people’s lips was “How can we prevent war?”
    There is a widespread understanding among the people of this nation, and probably among the people of the world, that there is no safety except through the prevention of war. For many years war has been looked upon as almost inevitable in the solution of any question that has arisen between nations, and the nation that was strong enough to do so went about building up its defenses and its power to attack. It felt that it could count on these two things for safety. (20 December 1961)
  • A consciousness of the fact that war means practically total destruction is the reason, I think, for the rising tide to prevent what seems such a senseless procedure. I understand that it is perhaps difficult for some people, whose lives have been lived with a sense of the need for military development, to envisage the possibility of being no longer needed. But the average citizen is beginning to think more and more of the need to develop machinery to settle difficulties in the world without destruction or the use of atomic bombs. (20 December 1961)
  • We should begin in our own environment and in our own community as far as possible to build a peace-loving attitude and learn to discipline ourselves to accept, in the small things of our lives, mediation and arbitration. As individuals, there is little that any of us can do to prevent an accidental use of bombs in the hands of those who already have them. We can register, however, with our government a firm protest against granting the knowledge and the use of these weapons to those who do not now have them. (20 December 1961)
  • As long as we are not actually destroyed, we can work to gain greater understanding of other peoples and to try to present to the peoples of the world the values of our own beliefs. We can do this by demonstrating our conviction that human life is worth preserving and that we are willing to help others to enjoy benefits of our civilization just as we have enjoyed it. (20 December 1961)

Tomorrow Is Now (1963)

What we must learn to do is to create unbreakable bonds between the sciences and the humanities. We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.

  • We face the future fortified with the lessons we have learned from the past. It is today that we must create the world of the future. Spinoza, I think, pointed out that we ourselves can make experience valuable when, by imagination and reason, we turn it into foresight.
    • p. xv
  • Human resources are the most valuable assets the world has. They are all needed desperately.
    • p. 71
  • There never has been security. No man has ever known what he would meet around the next corner; if life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
    • p. 80
  • We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity. In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals. It cannot be better than they are. … In the long run there is no more exhilarating experience than to determine one’s position, state it bravely and then act boldly.
    • pp. 119–120
  • What we must learn to do is to create unbreakable bonds between the sciences and the humanities. We cannot procrastinate. The world of the future is in our making. Tomorrow is now.
    • p. 134
  • Example is the best lesson there is.

Disputed

  • No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
    • Sometimes claimed to appear in her book This is My Story, but in The Quote Verifier by Ralph Keyes (2006), Keyes writes on p. 97 that “Bartlett’s and other sources say her famous quotation can be found in This is My Story, Roosevelt’s 1937 autobiography. It can’t. Quotographer Rosalie Maggio scoured that book and many others by and about Roosevelt in search of this line, without success. In their own extensive searching, archivists at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York, have not been able to find the quotation in This Is My Story or any other writing by the First Lady. A discussion of some of the earliest known attributions of this quote to Roosevelt, which may be a paraphrase from an interview, can be found in this entry from Quote Investigator.
  • The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
    • Often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt without an original source in her writings, for example in the introduction to It Seems to Me : Selected Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt (2001) by Leonard C. Schlup and Donald W. Whisenhunt, p. 2. But archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
  • Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.
    • Another quote often attributed to her without an original source in her writings, as in The Wit and Wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt (1996), p. 199. But once again archivists have not been able to find the quote in any of her writings, see the comment from Ralph Keyes in The Quote Verifier above.
    • A very similar remark was attributed to Nancy Reagan, in The Observer (29 March 1981): “A woman is like a teabag — only in hot water do you realize how strong she is.”
    • Variant: A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.
    • Variant: A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
  • Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
    • There are many published incidents of this as an anonymous proverb since at least 1948, and as a statement of Eleanor Roosevelt since at least 1992, but without any citation of an original source. It is also often attributed to Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, but though Rickover quoted this, he did not claim to be the author of it; in “The World of the Uneducated” in The Saturday Evening Post (28 November 1959), he prefaces it with “As the unknown sage puts it…”
    • Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and little minds discuss people.
      • In this form it was quoted as an anonymous epigram in A Guide to Effective Public Speaking (1953) by Lawrence Henry Mouat
      • New York times Saturday review of books and art, 1931: …Wanted, the correct quotation and origin of this expression: Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people…
    • Several other variants or derivatives of the expression exist, but none provide a definite author:
      • Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss personalities.
      • Great minds discuss ideas
        Average minds discuss events
        Small minds discuss people
      • Small minds discuss things
        Average minds discuss people
        Great minds discuss ideas
    • …Some professor of psychology who has been eavesdropping for years makes the statement that “The best minds discuss ideas; the second in ranking talk about things; while the third group, or the least in mentality, gossip about people”… (Hardware age, Volume 123, 1929)
    • …It has been said long ago that there were three classes of people in the world, and while they are subject to variation, for elemental consideration they are useful. The first is that large class of people who talk about people; the next class are those who talk about things; and the third class are those who discuss ideas… (H. J. Derbyshire, “Origin of mental species”, 1919)
    • …Mrs. Conklin points out certain bad conversational habits and suggests good ones, quoting Buckle’s classic classification of talkers into three orders of intelligence — those who talk about nothing but persons, those who talk about things and those who discuss ideas… (review of Mary Greer Conklin’s book Conversation: What to say and how to say it in The Continent, Jan. 23, 1913, p. 118)
    • …[ Buckle’s ] thoughts and conversations were always on a high level, and I recollect a saying of his which not only greatly impressed me at the time, but which I have ever since cherished as a test of the mental calibre of friends and acquaintances. Buckle said, in his dogmatic way: “Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons, the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas”… (Charles Stewart, “Haud immemor. Reminescences of legal and social life in Edinburgh and London. 1850-1900”, 1901,p. 33)

Misattributed

Quotes about Roosevelt

  • I have lost more than a beloved friend. I have lost an inspiration. She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.
    • Adlai Stevenson, in a eulogy in the United Nations General Assembly (7 November 1962) adapting a statement that is the motto of the The Christophers, derived from a Chinese proverb (which has sometimes been attributed to Confucius).

External links

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (/ˈɛlɨnɔr ˈroʊzəvɛlt/; October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American politician. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, holding the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s four terms in office. President Harry S. Truman later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.[1]

A member of the Roosevelt and Livingston families, Eleanor had an unhappy childhood, suffering the deaths of both parents and one of her brothers at a young age. At 15, she attended Allenwood Academy in London, and was deeply influenced by its feminist headmistress Marie Souvestre. Returning to the U.S., she married her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1905. The Roosevelts’ marriage was complicated from the beginning by Franklin’s controlling mother, Sara, and after discovering Franklin’s affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, Eleanor resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics following his partial paralysis from polio, and began to give speeches and campaign in his place. After Franklin’s election as Governor of New York, Eleanor regularly made public appearances on his behalf. She also shaped the role of First Lady during her tenure and beyond.

Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. She was the first presidential spouse to hold press conferences, write a syndicated newspaper column, and speak at a national convention. On a few occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband’s policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees.

Following her husband’s death, Eleanor remained active in politics for the rest of her life. She pressed the US to join and support the United Nations and became one of its first delegates. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. By the time of her death, she was regarded as “one of the most esteemed women in the world” and “the object of almost universal respect”.[2] In 1999, she was ranked in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.[3]

Personal life

Early life

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born at 56 West 37th Street in New York City, to socialites Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (1860–1894) and Anna Rebecca Hall (1863–1892).[4] From an early age, she preferred to be called by her middle name (Eleanor). Through her father, she was a niece of President Theodore “T.R.” Roosevelt, Jr. (1858–1919). Through her mother, she was a niece of tennis champions Valentine Gill “Vallie” Hall III (1867–1934) and Edward Ludlow Hall (1872–1932). She acted in such an old-fashioned manner as a child that her mother nicknamed her “Granny”.[5]

Eleanor had two younger brothers: Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. (1889–1893) and Gracie Hall Roosevelt (1891–1941). She also had a half brother, Elliott Roosevelt Mann (c. 1890–1941), through her father’s affair with Katy Mann, a servant employed by the family.[6] Roosevelt was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege, as her family was part of New York high society called the “swells”.[7]

Her mother died from diphtheria on December 7, 1892, and Elliott Jr. died of the same disease the following May.[8] Her father, an alcoholic confined to a sanitarium, died on August 14, 1894 when he tried to jump from a window during a fit of delirium tremens. He survived the fall, but died from a seizure.[9] Her brother Hall would also suffer from alcoholism.[10] Eleanor’s childhood losses left her prone to depression throughout her life.[9]

After the deaths of her parents, Eleanor was raised in the household of her maternal grandmother, Mary Livingston Ludlow (1843–1919) of the Livingston family in Tivoli, New York.[9] In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph P. Lash describes her in childhood as insecure and starved for affection, considering herself the “ugly duckling”.[7] However, Roosevelt wrote at 14 that one’s prospects in life were not totally dependent on physical beauty: “no matter how plain a woman may be if truth and loyalty are stamped upon her face all will be attracted to her.”[11]

Roosevelt was tutored privately and, at the age of 15, with the encouragement of her aunt Anna “Bamie” Roosevelt, the family sent her to Allenswood Academy, a private finishing school outside London, England.[12] Roosevelt attended the school from 1899 to 1902. The headmistress, Marie Souvestre, was a noted feminist educator who sought to cultivate independent thinking in young women. Souvestre took a special interest in Roosevelt, who learned to speak French fluently and gained self-confidence.[13] Her first cousin Corinne Douglas Robinson, whose first term at Allenswood overlapped with Eleanor’s last, said that when she arrived at the school, Eleanor was “‘everything’ at the school. She was beloved by everybody.”[14] Roosevelt wished to continue at Allenswood, but in 1902 was summoned home by her grandmother to make her social debut.[13]

In 1902 at age 17, Roosevelt returned to the United States, ending her formal education, and was presented at a debutante ball at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel on December 14. She was later given her own “coming out party”.[15] Roosevelt was active with the New York Junior League shortly after its founding, teaching dancing and calisthenics in the East Side slums.[15] The organization had been brought to Roosevelt’s attention by her friend, organization founder Mary Harriman, and a male relative who criticized the group for “drawing young women into public activity”.[16]

Marriage and family life

In the summer of 1902, Eleanor encountered her father’s fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), on a train to Tivoli, New York.[17] The two began a secret correspondence and romance, and became engaged on November 22, 1903.[18] Franklin’s mother, Sara Ann Delano, opposed the union, and made him promise that the engagement would not be officially announced for a year. “I know what pain I must have caused you,” Franklin wrote his mother of his decision. But, he added, “I know my own mind, and known it for a long time, and know that I could never think otherwise.”[19] Sara took her son on a Caribbean cruise in 1904, hoping that a separation would squelch the romance, but Franklin remained determined.[19] The wedding date was set to accommodate President Theodore Roosevelt, who agreed to give the bride away.[20]

Eleanor married Franklin on March 17, 1905 (St. Patrick’s Day), in a wedding officiated by Endicott Peabody, the groom’s headmaster at Groton School.[17][21] The couple spent a preliminary honeymoon of one week at Hyde Park, then set up housekeeping in an apartment in New York. That summer they went on their formal honeymoon, a three-month tour of Europe.[22]

Eleanor and Franklin with their two eldest children

Returning to the U.S., the newlyweds settled in New York City, in a house provided by Franklin’s mother, as well as at the family’s estate overlooking the Hudson River in Hyde Park, New York. From the beginning, Eleanor had a contentious relationship with her controlling mother-in-law. The townhouse Sara gave to Eleanor and Franklin was connected to her own by sliding doors, and Sara ran both households in the decade after the marriage. Early on, Eleanor had a breakdown in which she explained to Franklin that “I did not like to live in a house which was not in any way mine, one that I had done nothing about and which did not represent the way I wanted to live”, but little changed.[23] Sara also sought to control the raising of her grandchildren, and Eleanor reflected later that “Franklin’s children were more my mother-in-law’s children than they were mine”.[24] Eleanor’s eldest son James remembered Sara telling her grandchildren, “Your mother only bore you, I am more your mother than your mother is.”[24]

Eleanor and Franklin had six children:

Despite becoming pregnant and giving birth six times, Eleanor disliked sex. She once told her daughter Anna that it was an “ordeal to be borne”.[25] She also considered herself ill-suited to motherhood, later writing, “It did not come naturally to me to understand little children or to enjoy them”.[24]

Unpacking a suitcase of Franklin’s in September 1918, Eleanor discovered a bundle of love letters to him from her social secretary, Lucy Mercer. He had been contemplating leaving Eleanor for Lucy. However, following pressure from Franklin’s political advisor Louis Howe and from his mother Sara, who threatened to disinherit her son if he divorced, Franklin remained married to Eleanor.[26] However, the union from that point on was more of a political partnership. Disillusioned, Eleanor again became active in public life, and focused increasingly on her social work rather than her role as a wife, as she had for the previous decade.[27]

In August 1921, the family was vacationing at Campobello Island, New Brunswick, when Franklin was stricken with polio, which permanently paralyzed his legs. When the extent of his disability became clear, Eleanor fought a protracted battle with her mother-in-law over his future, persuading him to stay in politics despite Sara’s urgings that he retire and become a country gentleman. This proved a turning point in Eleanor and Sara’s long-running struggle, and as Eleanor’s public role grew, she increasingly broke from Sara’s control.[28][29] Tensions between Sara and Eleanor over her new political friends rose to the point that the family constructed a cottage, Val-Kill, which Eleanor and her guests lived in when Franklin and the children were away from Hyde Park.[30][31]

Other relationships

In the 1930s, Eleanor had a very close relationship with legendary pilot phenomenon Amelia Earhart. One time, the two snuck out from the White House and went to a party dressed up for the occasion. Roosevelt also had a close relationship with Associated Press (AP) reporter Lorena Hickok, who covered her during the last months of the presidential campaign and “fell madly in love with her”.[32] During this period, Roosevelt wrote daily ten- to fifteen-page letters to “Hick”, who was planning to write a biography of the First Lady.[33] The letters included such endearments as, “I want to put my arms around you & kiss you at the corner of your mouth,”[34] and “I can’t kiss you, so I kiss your picture good night and good morning!”[35] At Franklin’s 1933 inauguration, Eleanor wore a sapphire ring Hickok had given her.[36] Compromised as a reporter, Hickok soon resigned her position with the AP to be closer to Eleanor, who secured her a job as an investigator for a New Deal program.[37]

Scholars including Lillian Faderman,[36] and Hazel Rowley[38] have said that the pair’s relationship contained a sexual component, though this view is not universal. Hickok biographer Doris Faber argued that the seemingly amorous phrases had misled historians, while Doris Kearns Goodwin stated in her 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Roosevelts that “whether Hick and Eleanor went beyond kisses and hugs” could not be determined with certainty.[39]

In the same years, Washington gossip linked Eleanor romantically with New Deal administrator Harry Hopkins, with whom she worked closely.[40] Roosevelt also had a close relationship with a New York State Police sergeant, Earl Miller, whom her husband had assigned as her bodyguard.[41] Roosevelt was 44 years old when she met Miller, 32, in 1929. He became her friend as well as official escort, taught her different sports, such as diving and riding, and coached her in tennis. Biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook writes that Miller was Eleanor’s “first romantic involvement” in her middle years.[42] Hazel Rowley concludes, “There is no doubt that Eleanor was in love with Earl for a time….. But they are most unlikely to have had an ‘affair’.”[43]

Eleanor’s friendship with Miller happened at the same time as her husband’s rumored relationship with his secretary, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand. Smith writes, “remarkably, both ER and Franklin recognized, accepted, and encouraged the arrangement….. Eleanor and Franklin were strong-willed people who cared greatly for each other’s happiness but realized their own inability to provide for it.”[44] Eleanor and Miller’s relationship is said to have continued until her death in 1962. They are thought to have corresponded daily, but all letters have been lost. According to rumor, the letters were anonymously purchased and destroyed or locked away when she died.[45]

In later years, Eleanor was said to have developed a romantic attachment to her physician, David Gurewitsch, though it was likely limited to a deep friendship.[46][47]

Public life before the White House

Roosevelt in 1932

In the 1920 presidential election, Franklin was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate with presidential candidate James M. Cox. Eleanor joined Franklin in touring the country, making her first campaign appearances.[48] Cox and Roosevelt were defeated by Republican Warren G. Harding, who won with sixteen million votes to nine million.[49]

Following the onset of Franklin’s polio in 1921, Eleanor began serving as a stand-in for her incapacitated husband, making public appearances on his behalf, often carefully coached by Louis Howe.[50] She also started working with the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL), raising funds in support of the union’s goals: a 48-hour work week, minimum wage, and the abolition of child labor.[7] Throughout the 1920s, Eleanor became increasingly influential as a leader in the New York State Democratic Party while Franklin used her contacts among Democratic women to strengthen his standing with them, winning their committed support for the future.[50] In 1924, she campaigned for Alfred E. Smith in his successful re-election bid as governor of New York State.[51] By 1928, Eleanor was promoting Smith’s candidacy for president and Franklin’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor of New York, succeeding Smith. Although Smith lost the presidential race, Franklin won handily and the Roosevelts moved into the governor’s mansion in Albany, New York.[52] During Franklin’s term as governor, Eleanor traveled widely in the state to make speeches and inspect state facilities on his behalf, reporting her findings to him at the end of each trip.[53]

In 1927, she joined friends Marion Dickerman and Nancy Cook in buying the Todhunter School for Girls, a finishing school which also offered college preparatory courses, in New York City. At the school, Roosevelt taught upper-level courses in American literature and history, emphasizing independent thought, current events, and social engagement. She continued to teach three days a week while FDR served as governor, but was forced to leave teaching after his election as president.[54][55]

First Lady of the United States (1933–1945)

Roosevelt making an appeal for the Red Cross, May 22, 1940

Following FDR’s inauguration on March 4, 1933, Eleanor became First Lady of the United States. Having known all of the twentieth century’s previous First Ladies, she was seriously depressed at having to assume the role, which had traditionally been restricted to domesticity and hostessing.[56] Her immediate predecessor, Lou Henry Hoover, had ended her feminist activism on becoming First Lady, stating her intention to be only a “backdrop for Bertie”.[57] Eleanor’s distress at these precedents was severe enough that Hickok subtitled her biography of Roosevelt “Reluctant First Lady”.[58]

With support from Howe and Hickok, Roosevelt set out to redefine the position. In the process she became, according to her biographer Cook, “the most controversial First Lady in United States history”.[58] With her husband’s strong support, despite criticism of them both, she continued with the active business and speaking agenda she had begun before becoming First Lady, in an era when few married women had careers. She was the first presidential spouse to hold press conferences and in 1940 became the first to speak at a national party convention.[59] She also wrote a widely syndicated newspaper column, “My Day“, another first.[60][61] In the first year of FDR’s tenure, determined to match his presidential salary, Eleanor earned $75,000 from her lectures and writing, most of which she gave to charity.[62] By 1941, she was receiving lecture fees of $1,000.[31]

Roosevelt maintained a heavy travel schedule in her twelve years in the White House, frequently making personal appearances at labor meetings to assure Depression-era workers that the White House was mindful of their plight. In one widely circulated cartoon of the time from The New Yorker magazine (June 3, 1933), an astonished coal miner, peering down a dark tunnel, says to a co-worker “For gosh sakes, here comes Mrs. Roosevelt!”[47][63]

Roosevelt (center), King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, October 23, 1942

In early 1933, the “Bonus Army“, a protest group of World War I veterans, marched on Washington for the second time in two years, calling for their veteran bonus certificates to be awarded early. The previous year, President Herbert Hoover had ordered them dispersed, and the US Army cavalry charged and bombarded the veterans with tear gas.[64] This time, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the veterans at their muddy campsite, listening to their concerns and singing army songs with them.[65] The meeting defused the tension between the veterans and the administration, and one of the marchers later commented, “Hoover sent the Army. Roosevelt sent his wife.”[66]

Arthurdale

Roosevelt’s chief project during her husband’s first two terms was the establishment of a planned community in Arthurdale, West Virginia.[67][68] On August 18, 1933, at Hickok’s urging, Roosevelt visited the families of homeless miners in Morgantown, West Virginia, who had been blacklisted following union activities.[69] Deeply affected by the visit, Roosevelt proposed a resettlement community for the miners at Arthurdale, where they could make a living by subsistence farming, handicrafts, and a local manufacturing plant.[68] She hoped the project could become a model for “a new kind of community” in the US, in which workers would be better cared for.[70] Her husband enthusiastically supported the project.[68]

After an initial, disastrous experiment with prefab houses, construction began again in 1934 to Roosevelt’s specifications, this time with “every modern convenience”, including indoor plumbing and central steam heat. Families occupied the first fifty homes in June, and agreed to repay the government in thirty years’ time.[67][71] Though Roosevelt had hoped for a racially mixed community, the miners insisted on limiting membership to white Christians. After losing a community vote, Roosevelt recommended the creation of other communities for the excluded black and Jewish miners.[72] The experience motivated Roosevelt to become much more outspoken on the issue of racial discrimination.[73]

Roosevelt remained a vigorous fundraiser for the community for several years, as well as spending most of her own income on the project.[74] However, the project was criticized by both the political left and right. Conservatives condemned it as socialist and a “communist plot”, while Democratic members of Congress opposed government competition with private enterprise.[75] Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes also opposed the project, citing its high per-family cost.[76] Arthurdale continued to sink as a government spending priority for the federal government until 1941, when the US sold off the last of its holdings in the community at a loss.[77]

Later commentators generally described the Arthurdale experiment as a failure.[78] Roosevelt herself was sharply discouraged by a 1940 visit in which she felt the town had become excessively dependent on outside assistance.[79] However, the residents considered the town a “utopia” compared to their previous circumstances, and many were returned to economic self-sufficiency.[77] Roosevelt personally considered the project a success, later speaking of the improvements she saw in people’s lives there and stating, “I don’t know whether you think that is worth half a million dollars. But I do.”[78]

Civil rights activism

Roosevelt flying with Tuskegee Airman Charles “Chief” Anderson in March 1941

Eleanor became an important connection for Franklin’s administration to the African-American population during the segregation era. During Franklin’s terms as President, despite his need to placate Southern sentiment, Eleanor was vocal in her support of the African-American civil rights movement. She concluded after her experience with Arthurdale and her inspections of New Deal programs in Southern states that New Deal programs were discriminating against African-Americans, who received a disproportionately small share of relief moneys. Eleanor became one of the only voices in the Roosevelt White House insisting that benefits be equally extended to Americans of all races.[80]

Eleanor also broke with precedent by inviting hundreds of African American guests to the White House.[81] When the black singer Marian Anderson was denied the use of Washington’s Constitution Hall in 1939 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Eleanor resigned from the group in protest and helped arrange another concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.[47] Roosevelt later presented Anderson to the King and Queen of the United Kingdom after Anderson performed at a White House dinner.[82] Roosevelt also arranged the appointment of African-American educator Mary McLeod Bethune, with whom she had struck up a friendship, as Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.[83][84] To avoid problems with the staff when Bethune would visit the White House, Eleanor would meet her at the gate, embrace her, and walk in with her arm-in-arm.[85]

Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Black Cabinet, 1943

Eleanor also lobbied behind the scenes for the 1934 Costigan-Wagner Bill to make lynching a federal crime, including arranging a meeting between Franklin and NAACP president Walter Francis White.[86] Fearing he would lose the votes of Southern congressional delegations for his legislative agenda, however, Franklin refused to publicly support the bill, which proved unable to pass the Senate.[87] In 1942, Eleanor worked with activist Pauli Murray to persuade Franklin to appeal on behalf of sharecropper Odell Waller, convicted of killing a white farmer during a fight; though Franklin sent a letter to Virginia Governor Colgate Darden urging him to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, Waller was executed as scheduled.[88]

Roosevelt’s support of African-American rights made her an unpopular figure among whites in the South. Rumors spread of “Eleanor Clubs” formed by servants to oppose their employers and “Eleanor Tuesdays” on which African-American men would knock down white women on the street, though no evidence has ever been found of either practice.[89] When race riots broke out in Detroit in June 1943, critics in both the North and South wrote that Roosevelt was to blame.[90] At the same time, she grew so popular among African-Americans, previously a reliable Republican voting bloc, that they became a consistent base of support for the Democratic Party.[91]

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt spoke out against anti-Japanese prejudice, warning against the “great hysteria against minority groups”.[92] She also privately opposed her husband’s Executive Order 9066, which forced Japanese-Americans in many areas of the US into internment camps.[93] She was widely criticized for her defense of Japanese-American citizens, including a call by the Los Angeles Times that she be “forced to retire from public life” over her stand on the issue.[94]

Use of media

Eleanor Roosevelt, George T. Bye (her literary agent, upper right), Deems Taylor (upper left), Westbrook Pegler (lower left), Quaker Lake, Pawling, New York (home of Lowell Thomas), 1938

As an unprecedentedly outspoken First Lady, Roosevelt made far more use of the media than her predecessors had, holding 348 press conferences over the span of her husband’s 12-year presidency.[95] Inspired by her relationship with Hickok, Roosevelt placed a ban on male reporters attending the press conferences, effectively forcing newspapers to keep female reporters on staff in order to cover them. She only relaxed the rule once, on her return from her 1943 Pacific trip.[96] Because the Gridiron Club banned women from its annual Gridiron Dinner for journalists, Roosevelt hosted a competing event for female reporters at the White House, which she called “Gridiron Widows”.[97]She was interviewed by many newspapers; the New Orleans journalist Iris Kelso described Mrs. Roosevelt as her most interesting interviewee ever.[98]

Roosevelt with Shirley Temple in 1938

In February 1933, just before Franklin assumed the presidency, Eleanor published an editorial in the Women’s Daily News conflicting so sharply with his intended public spending policies that he published a rejoinder in the following issue.[99] On entering the White House, she signed a contract with the magazine Woman’s Home Companion to provide a monthly column, in which she answered mail sent to her by readers; the feature was canceled in 1936 as another presidential election approached.[100] She continued her articles in other venues, publishing more than sixty articles in national magazines during her tenure as First Lady.[101] Eleanor also began a syndicated newspaper column, titled “My Day”, which appeared six days a week from 1936 to her death in 1962.[97] In the column, she wrote about her daily activities but also her humanitarian concerns.[102] Beasley has argued that Roosevelt’s publications, which often dealt with women’s issues and invited reader responses, represented a conscious attempt to use journalism “to overcome social isolation” for women by making “public communication a two-way channel”.[103]

World War II

Gen. Millard Harmon, Eleanor Roosevelt and Admiral Halsey in the South Pacific Theater, 1943.

On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, marking the end of the relatively conflict-free “Phoney War” phase of World War II. As the US began to move toward war footing, Roosevelt found herself again depressed, fearing that her role in fighting for domestic justice would become extraneous in a nation focused on foreign affairs. She briefly considered traveling to Europe to work with the Red Cross, but was dissuaded by presidential advisers who pointed out the consequences should the president’s wife be captured as a prisoner of war.[104] She soon found other wartime causes to work on, however, beginning with a popular movement to allow the immigration of European refugee children.[105] She also lobbied her husband to allow greater immigration of groups persecuted by the Nazis, including Jews, but fears of fifth columnists caused Franklin to restrict immigration rather than expanding it.[106] Eleanor successfully secured political refugee status for eighty-three Jewish refugees from the S.S. Quanza in August 1940, but was refused on many other occasions.[107] Her son James later wrote that “her deepest regret at the end of her life” was that she had not forced Franklin to accept more refugees from Nazism during the war.[108]

Roosevelt visiting troops

Eleanor was also active on the homefront. Beginning in 1941, she co-chaired the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) with New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, working to give civilian volunteers expanded roles in war preparations.[109] She soon found herself in a power struggle with LaGuardia, who preferred to focus on narrower aspects of defense, while she saw solutions to broader social problems as equally important to the war effort.[110] Though LaGuardia resigned from the OCD in December 1941, Eleanor was forced to resign following anger in the House of Representatives over high salaries for several OCD appointments, including two of her close friends.[111]

In October 1942, Roosevelt toured England, visiting with American troops and inspecting British forces. Her visits drew enormous crowds and received almost unanimously favorable press in both England and the US.[112] In August 1943, she visited American troops in the South Pacific on a morale-building tour, of which Admiral William Halsey, Jr. later said, “she alone accomplished more good than any other person, or any groups of civilians, who had passed through my area.”[113] For her part, Roosevelt was left shaken and deeply depressed by seeing the war’s carnage.[114] A number of Congressional Republicans criticized her for using scarce wartime resources for her trip, prompting Franklin to suggest that she take a break from traveling.[115]

Eleanor Roosevelt entertains soldiers as she tells a story, September 1943

Roosevelt supported increased roles for women and African-Americans in the war effort, and began to advocate for factory jobs to be given to women a year before it became a widespread practice.[116][117] In 1942, she urged women of all social backgrounds to learn trades, saying “if I were of a debutante age I would go into a factory–any factory where I could learn a skill and be useful”.[118] Learning of the high rate of absenteeism among working mothers, she also campaigned for government-sponsored day care.[119] She notably supported the Tuskegee Airmen in their successful effort to become the first black combat pilots, visiting the Tuskegee Air Corps Advanced Flying School in Alabama. At her request, she flew with the Chief Flight Instructor Charles “Chief” Alfred Anderson for more than an hour, which had great symbolic value and brought visibility to Tuskegee’s pilot training program.[120]

After the war, Eleanor was a strong proponent of the Morgenthau Plan to de-industrialize Germany in the postwar period.[121] In 1946, she attended the “National Conference on the German Problem”, which issued a statement that “any plans to resurrect the economic and political power of Germany….. [were] dangerous to the security of the world”.[122]

Years after the White House

Franklin died on April 12, 1945 after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Georgia. Eleanor later learned that FDR’s mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd, had been with him when he died,[123] a discovery made more bitter by learning that her daughter Anna had also been aware of the ongoing friendship between the president and Rutherfurd.[124] After the funeral, Eleanor packed and moved out of the White House, returning to Val-Kill.[125] In instructions left for Eleanor in the event of his death, Franklin proposed turning over Hyde Park to the federal government as a museum, and she spent the following months cataloging the estate and arranging the transfer. After FDR’s death, Eleanor moved into an apartment at 29 Washington Square West in Greenwich Village. In 1950, she rented suites at The Park Sheraton Hotel (202 West 56th Street). She lived here until 1953 when she moved to 211 East 62nd Street. When that lease expired in 1958, she returned to The Park Sheraton as she waited for the house she purchased with Edna and David Gurewitsch at 55 East 74th Street to be renovated.[126] The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum opened on April 12, 1946, setting a precedent for future presidential libraries.[127]

United Nations

Roosevelt with the Spanish version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes Franklin Roosevelt‘s Four Freedoms.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s January 6, 1941 State of the Union Address introducing the theme of the Four Freedoms (starting at 32:02)
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In December 1945, U.S. President Harry S. Truman appointed Eleanor as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.[128] In April 1946, she became the first chairperson of the preliminary United Nations Commission on Human Rights.[129] Eleanor remained chairperson when the Commission was established on a permanent basis in January 1947.[130] She played an instrumental role, along with René Cassin, John Peters Humphrey and others, in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

On the night of September 28, 1948, Eleanor spoke in favor of the Declaration, calling it “the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere”.[131] The Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The vote was unanimous except for eight abstentions: six Soviet Bloc countries as well as South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Roosevelt attributed the abstention of the Soviet bloc nations to Article 13, which provided the right of citizens to leave their countries.[132]

Roosevelt also served as the first United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights[133] and stayed on at that position until 1953, even after stepping down as chair of the Commission in 1951.[134] The UN posthumously awarded her one of its first Human Rights Prizes in 1968 in recognition of her work.[135]

Postwar politics

In the late 1940s, Democrats in New York and throughout the country courted Roosevelt for political office.

At first I was surprised that anyone should think that I would want to run for office, or that I was fitted to hold office. Then I realized that some people felt that I must have learned something from my husband in all the years that he was in public life! They also knew that I had stressed the fact that women should accept responsibility as citizens. I heard that I was being offered the nomination for governor or for the United States Senate in my own state, and even for Vice President. And some particularly humorous souls wrote in and suggested that I run as the first woman President of the United States! The simple truth is that I have had my fill of public life of the more or less stereotyped kind.[136]

Roosevelt with Frank Sinatra in 1960

Catholics comprised a major element of the Democratic Party in New York City. She supported reformers trying to overthrow the Irish machine Tammany Hall, and some Catholics called her anti-Catholic. In July 1949, Roosevelt had a bitter public disagreement with Cardinal Francis Spellman, the Archbishop of New York, over federal funding for parochial schools.[137][138] Spellman said she was anti-Catholic, and supporters of both took sides in a battle that drew national attention and is “still remembered for its vehemence and hostility.”[139]

In 1954, Tammany Hall boss Carmine DeSapio led the effort to defeat Eleanor’s son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., in the election for New York Attorney General. Eleanor grew increasingly disgusted with DeSapio’s political conduct through the rest of the 1950s. Eventually, she would join with her old friends Herbert Lehman and Thomas Finletter to form the New York Committee for Democratic Voters, a group dedicated to opposing DeSapio’s reincarnated Tammany Hall. Their efforts were eventually successful, and DeSapio was forced to relinquish power in 1961.[140]

When President Truman backed New York Governor W. Averell Harriman, a close associate of DeSapio, for the 1952 Democratic presidential nomination, Roosevelt was disappointed. She supported Adlai Stevenson for president in 1952 and 1956 and urged his renomination in 1960.[141] She resigned from her UN post in 1953, when Dwight D. Eisenhower became President. Although Roosevelt had reservations about John F. Kennedy for his failure to condemn McCarthyism, she supported him for president against Richard Nixon. Kennedy later reappointed her to the United Nations, where she served again from 1961 to 1962, and to the National Advisory Committee of the Peace Corps.[96]

Roosevelt with President Ramon Magsaysay, the 7th President of the Philippines, and his wife at the Malacañan Palace in 1955.

By the 1950s, Roosevelt’s international role as spokesperson for women led her to stop publicly criticizing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), although she never supported it. In 1961, President Kennedy’s undersecretary of labor, Esther Peterson proposed a new Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Kennedy appointed Roosevelt to chair the commission, with Peterson as director; she died just before the commission issued its report. It concluded that female equality was best achieved by recognition of gender differences and needs, and not by an Equal Rights Amendment.[142]

Throughout the 1950s, Roosevelt embarked on countless national and international speaking engagements; continued to pen her newspaper column; and made appearances on television and radio broadcasts. She averaged one hundred fifty lectures a year throughout the fifties, many devoted to her activism on behalf of the United Nations.[143] In 1961, all volumes of Roosevelt’s autobiography, which she had begun writing in 1937, were compiled into The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt (Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80476-X).

Roosevelt received thirty-five honorary degrees, thirteen of which were from universities outside the US.[144]

Death

Memorial in Riverside Park, Manhattan

In April 1960, Roosevelt was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. In 1962, she was given steroids which activated a dormant case of bone marrow tuberculosis.[145] Roosevelt died of resulting cardiac failure at her Manhattan home at 55 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side[146] on November 7, 1962, at the age of 78.[2][145]

President John F. Kennedy and former Presidents Truman and Eisenhower attended Roosevelt’s funeral at Hyde Park. At the memorial service, Adlai Stevenson asked, “What other single human being has touched and transformed the existence of so many?” He further praised her by stating, “She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.”[147] She was buried next to Franklin at the family compound in Hyde Park, New York on November 10, 1962.[148] After her death, the family deeded the family vacation home on Campobello Island to the governments of the U.S. and Canada and in 1964 they created the 2,800-acre (11 km2) Roosevelt Campobello International Park.[149]

The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument, in New York’s Riverside Park, was dedicated in 1996. It is said to be the first monument to an American president’s wife.[150] The centerpiece is a statue sculpted by Penelope Jencks. The surrounding granite pavement contains inscriptions designed by the architect Michael Middleton Dwyer, including a summary of her achievements, and a quote from her 1958 speech at the United Nations advocating universal human rights.[151]

Sufism

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WikiQuote

All things are but masks at God‘s beck and call,

They are symbols that instruct us that God is all. ~ Attar

Sufism or taṣawwuf (Arabic: الصوفية‎) refers to a range of traditions which emphasize mystical aspects of Islam, a practitioner of which is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ). Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as “a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God“; others conceive it is a manifestation of a perennial philosophy of existence which pre-dates religion, and which flowered within Islam, the essence of which has also been expressed in other religions. Some schools of Sufism in Western countries allow non-Muslims to receive “instructions on following the Sufi path”, while Muslim opponents of Sufism consider it outside the sphere of Islam. “Neo-Sufism” and “universal Sufism” are terms used to denote forms of Sufism which do not require adherence to Shariah, or a Muslim faith. The terms are not always accepted by those they are applied to.

See also:

Islam
List of Sufis

Quotes

‘Ali is acclaimed as the “Father of Sufism”. Most of the Sufi orders claim their descent from Ali.
Statements of the Sufi traditions sorted alphabetically by author or source

The Sea will be the Sea

Whatever the drop’s philosophy. ~ Attar

“You all are right, you all are wrong,” we hear the careless Soofi say, “For each believes his glimm’ering lamp to be the gorgeous light of day.” ~ Richard Francis Burton

To a Sufi, revelation is the inherent property of every soul. There is an unceasing flow of the divine stream, which has neither beginning nor end. ~ Inayat Khan

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition. ~ Rumi

Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:

every success depends upon focusing the heart. ~ Rumi

  • The Sea
    Will be the Sea
    Whatever the drop’s philosophy.

    • Attar of Nishapur, as quoted in The Sun at Midnight : The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis (2003) by Laurence Galian
  • When doctors differ who decides amid the milliard-headed throng?
    Who save the madman dares to cry: “‘Tis I am right, you all are wrong”?
    “You all are right, you all are wrong,” we hear the careless Soofi say,
    “For each believes his glimm’ering lamp to be the gorgeous light of day.”
    “Thy faith why false, my faith why true? ’tis all the work of Thine and Mine,
    “The fond and foolish love of self that makes the Mine excel the Thine.”
    Cease then to mumble rotten bones; and strive to clothe with flesh and blood
    The skel’eton; and to shape a Form that all shall hail as fair and good.

  • The mysticism of Islam is known as Sufism. “Sufis believe that the world can never remain without a qutb upon whom depends the preservation of the faith and the guidance of human beings. He is nearest to God , the guardian of the faith and receives instructions from Allah directly.”
  • A Sufi is he, who not only wears coarse woolen garment, but, at the same time has a heart which is pure and filled with the love of God.
    • Md. Sirajul Islam, in Sufism and Bakhti : A Comparative Study (2004), Ch. 1: Origins and Development of Sufism, p. 4
  • Asceticism is an important part in the origination of gradual development of Sufism. Some say it is the seed or root of Sufism.
    • Md. Sirajul Islam, in Sufism and Bakhti : A Comparative Study (2004), Ch. 1: Origins and Development of Sufism, p. 9
  • To a Sufi the Teacher is never absent, whether he comes in one form or in a thousand forms he is always one to him, and the same One he recognizes to be in all, and all Teachers he sees in his one Teacher alone. For a Sufi, the self within, the self without, the kingdom of the earth, the kingdom of heaven, the whole being is his teacher, and his every moment is engaged in acquiring knowledge. For some, the Teacher has already come and gone, for others the Teacher may still come, but for a Sufi the Teacher has always been and will remain with him forever.
  • The religion of the Sufi is not separate from the religions of the world. People have fought in vain about the names and lives of their saviors, and have named their religions after the name of their savior, instead of uniting with each other in the truth that is taught. This truth can be traced in all religions, whether one community calls another pagan or infidel or heathen. Such persons claim that theirs is the only scripture, and their place of worship the only abode of God. Sufism is a name applied to a certain philosophy by those who do not accept the philosophy; hence it cannot really be described as a religion; it contains a religion but is not itself a religion. Sufism is a religion if one wishes to learn religion from it. But it is beyond religion, for it is the light, the sustenance of every soul, raising the mortal being to immortality.
    • Inayat Khan, in The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Vol. I, The Way of Illumination, Section I – The Way of Illumination, Part III : The Sufi
  • Is a Sufi a follower of Islam? The word Islam means ‘peace’; this is the Arabic word. The Hebrew word is Salem (Jeru-salem). Peace and its attainment in all directions is the goal of the world.
    But if the following of Islam is understood to mean the obligatory adherence to a certain rite; if being a Muslim means conforming to certain restrictions, how can the Sufi be placed in that category, seeing that the Sufi is beyond all limitations of this kind? So, far from not accepting the Quran, the Sufi recognizes scriptures which others disregard. But the Sufi does not follow any special book. The shining ones, such as ‘Attar, Shams-i Tabriz, Rumi, Sadi, and Hafiz, have expressed their free thought with a complete liberty of language. To a Sufi, revelation is the inherent property of every soul. There is an unceasing flow of the divine stream, which has neither beginning nor end.

    • Inayat Khan, in The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, Vol. I, The Way of Illumination, Section I – The Way of Illumination, Part III : The Sufi
  • Sufism on its theosophical side is mainly a product of Greek speculation.
    • Reynold A. Nicholson, as quoted in Sufism and Bakhti : A Comparative Study (2004) by Md. Sirajul Islam, Ch. 1: Origins and Development of Sufism, p. 11
  • Love is the ark appointed for the righteous,
    Which annuls the danger and provides a way of escape.
    Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
    Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment intuition.

    • Rumi, in the Masnavi, Book IV, Story II, as translated in Masnavi I Ma’navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-‘d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) by Edward Henry Whinfield
    • Variant: Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
      Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.

  • Reason is like an officer when the King appears;
    The officer then loses his power and hides himself.
    Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.

    • Rumi, as translated in Masnavi I Ma’navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-‘d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) edited by Edward Henry Whinfield Book IV, Story IV : “Bayazid and his impious sayings when beside himself”
  • This is what is signified by the words Anā l-Ḥaqq, “I am God.” People imagine that it is a presumptuous claim, whereas it is really a presumptuous claim to say Ana ‘l-‘abd, “I am the slave of God”; and Anā l-Ḥaqq, “I am God” is an expression of great humility. The man who says Ana ‘l-‘abd, “I am the servant of God” affirms two existences, his own and God’s, but he that says Anā l-Ḥaqq, “I am God” has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says “I am God”, that is, “I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God’s.” This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.
    • Rumi, commenting on the famous expression of Mansur al-Hallaj, for which al-Hallaj was executed as a blasphemer, in The Mathnawí of Jalálu’ddín Rúmí, Vol. 4, part 7, edited by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson (1940) p. 248
    • Variant translation: People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumtive claim to say “I am the slave of God”; and “I am God” is an expression of great humility. The man who says “I am the slave of God” affirms two existences, his own and God’s, but he that says “I am God” has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says “I am God”, that is, “I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God’s.” This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.
  • Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
    every success depends upon focusing the heart.

    • Rumi, as translated in Jewels of Remembrance (1996) III, 2302-5
  • He that is purified by Love is pure (Safi), and he who is purified by the Beloved in Sufi.
  • Ali is acclaimed as the “Father of Sufism”. Most of the Sufi orders claim their descent from Ali. According to Ali Hajjweri, the rank of Ali is very high in the line up of Sufism. According to Junayd of Baghdad, Ali is the Shaykh as regards the principles and practices of Sufism. … The roots of Sufism lie embedded in Islam itself. There are numerous passages in the Holy Quran which are of a mystical character. The Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be on him) himself displayed mystical inclinations and he very often retired to the cave of Hirah for the purpose of devotions, meditation and contemplation. The Holy Prophet was recipient of two types of revelations, one embodied in the Holy Quran, and the other that illuminated his heart. The former was meant for all, the latter for a selected few whose hearts could be illuminated with the Divine Light. The knowledge of the Holy Prophet was thus book knowledge (ilm-i-Safina), and heart knowledge (ilm-i-Sina). Ali got this heart knowledge from the Holy Prophet.

External links

Wikipedia

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Sufism (Arabic: الصوفية‎ al-ṣūfiyya; Persian: تصوف‎ taṣawwuf) is a concept in Islam, defined by scholars as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam; others contend that it is a perennial philosophy of existence that pre-dates religion, the expression of which flowered within the Islamic religion.[1] Some hold the notion its essence has also been expressed via other religions and metareligious phenomena, while others believe Sufism to be something totally unique within Islam.[2][3][4][5][6] A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ). They belong to different ṭuruq or “orders”—congregations formed around a master—which meet for spiritual sessions (majalis), in meeting places known as zawiyahs, khanqahs, or tekke.[7]

All Sufi orders (turuq) trace many of their original precepts from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib, with the notable exception of the Sunni Naqshbandi order who claim to trace their origins through the first sunni Caliph, Abu Bakr.[8] However, Alevi, Bektashi[9] and Shia Muslims claim that every Sufi order traces its spiritual lineage (silsilah or Silsila) back to one of the Twelve Imams (even the Naqshbandi silsilah leads to the sixth imam Ja’far al-Sadiq and Salman the Persian, a renowned follower of the first imam Ali ibn Abi Talib), the spiritual heads of Islam who were foretold in the Hadith of the Twelve Successors and were all descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and Ali. Because of this Ali ibn Abi Talib is also called the “father of Sufism”.[10][11] Prominent orders include Alevi, Bektashi, Burhaniya, Mevlevi, Ba ‘Alawiyya, Chishti, Rifa’i, Khalwati, Naqshbandi, Nimatullahi, Oveyssi, Qadiria Boutshishia, Qadiriyyah, Qalandariyya, Sarwari Qadiri, Shadhiliyya and Suhrawardiyya.[12]

The origin of Sufism is also discussed in the book Mystical Dimensions of Islam, by Annemarie Schimmel.

Sufis believe they are practicing ihsan (perfection of worship) as revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad: “Worship and serve Allah as you are seeing Him and while you see Him not yet truly He sees you”. Sufis consider themselves as the original true proponents of this pure original form of Islam. Sufism is opposed by Wahhabi and Salafist Muslims.

Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as “a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God”.[13] Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, “a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits”.[14]

Muslims and mainstream scholars of Islam define Sufism as simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam[2] which is supported and complemented by outward or exoteric practices of Islam, such as Islamic law.[15] In this view, “it is absolutely necessary to be a Muslim” to be a true Sufi, because Sufism’s “methods are inoperative without” Muslim “affiliation”.[16] In contrast, author Idries Shah states Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the rise of Islam and Christianity.[17] Some schools of Sufism in Western countries allow non-Muslims to receive “instructions on following the Sufi path”.[18] Some Muslim opponents of Sufism also consider it outside the sphere of Islam.[2][19]

Classical Sufis were characterised by their attachment to dhikr, (a practice of repeating the names of God, often performed after prayers)[20] and asceticism. Sufism gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE[21]). Sufis have spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, originally expressing their beliefs in Arabic, before spreading into Persian, Turkish, Indian languages and a dozen other languages.[22]

Etymology

Two origins of the word sufi have been suggested. Commonly, the lexical root of the word is traced to ṣafā (صَفا), which in Arabic means “purity”. Another origin is ṣūf (صُوف), “wool”, referring to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore. The two were combined by the Sufi al-Rudhabari who said, “The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity”.[23][24]

Others have suggested that the word comes from the term ahl aṣ-ṣuffah (“the people of the bench”), who were a group of impoverished companions of Muhammad who held regular gatherings of dhikr.[25] Abd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun both rejected all possibilities other than ṣūf on linguistic grounds.[26]

According to the medieval scholar Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, the word sufi is derived from the Greek word sofia (σοφία), meaning wisdom.[27][28][29]

Beliefs

The tomb of Sheikh Rukn-ud-Din Abul Fath located in Multan, Pakistan. The city of Multan is known for various Sufi Saint tombs, as they call it the City of Saints

While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and hope to become close to God in Paradise—after death and after the “Final Judgment”—Sufis also believe that it is possible to draw closer to God and to more fully embrace the Divine Presence in this life.[30] The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra,[31] described in the Qur’an. In this state nothing one does defies God, and all is undertaken with the single motivation of love of God.

To Sufis, Sufism involves the study and ritual purification of traits deemed reprehensible while adding praiseworthy traits. This is independent of whether or not this process of religious cleansing and purifying leads to esoteric knowledge of God. This can be conceived in terms of two basic types of law (fiqh), an outer law concerned with actions, and an inner law concerned with ones own actions and qualities.[citation needed] The outer law consists of rules pertaining to worship, transactions, marriage, judicial rulings, and criminal law—what is often referred to, broadly, as qanun. The inner law of Sufism consists of rules about repentance from sin, the purging of contemptible qualities and evil traits of character, and adornment with virtues and good character.[32]

The typical early Sufi lived in a cell of a mosque and taught a small band of disciples. The extent to which Sufism was influenced by Buddhist and Hindu mysticism, and by the example of Christian hermits and monks, is disputed, but self-discipline and concentration on God quickly led to the belief that by quelling the self and through loving ardor for God it is possible to maintain a union with the divine in which the human self melts away.[33]

Teaching

Entrance of Sidi Boumediene mosque in Tlemcen, Algeria, built to honor 12th century Sufi master Abu Madyan

A Sufi student enters the faith by seeking a teacher. Sufism emphasises a strong relationship between the seeker and the teacher. To be considered legitimate by the Sufi community, the teacher, must have received the authorization to teach (ijazah) from another Master of the Way, in an unbroken succession (silsilah) leading back to Muhammad.[dubious – discuss][citation needed] To the Sufi, it is the transmission of divine light from the teacher’s heart to the heart of the student, rather than worldly knowledge, that allows the adept to progress. They further believe that the teacher should attempt to inerrantly follow the Divine Law.[34]

According to Moojan Momen “one of the most important doctrines of Sufism is the concept of the “Perfect Man” (al-Insan al-Kamil). This doctrine states that there will always exist upon the earth a “Qutb” (Pole or Axis, of the Universe)—a man who is the perfect channel of grace from God to man and in a state of wilaya (sanctity, being under the protection of God). The concept of the Sufi Qutb is similar to that of the Shi’i Imam.[35] However, this belief puts Sufism in “direct conflict” with Shi’ism, since both the Qutb (who for most Sufi orders is the head of the order) and the Imam fulfill the role of “the purveyor of spiritual guidance and of God’s grace to mankind”. The vow of obedience to the Shaykh or Qutb which is taken by Sufis is considered incompatible with devotion to the Imam”.[35]

As a further example, the prospective adherent of the Mevlevi Order would have been ordered to serve in the kitchens of a hospice for the poor for 1,001 days prior to being accepted for spiritual instruction, and a further 1,001 days in solitary retreat as a precondition of completing that instruction.[36]

Some teachers, especially when addressing more general audiences, or mixed groups of Muslims and non-Muslims, make extensive use of parable, allegory, and metaphor.[37] Although approaches to teaching vary among different Sufi orders, Sufism as a whole is primarily concerned with direct personal experience, and as such has sometimes been compared to other, non-Islamic forms of mysticism (e.g., as in the books of Hossein Nasr).

Many Sufi believe that to reach the highest levels of success in Sufism typically requires that the disciple live with and serve the teacher for a large period of time.[citation needed] An example is the folk story about Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, who gave his name to the Naqshbandi Order. He is believed to have served his first teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Baba As-Samasi, for 20 years, until as-Samasi died. He is said to then have served several other teachers for lengthy periods of time. He is said to have helped the poorer members of the community for many years and after this concluded his teacher directed him to care for animals cleaning their wounds, and assisting them.[38]

History

Main article: History of Sufism

Origins

Ali is considered to be the “Father of Sufism” in Islamic tradition.[39]

Eminent Sufis such as Ali Hujwiri claim that the tradition first began with Ali ibn Abi Talib. Furthermore, Junayd of Baghdad regarded Ali as the Sheikh of the principals and practices of Sufism.[39]

Practitioners of Sufism hold that in its early stages of development Sufism effectively referred to nothing more than the internalization of Islam.[40] According to one perspective, it is directly from the Qur’an, constantly recited, meditated, and experienced, that Sufism proceeded, in its origin and its development.[41] Others have held that Sufism is the strict emulation of the way of Muhammad, through which the heart’s connection to the Divine is strengthened.[42]

According to Marshall Hodgson, the Muslim conquests had brought large numbers of Christian monks and hermits, especially in Syria and Egypt, under the rule of Muslims. They retained a vigorous spiritual life for centuries after the conquests, and many of the especially pious Muslims who founded Sufism were influenced by their techniques and methods.[43] However, others disagree with this view by asserting Sufism to be unique within the confines of the Islamic religion and contend that Sufism developed from devout followers of Islam, like Bayazid Bastami who in his utmost reverence to the Sunnah refused to eat a watermelon as he did not find any proof that the prophet Muhammad ever ate it.[44][45] According to late Medieval mystic Jami, Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah was the first person to be called a “Sufi.”[26]

Important contributions in writing are attributed to Uwais al-Qarni, Harrm bin Hian, Hasan Basri and Sayid ibn al-Mussib. Ruwaym, from the second generation of Sufis in Baghdad, was also an influential early figure,[46][47] as was Junayd of Baghdad; a number of early practitioners of Sufism were disciples of one of the two.[48]

Sufism had a long history already before the subsequent institutionalization of Sufi teachings into devotional orders (tarîqât) in the early Middle Ages.[49] The Naqshbandi order is a notable exception to general rule of orders tracing their spiritual lineage through Muhammad’s grandsons, as it traces the origin of its teachings from Muhammad to the first Islamic Caliph, Abu Bakr.[8]

Formalization of doctrine

Towards the end of the first millennium CE, a number of manuals began to be written summarizing the doctrines of Sufism and describing some typical Sufi practices. Two of the most famous of these are now available in English translation: the Kashf al-Mahjûb of Hujwiri, and the Risâla of Qushayri.[50]

Two of Imam Al Ghazali‘s greatest treatises, the “Revival of Religious Sciences” and the “Alchemy of Happiness”, argued that Sufism originated from the Qur’an and thus was compatible with mainstream Islamic thought, and did not in any way contradict Islamic Law—being instead necessary to its complete fulfillment. This became the mainstream position among Islamic scholars for centuries, challenged only recently on the basis of selective use of a limited body of texts.[example needed] Ongoing efforts by both traditionally trained Muslim scholars and Western academics are making Imam Al-Ghazali’s works available in English translation for the first time,[51] allowing English-speaking readers to judge for themselves the compatibility of Islamic Law and Sufi doctrine.

The tomb of Khoja Afāq, near Kashgar, China.

Growth of influence

The rise of Islamic civilization coincides strongly with the spread of Sufi philosophy in Islam. The spread of Sufism has been considered a definitive factor in the spread of Islam, and in the creation of integrally Islamic cultures, especially in Africa[52] and Asia. The Senussi tribes of Libya and Sudan are one of the strongest adherents of Sufism. Sufi poets and philosophers such as Khoja Akhmet Yassawi, Rumi and Attar of Nishapur (c. 1145 – c. 1221) greatly enhanced the spread of Islamic culture in Anatolia, Central Asia, and South Asia.[53][54] Sufism also played a role in creating and propagating the culture of the Ottoman world,[55] and in resisting European imperialism in North Africa and South Asia.[56]

Between the 13th and 16th centuries CE, Sufism produced a flourishing intellectual culture throughout the Islamic world, a “Golden Age” whose physical artifacts survive. In many places a pious foundation would endow a lodge (known variously as a zaouia, khanqah, or tekke) in perpetuity (waqf) to provide a gathering place for Sufi adepts, as well as lodging for itinerant seekers of knowledge. The same system of endowments could also pay for a complex of buildings, such as that surrounding the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, including a lodge for Sufi seekers, a hospice with kitchens where these seekers could serve the poor and/or complete a period of initiation, a library, and other structures. No important domain in the civilization of Islam remained unaffected by Sufism in this period.[57]

Present

Current Sufi orders include Azeemia, Alians, Bektashi Order, Mevlevi Order, Ba ‘Alawiyya, Chishti, Jerrahi, Naqshbandi, Nimatullahi, Qadiriyyah, Qalandariyya, Sarwari Qadiri, Shadhiliyya, Suhrawardiyya, Ashrafia, Saifiah (Naqshbandiah) and Uwaisi (Oveyssi).[12] The relationship of Sufi orders to modern societies is usually defined by their relationship to governments.[58]

Turkey and Persia together have been a center for many Sufi lineages and orders. The Bektashi was closely affiliated with the Ottoman Janissary and is the heart of Turkey’s large and mostly liberal Alevi population. It has been spread westwards to Cyprus, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia, Kosovo and more recently to the USA (via Albania). Most Sufi Orders have influences from pre-Islamic traditions such as Pythagoreanism, but the Turkic Sufi traditions (including Alians, Bektashi and Mevlevi) also have traces of the ancient Tengrism shamanism.

Sufism is popular in such African countries as Morocco and Senegal, where it is seen as a mystical expression of Islam.[59] Sufism is traditional in Morocco but has seen a growing revival with the renewal of Sufism around contemporary spiritual teachers such as Sidi Hamza al Qadiri al Boutshishi. Mbacke suggests that one reason Sufism has taken hold in Senegal is because it can accommodate local beliefs and customs, which tend toward the mystical.[60]

The life of the Algerian Sufi master Emir Abd al-Qadir is instructive in this regard.[61] Notable as well are the lives of Amadou Bamba and Hajj Umar Tall in sub-Saharan Africa, and Sheikh Mansur Ushurma and Imam Shamil in the Caucasus region. In the twentieth century some more modernist Muslims have called Sufism a superstitious religion that holds back Islamic achievement in the fields of science and technology.[62]

A number of Westerners have embarked with varying degrees of success on the path of Sufism. One of the first to return to Europe as an official representative of a Sufi order, and with the specific purpose to spread Sufism in Western Europe, was the Swedish-born wandering Sufi Abd al-Hadi Aqhili (also known as Ivan Aguéli). René Guénon, the French scholar, became a Sufi in the early twentieth century and was known as Sheikh Abdul Wahid Yahya. His manifold writings defined the practice of Sufism as the essence of Islam but also pointed to the universality of its message. Other spiritualists, such as G. I. Gurdjieff, may or may not conform to the tenets of Sufism as understood by orthodox Muslims.

Other noteworthy Sufi teachers who have been active in the West in recent years include Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Inayat Khan, Nazim Al-Haqqani, Javad Nurbakhsh, Bulent Rauf, Irina Tweedie, Idries Shah, Muzaffer Ozak, Nahid Angha and Ali Kianfar.

Currently active Sufi academics and publishers include Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Abdullah Nooruddeen Durkee, Waheed Ashraf, Omer Tarin and Abdal Hakim Murad.

Theoretical perspectives

The works of Al-Ghazali firmly defended the concepts of Sufism within the Islamic faith.

Traditional Islamic scholars have recognized two major branches within the practice of Sufism, and use this as one key to differentiating among the approaches of different masters and devotional lineages.[63]

On the one hand there is the order from the signs to the Signifier (or from the arts to the Artisan). In this branch, the seeker begins by purifying the lower self of every corrupting influence that stands in the way of recognizing all of creation as the work of God, as God’s active Self-disclosure or theophany.[64] This is the way of Imam Al-Ghazali and of the majority of the Sufi orders.

On the other hand there is the order from the Signifier to His signs, from the Artisan to His works. In this branch the seeker experiences divine attraction (jadhba), and is able to enter the order with a glimpse of its endpoint, of direct apprehension of the Divine Presence towards which all spiritual striving is directed. This does not replace the striving to purify the heart, as in the other branch; it simply stems from a different point of entry into the path. This is the way primarily of the masters of the Naqshbandi and Shadhili orders.[65]

Contemporary scholars may also recognize a third branch, attributed to the late Ottoman scholar Said Nursi and explicated in his vast Qur’an commentary called the Risale-i Nur. This approach entails strict adherence to the way of Muhammad, in the understanding that this wont, or sunnah, proposes a complete devotional spirituality adequate to those without access to a master of the Sufi way.[66]

Contributions to other domains of scholarship

Sufism has contributed significantly to the elaboration of theoretical perspectives in many domains of intellectual endeavor. For instance, the doctrine of “subtle centers” or centers of subtle cognition (known as Lataif-e-sitta) addresses the matter of the awakening of spiritual intuition[67] in ways that some consider similar to certain models of chakra in Hinduism. In general, these subtle centers or latâ’if are thought of as faculties that are to be purified sequentially in order to bring the seeker’s wayfaring to completion. A concise and useful summary of this system from a living exponent of this tradition has been published by Muhammad Emin Er.[63]

Sufi psychology has influenced many areas of thinking both within and outside of Islam, drawing primarily upon three concepts. Ja’far al-Sadiq (both an imam in the Shia tradition and a respected scholar and link in chains of Sufi transmission in all Islamic sects) held that human beings are dominated by a lower self called the nafs, a faculty of spiritual intuition called the qalb or spiritual heart, and a spirit or soul called ruh. These interact in various ways, producing the spiritual types of the tyrant (dominated by nafs), the person of faith and moderation (dominated by the spiritual heart), and the person lost in love for God (dominated by the ruh).[68]

Of note with regard to the spread of Sufi psychology in the West is Robert Frager, a Sufi teacher authorized in the Khalwati Jerrahi order. Frager was a trained psychologist, born in the United States, who converted to Islam in the course of his practice of Sufism and wrote extensively on Sufism and psychology.[69]

Sufi cosmology and Sufi metaphysics are also noteworthy areas of intellectual accomplishment.

Devotional practices

Sufi gathering engaged in Dhikr

The devotional practices of Sufis vary widely. This is because an acknowledged and authorized master of the Sufi path is in effect a physician of the heart, able to diagnose the seeker’s impediments to knowledge and pure intention in serving God, and to prescribe to the seeker a course of treatment appropriate to his or her maladies. The consensus among Sufi scholars is that the seeker cannot self-diagnose, and that it can be extremely harmful to undertake any of these practices alone and without formal authorization.[70]

Prerequisites to practice include rigorous adherence to Islamic norms (ritual prayer in its five prescribed times each day, the fast of Ramadan, and so forth). Additionally, the seeker ought to be firmly grounded in supererogatory practices known from the life of Muhammad (such as the “sunna prayers”). This is in accordance with the words, attributed to God, of the following, a famous Hadith Qudsi:

My servant draws near to Me through nothing I love more than that which I have made obligatory for him. My servant never ceases drawing near to Me through supererogatory works until I love him. Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand through which he grasps, and his foot through which he walks.

It is also necessary for the seeker to have a correct creed (Aqidah),[71] and to embrace with certainty its tenets.[72] The seeker must also, of necessity, turn away from sins, love of this world, the love of company and renown, obedience to satanic impulse, and the promptings of the lower self. (The way in which this purification of the heart is achieved is outlined in certain books, but must be prescribed in detail by a Sufi master.) The seeker must also be trained to prevent the corruption of those good deeds which have accrued to his or her credit by overcoming the traps of ostentation, pride, arrogance, envy, and long hopes (meaning the hope for a long life allowing us to mend our ways later, rather than immediately, here and now).

Sufi practices, while attractive to some, are not a means for gaining knowledge. The traditional scholars of Sufism hold it as absolutely axiomatic that knowledge of God is not a psychological state generated through breath control. Thus, practice of “techniques” is not the cause, but instead the occasion for such knowledge to be obtained (if at all), given proper prerequisites and proper guidance by a master of the way. Furthermore, the emphasis on practices may obscure a far more important fact: The seeker is, in a sense, to become a broken person, stripped of all habits through the practice of (in the words of Imam Al-Ghazali) solitude, silence, sleeplessness, and hunger.[73]

Magic has also been a part of Sufi practice, notably in India.[74] The most famous of all Sufis, Mansur Al-Hallaj (d. 922), visited Sindh in order to study “Indian Magic”, where he accepted Hindu ideas of cosmogony and divine descent and also seems to have believed in the Transmigration of the soul.[75] The practice of magic intensified during the declining years of Sufism in India when the Sufi orders grew steadily in wealth and in political influence while their spirituality gradually declined and they concentrated on Saint worship, miracle working, magic and superstition.

Dhikr

Main article: Dhikr

Allah as having been written on the disciple’s heart according to Qadiri Al-Muntahi order

Dhikr is the remembrance of God commanded in the Qur’an for all Muslims through a specific devotional act, such as the repetition of divine names, supplications and aphorisms from hadith literature and the Qur’an. More generally, dhikr takes a wide range and various layers of meaning.[76] This includes dhikr as any activity in which the Muslim maintains awareness of God. To engage in dhikr is to practice consciousness of the Divine Presence and love, or “to seek a state of godwariness”. The Qur’an refers to Muhammad as the very embodiment of dhikr of God (65:10–11). Some types of dhikr are prescribed for all Muslims and do not require Sufi initiation or the prescription of a Sufi master because they are deemed to be good for every seeker under every circumstance.[77]

Some Sufi orders[78] engage in ritualized dhikr ceremonies, or sema. Sema includes various forms of worship such as: recitation, singing (the most well known being the Qawwali music of the Indian subcontinent), instrumental music, dance (most famously the Sufi whirling of the Mevlevi order), incense, meditation, ecstasy, and trance.[79]

Some Sufi orders stress and place extensive reliance upon Dhikr. This practice of Dhikr is called Dhikr-e-Qulb (invocation of God within the heartbeats). The basic idea in this practice is to visualize the Arabic name of God, Allah, as having been written on the disciple’s heart.[80]

Muraqaba

Main article: Muraqaba

The practice of muraqaba can be likened to the practices of meditation attested in many faith communities. The word muraqaba is derived from the same root (r-q-b) occurring as one of the 99 Names of God in the Qur’an, al-Raqîb, meaning “the Vigilant” and attested in verse 4:1 of the Qur’an. Through muraqaba, a person watches over or takes care of the spiritual heart, acquires knowledge about it, and becomes attuned to the Divine Presence, which is ever vigilant.

While variation exists, one description of the practice within a Naqshbandi lineage reads as follows:

He is to collect all of his bodily senses in concentration, and to cut himself off from all preoccupation and notions that inflict themselves upon the heart. And thus he is to turn his full consciousness towards God Most High while saying three times: “Ilahî anta maqsûdî wa-ridâka matlûbî—my God, you are my Goal and Your good pleasure is what I seek”. Then he brings to his heart the Name of the Essence—Allâh—and as it courses through his heart he remains attentive to its meaning, which is “Essence without likeness”. The seeker remains aware that He is Present, Watchful, Encompassing of all, thereby exemplifying the meaning of his saying (may God bless him and grant him peace): “Worship God as though you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He sees you”. And likewise the prophetic tradition: “The most favored level of faith is to know that God is witness over you, wherever you may be”.[81]

Visitation

In popular Sufism (i.e., devotional practices that have achieved currency in world cultures through Sufi influence), one common practice is to visit or make pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, great scholars, and righteous people. This is a particularly common practice in South Asia, where famous tombs include those of Khoja Afāq, near Kashgar, in China; Lal Shahbaz Qalander, in Sindh,Ali Hajwari in Lahore Bawaldin Zikrya in Multan Pakistan; Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, India; Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, India, and Shah Jalal in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Likewise, in Fez, Morocco, a popular destination for such pious visitation is the Zaouia Moulay Idriss II and the yearly visitation to see the current Sheikh of the Qadiri Boutchichi Tariqah, Sheikh Sidi Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi to celebrate the Mawlid (which is usually televised on Moroccan National television). The purpose of such visitations is usually two-fold, first and foremost the aim is to receive spiritual guidance and blessings from the Saint who rests in the shrine, which helps the Seeker in his or her own path towards enlightenment. Secondly, the Saint is also approached for intercession in prayers, be it in worldly matters or religious.

Persecution

See also: Sufi-Salafi relations

Sufis and Sufism has been subject to destruction of Sufi shrines and mosques, suppression of orders and discrimination against adherents in a number of Muslim countries where most Sufis live. The Turkish Republican state banned all the different Sufi orders and closed their institutions in 1925 after Sufis opposed the new secular order. The Iranian Islamic Republic has harassed Shia Sufi, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of “velayat-e faqih” (i.e., that the supreme Shiite jurist should be the nation’s political leader). In most other Muslim countries, attacks on Sufis and especially their shrines has come from some Muslims from the more puritanical schools of thought who believe Sufi practices such as celebration of the birthdays of Sufi saints, and Dhikr (“remembrance” of God) ceremonies[82] are Bid‘ah or impure innovation, and polytheistic (Shirk).[83][84]

History

Ali Dede the Bosnian‘s book Three Hundred Sixty Sufi Questions.

During the Safavid era of Iran, “both the wandering dervishes of ‘low’ Sufism” and “the philosopher-ulama of ‘high’ Sufism came under relentless pressure” from power cleric Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d1110/1699). Majlisi—”one of the most powerful and influential” Twelver Shi’a ulama “of all time”—was famous for (among other things), suppression of Sufism, which he and his followers believed paid insufficient attention to Shariah law. Prior to Majlisi’s rise, Shiism and Sufism had been “closely linked”.[85]

In 1843, the Senussi Sufi were forced to flee Mecca and Medina and head to Sudan and Libya.[21][86]

Before the First World War there were almost 100,000 disciples of the Mevlevi order throughout the Ottoman empire. But in 1925, as part of his desire to create a modern, western-orientated, secular state, Atatürk banned all the different Sufi orders and closed their tekkes. Pious foundations were suspended and their endowments expropriated; Sufi hospices were closed and their contents seized; all religious titles were abolished and dervish clothes outlawed. … In 1937, Atatürk went even further, prohibiting by law any form of traditional music, especially the playing of the ney, the Sufis’ reed flute.[87][88]

Current attacks

In recent years, Sufi shrines, and sometimes Sufi mosques, have been damaged or destroyed in many parts of the Muslim world. Some Sufi adherents have been killed as well. Ali Gomaa, a Sufi scholar and Grand Mufti of Al Azhar, has criticized the destruction of shrines and public property as unacceptable.[89]

Pakistan

Tomb of Syed Abdul Rahim Shah Bukhari constructed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

Since March 2005, 209 people have been killed and 560 injured in 29 different terrorist attacks targeting shrines devoted to Sufi saints in Pakistan, according to data compiled by the Center for Islamic Research Collaboration and Learning (CIRCLe).[90] At least as of 2010, the attacks have increased each year. The attacks are generally attributed to banned militant organizations of Deobandi or Ahl-e-Hadith (Salafi) backgrounds.[91] (Primarily Deobandi background according to another source—author John R. Schmidt).[92] Deobandi and Barelvi being the “two major sub-sects” of Sunni Muslims in South Asia[93] that have clashed—sometimes violently—since the late 1970s in Pakistan.[93] Although Barelvi are fully described as Sunni Sufis,[94] whether the destruction and death is a result of Deobandi’s banned militant organizations persecution of Sufis(Barelvus).[95])

In 2005, the militant organizations began attacking “symbols” of the Barelvi community such as mosques, prominent religious leaders, and shrines.[91]

Timeline
2005
  • 19 March: a suicide bomber kills at least 35 people and injured many more at the shrine of Pir Rakhel Shah in remote village of Fatehpur located in Jhal Magsi District of Balochistan. The dead included Shia and sunni devotees.[96]
  • 27 May: As many as 20 people are killed and 100 injured when a suicide-bomber attacks a gathering at Bari Imam Shrine during the annual festival. The dead were mainly Shia.[97] According to the police members of Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) were involved.[98] Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), were arrested from Thanda Pani and police seized two hand grenades from their custody.[99][100]
2006
  • 11 April: A suicide-bomber attacked a celebration of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (Eid Mawlid un Nabi) in Karachi’s Nishtar Park organised by the Barelvi Jamaat Ahle Sunnat. 57 died including almost the entire leadership of the Sunni Tehrik; over 100 were injured.[101] Three people associated with Lashkar-i-Jhangvi were put on trial for the bombing.[102] (see: Nishtar Park bombing)
2007
  • 18 December: The shrine of Abdul Shakoor Malang Baba is demolished by explosives.[103]
2008
  • March 3: ten villagers killed in a rocket attack on the 400-year-old shrine of Abu Saeed Baba. Lashkar-e-Islam takes credit.[103]
2009
  • 17 February: Agha Jee shot and killed in Peshwar, the fourth faith healer killed over several months in Pakistan. Earlier Pir Samiullah was killed in Swat by the Taliban 16 December 2008. His dead body was later exhumed and desecrated. Pir Rafiullah was kidnapped from Nowshera and his beheaded body was found in Matani area of Peshawar. Pir Juma Khan was kidnapped from Dir Lower and his beheaded body was found near Swat.[104] Faith healing is associated with Sufi Islam in Pakistan

Pakistani faith healers are known as pirs, a term that applies to the descendants of Sufi Muslim saints. Under Sufism, those descendants are thought to serve as conduits to God. The popularity of pirs as a viable healthcare alternative stems from the fact that, in much of rural Pakistan, clinics don’t exist or are dismissed as unreliable.[105]

and suppressing it has been a cause of “extremist” Muslims there.[106]
  • March 5: The shrine of Rahman Baba, “the most famous Sufi Pashto language poet”, razed to the ground by Taliban militants “partly because local women had been visiting the shrine”.[103][107]
  • 8 March: Attack on shrine of “famous Sufi poet” Rahman Baba in Peshawar. “The high intensity device almost destroyed the grave of the Rehman Baba and the gates of a mosque, canteen and conference hall situated in the spacious Rehman Baba Complex. Police said the bombers had tied explosives around the pillars of the tombs, to pull down the mausoleum”.[108]
  • May 8: shrine of Shaykh Omar Baba destroyed.[103][109]
  • 12 June: Mufti Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi killed by suicide bomber in Lahore. A leading Sunni Islamic cleric in Pakistan he was well known for his moderate views and for publicly denouncing the Taliban’s beheadings and suicide bombings as “un-Islamic”.[110]
2010
  • 22 June: Taliban militants blow up the Mian Umar Baba shrine in Peshawar. No fatalities reported.[103][111]
  • 1 July: Multiple bombings of Data Durbar Complex Sufi shrine, in Lahore, Punjab. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up killing at least 50 people and injuring 200 others.[103]
  • 7 October: 10 people killed, 50 injured in a double suicide bombing attack on Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine in Karachi[112]
  • 7 October: The tomb of Baba Fariddudin Ganj Shakkar in Pakpattan is attacked. Six people were killed and 15 others injured.[103]
  • 25 October: 6 killed, and at least 12 wounded in an attack on the shrine of 12th-century saint, Baba Farid Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan.[113]
  • 14 December: Attack on Ghazi Baba shrine in Peshawar, 3 killed.[114]
2011
  • 3 February: Remote-controlled device is triggered as food is being distributed among the devotees outside the Baba Haider Saieen shrine in Lahore, Punjab. At least three people were killed and 27 others injured.[103]
  • 3 April: Twin suicide attack leaves 42 dead and almost a hundred injured during the annual Urs festival at shrine of 13th century Sufi saint Sakhi Sarwar (a.k.a. Ahmed Sultan) in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab province. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claims responsibility for the attack.[103][115]
2012
  • 21 June: Bomb kills three people and injures 31 others at the Pinza Piran shrine in Hazarkhwani in (Peshwar). “A police official said the bomb was planted in a donkey-cart that went off in the afternoon when a large number of people were visiting the popular shrine”.[116]

Kashmir, India

In this predominately Muslim, traditionally Sufi region,[117] some six places of worship have been either completely or partially burnt in “mysterious fires” in several months leading up to November 2012.[118] The most prominent victim of damage was the Dastageer Sahib Sufi shrine in Srinagar which burned in June 2012, injuring 20.[119] While investigators have so far found no sign of arson, according to journalist Amir Rana the fires have occurred within the context of a surging Salafi movement which preaches that “Kashmiri tradition of venerating the tombs and relics of saints is outside the pale of Islam”.[118]

mourners outside the burning shrine cursed the Salafis for creating an atmosphere of hate, [while] some Salafis began posting incendiary messages on Facebook, terming the destruction of the shrine a “divine act of God”.[118]

Somalia

Under the Al-Shabab rule in Somali, Sufi ceremonies were banned[120] and shrines destroyed.[121] As the power of Al-Shabab has waned, however, Sufi ceremonies are said to have “re-emerged”.[117]

Mali

In the ancient city of Timbuktu, sometimes called “the city of 333 saints”, UNESCO reports that as many as half of the city’s shrines “have been destroyed in a display of fanaticism”, as of July 2012. A spokesman for Ansar Dine has stated that “the destruction is a divine order”, and that the group had plans to destroy every single Sufi shrine in the city, “without exception”.[122] In Gao and Kidal, as well as Timbuktu, Salafi Islamists have destroyed musical instruments and driven musicians (music is not Haraam under Sufi Islam) into “economic exile” away from Mali.[123]

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda described the Islamists’ actions as a “war crime”.[124][125]

  • A manuscript from Timbuktu belonging to Al-Mukhtar ibn Aḥmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Kunti al-Kabir.

  • A manuscript from Timbuktu belonging to Baba ibn Ahmad al-Alawi al-Maliki al-Maghribi al-Shingiti.

Egypt

A May 2010 ban by the ministry of awqaf (religious endowments) of centuries old Sufi dhikr gatherings (devoted to the remembrance of God, and including dancing and religious songs) has been described as a “another victory for extreme Salafi thinking at the expense of Egypt’s moderate Sufism”. Clashes followed at Cairo‘s Al-Hussein Mosque and al-Sayyida Zeinab mosques between members of Sufi orders and security forces who forced them to evacuate the two shrines.[82] In 2009, the moulid of al-Sayyida Zeinab, Muhammad’s granddaughter, was banned ostensibly over concern over the spread of swine flu[126] but also at the urging of Salafis.[82]

According to Gaber Qassem, deputy of the Sufi Orders, approximately 14 shrines have been violated in Egypt since the January 2011 revolution. According to Sheikh Tarek El-Rifai, head of the Rifai Sufi Order, a number of Salafis have prevented Sufi prayers in Al-Haram. Sheikh Rifai said that the order’s lawyer has filed a report at the Al-Haram police station to that effect. In early April 2011, a Sufi march from Al-Azhar Mosque to Al-Hussein Mosque was followed by a massive protest before Al-Hussein Mosque, “expressing outrage at the destruction” of Sufi shrines. The Islamic Research Centre of Egypt, led by Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb, has also renounced the attacks on the shrines.[84] According to the Muslim Brotherhood website ikhwanweb.com, in 2011 “a memorandum was submitted to the Armed Forces” citing 20 “encroachments” on Sufi shrines.[89]

Libya

Following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, several Sufi religious sites in Libya were deliberately destroyed or damaged.[127] In the weeks leading up to September 2012, “armed groups motivated by their religious views” attacked Sufi religious sites across the country, “destroying several mosques and tombs of Sufi religious leaders and scholars”.[128] Perpetrators were described as “groups that have a strict Islamic ideology where they believe that graves and shrines must be desecrated.” Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A’al, was quoted as saying, “If all shrines in Libya are destroyed so we can avoid the death of one person [in clashes with security forces], then that is a price we are ready to pay.”[128]

In September 2012, three people were killed in clashes between residents of Rajma (50 km south-east of Benghazi) and “Salafist Islamists” trying to destroy a Sufi shrine in Rajma, the Sidi al-Lafi mausoleum.[129] In August 2012 the United Nations cultural agency Unesco urged Libyan authorities to protect Sufi mosques and shrines from attacks by Islamic hardliners “who consider the traditional mystical school of Islam heretical”. The attacked have “wrecked mosques in at least three cities and desecrated many graves of revered Sufi scholars”.[130]

Tunisia

In an article on the rise of Salafism in Tunisia, the media site Al-Monitor reported that 39 Sufi shrines were destroyed or desecrated in Tunisia, from the 2011 revolution to January 2013.[131]

Russia, Dagestan

Said Atsayev—also known as Sheikh Said Afandi al-Chirkavi—a prominent 74-year-old Sufi Muslim spiritual leader in Dagestan Russia, was killed by a suicide bombing August 28, 2012 along with six of his followers. His murder follows “similar religiously-motivated killings” in Dagestan and other regions of ex-Soviet Central Asia, targeting religious leaders—not necessarily Sufi—who are hostile to violent jihad. Afandi had survived previous attempts on his life and was reportedly in the process of negotiating a peace agreement between the Sufis and Salafis.[132] [133][134]

Iran

The book Mystic Regimes. Sufism and the State in Iran, from the late Qajar era to the Islamic Republic by Matthijs van den Bos discusses the status of Sufism in Iran in the 19th and 20th century.[135] According to Seyed Mostafa Azmayesh, an expert on Sufism and the representative of the Ni’matullāhī order outside Iran, a campaign against the Sufis in Iran (or at least Shia Sufis) began in 2005 when several books were published arguing that because Sufis follow their own spiritual leaders do not believe in the Islamic state’s principle of “velayat-e faqih” (i.e., that the supreme Shiite jurist should be the nation’s political leader), Sufis should be treated as second-class citizens. They should not be allowed to have government jobs, and if they already have them, should be identified and fired.[136]

Since 2005 the Ni’matullāhī order—Iran’s largest Sufi order—have come under increasing state pressure. Three of their houses of worship have been demolished. Officials accused the Sufis of not having building permits and of narcotics possession—charges the Sufis reject.[136]

The government of Iran is considering an outright ban on Sufism, according to the 2009 Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.[137] It also reports:

In February 2009, at least 40 Sufis in Isfahan were arrested after protesting the destruction of a Sufi place of worship; all were released within days.

In January, Jamshid Lak, a Gonabadi Dervish from the Nematollahi Sufi order was flogged 74 times after being convicted in 2006 of slander following his public allegation of ill-treatment by a Ministry of Intelligence official.

In late December 2008, after the closure of a Sufi place of worship, authorities arrested without charge at least six members of the Gonabadi Dervishes on Kish Island and confiscated their books and computer equipment; their status is unknown.

In November 2008, Amir Ali Mohammad Labaf was sentenced to a five-year prison term, 74 lashes, and internal exile to the southeastern town of Babak for spreading lies, based on his membership in the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi order.

In October, at least seven Sufi Muslims in Isfahan, and five others in Karaj, were arrested because of their affiliation with the Nematollahi Gonabadi Sufi order; they remain in detention.

In November 2007, clashes in the western city of Borujerd between security forces and followers of a mystic Sufi order resulted in dozens of injuries and the arrests of approximately 180 Sufi Muslims. The clashes occurred after authorities began bulldozing a Sufi monastery. It is unclear how many remain in detention or if any charges have been brought against those arrested. During the past year, there were numerous reports of Shi’a clerics and prayer leaders, particularly in Qom, denouncing Sufism and the activities of Sufi Muslims in the country in both sermons and public statements.[137]

In 2009 the mausoleum of the 19th century Sufi poet Nasir Ali and an adjoining Sufi prayer house were bulldozed.[138]

Not all Sufis in Iran have been subject to government pressure. Sunni dervish orders—such as the Qhaderi dervishes—in the Sunni-populated parts of the country are thought by some to be seen as allies of the government against Al-Qaeda.[136]

Islam and Sufism

Sufism and Islamic law

Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chisti, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Scholars and adherents of Sufism sometimes describe Sufism in terms of a threefold approach to God as explained by a tradition (hadîth) attributed to Muhammad,[citation needed]“The Canon is my word, the order is my deed, and the truth is my interior state”.[citation needed] Sufis believe the sharia (exoteric “canon”), tariqa (esoteric “order”) and haqiqa (“truth”) are mutually interdependent.[139]

The tariqa, the ‘path’ on which the mystics walk, has been defined as[weasel words] ‘the path which comes out of the sharia, for the main road is called branch, the path, tariq.’[clarification needed] No mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the sharia are not followed faithfully first. The tariqa however, is narrower and more difficult to walk.

It leads the adept, called salik or “wayfarer”, in his sulûk or “road” through different stations (maqâmât) until he reaches his goal, the perfect tawhîd, the existential confession that God is One.[140] Shaykh al-Akbar Muhiuddeen Ibn Arabi mentions, “When we see someone in this Community who claims to be able to guide others to God, but is remiss in but one rule of the Sacred Law—even if he manifests miracles that stagger the mind—asserting that his shortcoming is a special dispensation for him, we do not even turn to look at him, for such a person is not a sheikh, nor is he speaking the truth, for no one is entrusted with the secrets of God Most High save one in whom the ordinances of the Sacred Law are preserved. (Jami’ karamat al-awliya’)”.[141]

The Amman Message, a detailed statement issued by 200 leading Islamic scholars in 2005 in Amman, and adopted by the Islamic world’s political and temporal leaderships at the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit at Mecca in December 2005, and by six other international Islamic scholarly assemblies including the International Islamic Fiqh Academy of Jeddah, in July 2006, specifically recognized the validity of Sufism as a part of Islam—however the definition of Sufism can vary drastically between different traditions (what may be intended is simple tazkiah as opposed to the various manifestations of Sufism around the Islamic world).[142]

Traditional Islamic thought and Sufism

The literature of Sufism emphasizes highly subjective matters that resist outside observation, such as the subtle states of the heart. Often these resist direct reference or description, with the consequence that the authors of various Sufi treatises took recourse to allegorical language. For instance, much Sufi poetry refers to intoxication, which Islam expressly forbids. This usage of indirect language and the existence of interpretations by people who had no training in Islam or Sufism led to doubts being cast over the validity of Sufism as a part of Islam. Also, some groups emerged that considered themselves above the Sharia and discussed Sufism as a method of bypassing the rules of Islam in order to attain salvation directly. This was disapproved of by traditional scholars.

For these and other reasons, the relationship between traditional Islamic scholars and Sufism is complex and a range of scholarly opinion on Sufism in Islam has been the norm. Some scholars, such as Al-Ghazali, helped its propagation while other scholars opposed it. W. Chittick explains the position of Sufism and Sufis this way:

In short, Muslim scholars who focused their energies on understanding the normative guidelines for the body came to be known as jurists, and those who held that the most important task was to train the mind in achieving correct understanding came to be divided into three main schools of thought: theology, philosophy, and Sufism. This leaves us with the third domain of human existence, the spirit. Most Muslims who devoted their major efforts to developing the spiritual dimensions of the human person came to be known as Sufis.

Traditional and Neo-Sufi groups

The mausoleum (gongbei) of Ma Laichi in Linxia City, China.

The traditional Sufi orders, which are in majority, emphasize the role of Sufism as a spiritual discipline within Islam. Therefore, the Sharia (traditional Islamic law) and the Sunnah are seen as crucial for any Sufi aspirant. One proof traditional orders assert is that almost all the famous Sufi masters of the past Caliphates were experts in Sharia and were renowned as people with great Iman (faith) and excellent practice. Many were also Qadis (Sharia law judges) in courts. They held that Sufism was never distinct from Islam and to fully comprehend and practice Sufism one must be an observant Muslim.

“Neo-Sufism” and “universal Sufism” are terms used to denote forms of Sufism that do not require adherence to Shariah, or a Muslim faith. The terms are not always accepted by those it is applied to. The Universal Sufism movement was founded by Inayat Khan, teaches the essential unity of all faiths, and accepts members of all creeds. Sufism Reoriented is an offshoot of Khan’s Western Sufism charted by the syncretistic teacher Meher Baba. The Golden Sufi Center exists in England, Switzerland and the United States. It was founded by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee to continue the work of his teacher Irina Tweedie, herself a disciple of the Hindu Naqshbandi Sufi Bhai Sahib. The Afghan-Scottish teacher Idries Shah has been described as a neo-Sufi by the Gurdjieffian James Moore.[143] Other Western Sufi organisations include the Sufi Foundation of America and the International Association of Sufism.

Western Sufi practice may differ from traditional forms, for instance having mixed-gender meetings and less emphasis on the Qur’an.

Prominent Sufis

Abul Hasan al-Shadhili

Abul Hasan al-Shadhili (died 1258 CE), the founder of the Shadhiliyya Sufi order, introduced dhikr jahri (The method of remembering Allah through loud means). Sufi orders generally preach to deny oneself and to destroy the ego-self (nafs) and its worldly desires. This is sometimes characterized as the “Order of Patience-Tariqus Sabr”. In contrast, Imam Shadhili taught that his followers need not abstain from what Islam has not forbidden, but to be grateful for what God has bestowed upon them.[144] This notion, known as the “Order of Gratitude-Tariqush Shukr”, was espoused by Imam Shadhili. Imam Shadhili gave eighteen valuable hizbs (litanies) to his followers out of which the notable Hizbul Bahr[145] is recited worldwide even today.

A manuscript of Sufi Islamic theology, Shams al-Ma’arif (translated as “The Book of the Sun of Gnosis”) was written by the Algerian Sufi master Ahmad al-Buni during the 12th century

Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

Al-Sayyid Muhiyudin Abu Muhammad Abdal Qadir Al-Jilani Al-Hasani Wal-Hussaini (born 11 Rabi al-Thani, 470 Hijri, in the town of Na’if, district of Gilan, Ilam Province Or Amol of Tabarestan, Persia, died 8 Rabi al-Awwal 561 AH, in Baghdad,[1] (1077–1166 CE), was a Persian Hanbali jurist and Sufi based in Baghdad. Qadiriyya was his patronym. Al Gilani spent his early life in Na’if, the town of his birth. There, he pursued the study of Hanbali law. Abu Ali al-Mukharrimi gave Al Gilani lessons in Fiqh. He was given lessons about Hadith by Abu Bakr ibn Muzaffar. He was given lessons about Tafsir by Abu Muhammad Ja’far, a commentator. In Tasawwuf, his spiritual instructor was Abu’l-Khair Hammad ibn Muslim al-Dabbas. After completing his education, Gilani left Baghdad. He spent twenty-five years as a reclusive wanderer in the desert regions of Iraq. In 1127, Al Gilani returned to Baghdad and began to preach to the public. He joined the teaching staff of the school belonging to his own teacher, al-Mukharrimii,and was popular with students. In the morning he taught hadith and tafsir, and in the afternoon he held discourse on the science of the heart and the virtues of the Qur’an. He was said to have been a convincing preacher and converted numerous Jews and Christians. His strength came in the reconciling of the mystical nature of the Sufi and strict nature of the Qur’an. He felt it important to control egotism and worldliness in submission to God.

Bayazid Bastami

Bayazid Bastami (died 874 CE) is considered to be “of the six bright stars in the firmament of the Prophet”, and a link in the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Tariqah. He is regarded as the first mystic to openly speak of the annihilation (fanā’) of the base self in the Divine, whereby the mystic becomes fully absorbed to the point of becoming unaware of himself or the objects around him. Every existing thing seems to vanish, and he feels free of every barrier that could stand in the way of his viewing the Remembered One. In one of these states, Bastami cried out: “Praise to Me, for My greatest Glory!” His belief in the unity of all religions became apparent when asked the question: “How does Islam view other religions?” His reply was “All are vehicles and a path to God’s Divine Presence”.

Ibn Arabi

Muhyiddin Muhammad b. ‘Ali Ibn ‘Arabi (or Ibn al-‘Arabi) AH 561- AH 638 (July 28, 1165 – November 10, 1240) is considered to be one of the most important Sufi masters, although he never founded any order (tariqa). His writings, especially al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya and Fusus al-hikam, have been studied within all the Sufi orders as the clearest expression of tawhid (Divine Unity), though because of their recondite nature they were often only given to initiates. Later those who followed his teaching became known as the school of wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being). He himself considered his writings to have been divinely inspired. As he expressed the Way to one of his close disciples, his legacy is that ‘you should never ever abandon your servanthood (‘ubudiyya), and that there may never be in your soul a longing for any existing thing’.[146]

Junayd Baghdadi

Junayd Baghdadi (830–910 CE) was one of the great early Sufis, and is a central figure in the golden chain of many Sufi orders. He laid the groundwork for sober mysticism in contrast to that of God-intoxicated Sufis like al-Hallaj, Bayazid Bastami and Abusaeid Abolkheir. During the trial of al-Hallaj, his former disciple, the Caliph of the time demanded his fatwa. In response, he issued this fatwa: “From the outward appearance he is to die and we judge according to the outward appearance and God knows better”. He is referred to by Sufis as Sayyid-ut Taifa—i.e., the leader of the group. He lived and died in the city of Baghdad.

Moinuddin Chishti

A Mughal era, Sufi Prayer Book from the Chishti order.

He was born in 1141 and died in 1236 CE. Also known as Gharīb Nawāz “Benefactor of the Poor”, he is the most famous Sufi saint of the Chishti Order of the Indian Subcontinent. Moinuddin Chishti introduced and established the order in the subcontinent. The initial spiritual chain or silsila of the Chishti order in India, comprising Moinuddin Chishti, Bakhtiyar Kaki, Baba Farid, Nizamuddin Auliya (each successive person being the disciple of the previous one), constitutes the great Sufi saints of Indian history. Moinuddin Chishtī turned towards India, reputedly after a dream in which Prophet Muhammad blessed him to do so. After a brief stay at Lahore, he reached Ajmer along with Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori, and settled down there.[4] In Ajmer, he attracted a substantial following, acquiring a great deal of respect amongst the residents of the city. Moinuddin Chishtī practiced the Sufi Sulh-e-Kul (peace to all) concept to promote understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims

Mansur al-Hallaj

Mansur al-Hallaj (died 922 CE) is renowned for his claim “Ana-l-Haqq” (I am The Truth). His refusal to recant this utterance, which was regarded as apostasy, led to a long trial. He was imprisoned for 11 years in a Baghdad prison, before being tortured and publicly dismembered on March 26, 922. He is still revered by Sufis for his willingness to embrace torture and death rather than recant. It is said that during his prayers, he would say “O Lord! You are the guide of those who are passing through the Valley of Bewilderment. If I am a heretic, enlarge my heresy”.[147]

Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani

Mir Syed Ali bin Shahab-ud-Din Hamadani (Persian: میر سید علی شهاب‌الدین همدانی) (1384-1314) was a Persian Sūfī of the Kubrāwī order, a poet and a prominent Muslim scholar.He was born on Monday, 12th Rajab 714 AH (1314 A.C) in Hamadan and died in 786 AH/1384 in Kunar and was buried in Khatlan.He was very influential in spreading Islam in Kashmir and has had a major hand in shaping the culture of the Kashmir valley. He was also known as “Shāh Hamadhān” (“King of Hamadhān”, Iran) and as Amīr-i Kabīr (“the Great Commander”). He wrote several short works on spirituality and Sufism. He was immortalised by poets like Allama Iqbal.

His name was Ali, and titles were Amir-e-Kabir, Ali Sa’ani, Shah-e-Hamadan and Mir. Besides them, the Chroniclers had mentioned several other titles: Qutub-e-Zaman, Sheikh-e-Salikan-e-Jehan, Qutub-Ul-Aktab, Moih-Ul-Ambiya-o-Ul-Mursaleen, Afzal-Ul-Muhaq-e-qeen-o-Akmal-Ul-Mudaq-e-qeen, Al-Sheiyookh-Ul-Kamil, Akmal-Ul-Muhaqqiq-Ul-Hamadani etc.

Reception

Perception outside Islam

A choreographed Sufi performance on Friday at Sudan.

Sufi mysticism has long exercised a fascination upon the Western world, and especially its orientalist scholars.[148] Figures like Rumi have become well known in the United States, where Sufism is perceived as a peaceful and apolitical form of Islam.[148]

The Islamic Institute in Mannheim, Germany, which works towards the integration of Europe and Muslims, sees Sufism as particularly suited for interreligious dialogue and intercultural harmonisation in democratic and pluralist societies; it has described Sufism as a symbol of tolerance and humanism—nondogmatic, flexible and non-violent.[149] According to Philip Jenkins, a Professor at Baylor University, “the Sufis are much more than tactical allies for the West: they are, potentially, the greatest hope for pluralism and democracy within Muslim nations.” Likewise, several governments and organisations have advocated the promotion of Sufism as a means of combating intolerant and violent strains of Islam.[150] For example, the Chinese and Russian[151] governments openly favor Sufism as the best means of protecting against Islamist subversion. The British government, especially following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, has favoured Sufi groups in its battle against Muslim extremist currents. The influential RAND Corporation, an American think-tank, issued a major report titled “Building Moderate Muslim Networks,” which urged the US government to form links with and bolster[152] Muslim groups that opposed Islamist extremism. The report stressed the Sufi role as moderate traditionalists open to change, and thus as allies against violence.[153][154] News organisations such as the BBC, Economist and Boston Globe have also seen Sufism, as a means to deal with violent Muslim extremists.[155]

Influence on Judaism

See also: Jewish philosophy

Both Judaism and Islam are monotheistic. However, there is evidence that Sufism did influence the development of some schools of Jewish philosophy and ethics. A great influence was exercised by Sufism upon the ethical writings of Jews in the Middle Ages[citation needed]. In the first writing of this kind, we see “Kitab al-Hidayah ila Fara’iḍ al-Ḳulub”, Duties of the Heart, of Bahya ibn Paquda. This book was translated by Judah ibn Tibbon into Hebrew under the title “Ḥovot ha-Levavot”.[156]

The precepts prescribed by the Torah number 613 only; those dictated by the intellect are innumerable.

This was precisely the argument used by the Sufis against their adversaries, the Ulamas. The arrangement of the book seems to have been inspired by Sufism. Its ten sections correspond to the ten stages through which the Sufi had to pass in order to attain that true and passionate love of God which is the aim and goal of all ethical self-discipline. A considerable amount of Sufi ideas entered the Jewish mainstream[citation needed] through Bahya ibn Paquda’s work, which remains one of the most popular ethical treatises in Judaism[citation needed].

It is noteworthy that in the ethical writings of the Sufis Al-Kusajri and Al-Harawi there are sections which treat of the same subjects as those treated in the “Ḥovot ha-Lebabot” and which bear the same titles: e.g., “Bab al-Tawakkul”; “Bab al-Taubah”; “Bab al-Muḥasabah”; “Bab al-Tawaḍu'”; “Bab al-Zuhd”. In the ninth gate, Baḥya directly quotes sayings of the Sufis, whom he calls Perushim. However, the author of the Ḥovot ha-Levavot did not go so far as to approve of the asceticism of the Sufis, although he showed a marked predilection for their ethical principles.

The Jewish writer Abraham bar Ḥiyya teaches the asceticism of the Sufis. His distinction with regard to the observance of Jewish law by various classes of men is essentially a Sufic theory. According to it there are four principal degrees of human perfection or sanctity; namely:

1. of “Shari’ah”, i.e., of strict obedience to all ritual laws of Islam, such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, ablution, etc., which is the lowest degree of worship, and is attainable by all
2. of Ṭariqah, which is accessible only to a higher class of men who, while strictly adhering to the outward or ceremonial injunctions of religion, rise to an inward perception of mental power and virtue necessary for the nearer approach to the Divinity
3. of “Ḥaḳikah”, the degree attained by those who, through continuous contemplation and inward devotion, have risen to the true perception of the nature of the visible and invisible; who, in fact, have recognized the Godhead, and through this knowledge have succeeded in establishing an ecstatic relation to it; and
4. of the “Ma’arifah”, in which state man communicates directly with the Deity.

Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, the son of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, believed that Sufi practices and doctrines continue the tradition of the Biblical prophets. See Sefer HaMaspik, “HaPrishut”, Chapter 11 (“Ha-ma’avak”) s.v. hitbonen eifo bi-masoret mufla’ah zu, citing the Talmudic explanation of Jeremiah 13:27 in Chagigah 5b; in Rabbi Yaakov Wincelberg’s translation, “The Way of Serving God” (Feldheim), p. 429 and above, p. 427. Also see ibid., Chapter 10 (“Ikkuvim”), s.v. va-halo yode’a atah; in “The Way of Serving God”, p. 371. There are other such references in Rabbi Abraham’s writings, as well.> He introduced into the Jewish prayer such practices as reciting God’s names (dhikr)[citation needed].

Abraham Maimuni’s principal work is originally composed in Judeo-Arabic and entitled “כתאב כפיא אלעאבדין” Kitāb Kifāyah al-‘Ābidīn (“A Comprehensive Guide for the Servants of God”). From the extant surviving portion it is conjectured that Maimuni’s treatise was three times as long as his father’s Guide for the Perplexed. In the book, Maimuni evidences a great appreciation for, and affinity to, Sufism. Followers of his path continued to foster a Jewish-Sufi form of pietism for at least a century, and he is rightly considered the founder of this pietistic school, which was centered in Egypt.

The followers of this path, which they called, interchangeably, Hasidism (not to confuse with the latter Jewish Hasidic movement) or Sufism (Tasawwuf), practiced spiritual retreats, solitude, fasting and sleep deprivation. The Jewish Sufis maintained their own brotherhood, guided by a religious leader—like a Sufi sheikh.[157]

Abraham Maimuni’s two sons, Obadyah and David, continued to lead this Jewish-Sufi brotherhood. Obadyah Maimonides wrote Al-Mawala Al Hawdiyya (“The Treatise of the Pool”)—an ethico-mystical manual based on the typically Sufi comparison of the heart to a pool that must be cleansed before it can experience the Divine.

The Maimonidean legacy extended right through to the 15th century with the 5th generation of Maimonidean Sufis, David ben Joshua Maimonides, who wrote Al-Murshid ila al-Tafarrud (The Guide to Detachment), which includes numerous extracts of Suhrawardi‘s Kalimat at-Tasawwuf.[citation needed]

In popular culture

Films

In The Jewel of the Nile (1985), the eponymous Jewel is a Sufi holy man.

In Hideous Kinky (1998), Julia (Kate Winslet) travels to Morocco to explore Sufism and a journey to self-discovery.

In Monsieur Ibrahim (2003), Omar Sharif‘s character professes to be a Muslim in the Sufi tradition.

Bab’Aziz (2005), a film by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir, draws heavily on the Sufi tradition, containing quotes from Sufi poets such as Rumi and depicting an ecstatic Sufi dance.

Music

Friday evening ceremony at Dargah Salim Chisti, India.

Abida Parveen, a Pakistani Sufi singer is one of the foremost exponents of Sufi music, together with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan are considered the finest Sufi vocalists of the modern era. Sanam Marvi another Pakistani singer has recently gained recognition for her Sufi vocal performances.

A. R. Rahman, the Oscar-winning Indian musician, has several compositions which draw inspiration from the Sufi genre; examples are the filmi qawwalis Khwaja Mere Khwaja in the film Jodhaa Akbar, Arziyan in the film Delhi 6 and Kun Faya Kun in the film Rockstar.

Bengali singer Lalan Fakir and Bangladesh’s national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam scored several Sufi songs.

Junoon, a band from Pakistan, created the genre of Sufi rock by combining elements of modern hard rock and traditional folk music with Sufi poetry.

In 2005, Rabbi Shergill released a Sufi rock song called “Bulla Ki Jaana“, which became a chart-topper in India and Pakistan.[158][159]

Madonna, on her 1994 record Bedtime Stories, sings a song called “Bedtime Story” that discusses achieving a high unconsciousness level. The video for the song shows an ecstatic Sufi ritual with many dervishes dancing, Arabic calligraphy and some other Sufi elements. In her 1998 song “Bittersweet”, she recites Rumi’s poem by the same name. In her 2001 Drowned World Tour, Madonna sang the song “Secret” showing rituals from many religions, including a Sufi dance.

Singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt‘s record The Mask and Mirror (1994) has a song called “The Mystic’s Dream” that is influenced by Sufi music and poetry. The band mewithoutYou has made references to Sufi parables, including the name of their album It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright (2009). Tori Amos makes a reference to Sufis in her song “Cruel”.

Mercan Dede is a Turkish composer who incorporates Sufism into his music and performances.

Literature

A 17th century miniature of Nasreddin was a Seljuq satirical Sufi, currently in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library.

The Persian poet Rumi has become one of the most widely read poets in the United States, thanks largely to the interpretative translations published by Coleman Barks.[160] Elif Safak‘s novel The Forty Rules of Love tells the story of Rumi becoming a disciple of the Persian Sufi dervish Shams Tabrizi.

Modern and contemporary Sufi scholars

Arabian Peninsula

Levant

North Africa

West, Central and Southern Africa

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

North America

South Asia

Eastern and Central Asia

Controversy

Roberto Cavalli caused offence to thousands of Sufis by exploiting the Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi order’s symmbol.

Roberto Cavalli caused offence to thousands of Sufis by exploiting the Islamic Sufi Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi order’s symbol in his designer commodities.[161]

Society of Jesus, the Jesuits

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Society of Jesus
Ihs-logo.svg
Abbreviation S.J., Jesuits
Motto Ad maiorem Dei gloriam
Formation 27 September 1540; 473 years ago
Type Catholic religious order
Headquarters Church of the Gesù (Mother Church), General Curia (administration)
Location
  • Rome, Italy
Coordinates 41°54′4.9″N 12°27′38.2″ECoordinates: 41°54′4.9″N 12°27′38.2″E
Superior General Very Rev. Adolfo Nicolás, S.J.
Key people Francis Xavier— co-founder
Ignatius of Loyola— co-founder
Peter Faber— co-founder
Main organ General Curia
Staff 17,287[1]
Website www.sjweb.info

~~~~~~~~

The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu, S.J., SJ or SI) is a Christian male religious congregation of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents. Jesuits work in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes and promote social justice and ecumenical dialogue.

Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. In 1534, Ignatius and six other young men, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber, gathered and professed vows of poverty, chastity, and later obedience, including a special vow of obedience to the Pope. Rule 13 of Ignatius’s Rules for Thinking with the Church said: “That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity … if [the Holy See] shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black.”[2] Ignatius’s plan of the order’s organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by the bull containing the “Formula of the Institute“.

Because of the military background of Ignatius and the members’ willingness to accept orders anywhere in the world and to live in extreme conditions where required, the opening lines of this founding document would declare that the Society of Jesus was founded for “whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God”[3] (Spanish: “todo el que quiera militar para Dios”),[4] “to strive especially for the defense and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine.”[5] Therefore Jesuits are sometimes referred to colloquially as “God’s Soldiers”[6] or “God’s Marines”.[7] The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and later in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church.

The Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General, currently Adolfo Nicolás.[8][9]

The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome.[10] The historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church.

Statistics

Jesuits in the World — January 2013[1][11]
Region Jesuits Percentage
Africa 1,509 9%
South Latin America 1,221 7%
North Latin America 1,226 7%
South Asia 4,016 23%
Asia-Pacific 1,639 9%
Central and East Europe 1,641 10%
South Europe 2,027 12%
West Europe 1,541 9%
North America 2,467 14%

The Jesuits today form the largest men’s single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church,[12] although they are surpassed by the Franciscan family of first orders Order of Friars Minor (OFM), OFM Capuchins, and Conventuals. As of 1 January 2013, Jesuits numbered 17,287: 12,298 clerics regular (priests), 2,878 scholastics (students to become priests), 1,400 brothers (not priests) and 711 novices.[1] In 2012, Mark Raper SJ wrote, “Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years – from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia and a small rise in Africa.”[13]

The Society is divided into 83 Provinces with 6 Independent Regions and 10 Dependent Regions.[1] On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and the USA. Their average age was 57.3 years: 63.4 years for priests, 29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers.[14]

The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Adolfo Nicolás. The Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in various countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines and India. In the United States it maintains more than 50 colleges, universities and high schools. A typical conception of the mission of a Jesuit school will often contain such concepts as proposing Christ as the model of human life, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning and lifelong spiritual and intellectual growth.[15]

Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus

Ignatius laid out his original vision for the new order in the “Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus”, which is “the fundamental charter of the order, of which all subsequent official documents were elaborations and to which they had to conform.”[16] He ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order. Its famous opening statement echoed Ignatius’ military background:

Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the Name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and the Church, his spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth, should, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, poverty and obedience, keep what follows in mind. He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, and further by means of retreats, the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments. Moreover, he should show himself ready to reconcile the estranged, compassionately assist and serve those who are in prisons or hospitals, and indeed, to perform any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.[14]

History

Ignatius of Loyola

Church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, Paris.

Fresco of Approving of bylaw of Society of Jesus depicting Ignatius of Loyola receiving papal bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae from Pope Paul III. The fresco was created by Johann Christoph Handke in the Church of Our Lady Of the Snow in Olomouc after 1743.

On 15 August 1534, Ignatius of Loyola (born Íñigo López de Loyola), a Spaniard of Basque origin, and six other students at the University of Paris[17]—Francisco Xavier from Navarre (modern Spain), Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laínez, Nicolás Bobadilla from Spain, Peter Faber from Savoy, and Simão Rodrigues from Portugal—met in Montmartre outside Paris, in a crypt beneath the church of Saint Denis, now Saint Pierre de Montmartre.[18]

They called themselves the Company of Jesus, and also Amigos en El Señor or “Friends in the Lord”, because they felt “they were placed together by Christ”. The name had echoes of the military (as in an infantry “company“), as well as of discipleship (the “companions” of Jesus). The word “company” comes ultimately from Latin, cum + pane = “with bread”, or a group that shares meals.

In 1537, they traveled to Italy to seek papal approval for their order. Pope Paul III gave them a commendation, and permitted them to be ordained priests. These initial steps led to the founding of what would be called the Society of Jesus later in 1540. The term societas in Latin is derived from socius, a partner or comrade.

They were ordained at Venice by the bishop of Arbe (24 June). They devoted themselves to preaching and charitable work in Italy, as the Italian War of 1535-1538 renewed between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Venice, the Pope and the Ottoman Empire rendered any journey to Jerusalem impossible.

They presented the project to the Pope Paul III. After months of dispute, a congregation of cardinals reported favorably upon the Constitution presented, and Paul III confirmed the order through the bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae (“To the Government of the Church Militant”), on 27 September 1540, but limited the number of its members to sixty. This is the founding document of the Jesuits as an official Catholic religious order.

This limitation was removed through the bull Exposcit debitum. Ignatius was chosen as the first superior-general (leader of the Jesuits). He sent his companions as missionaries around Europe to create schools, colleges, and seminaries.[19]

In fulfilling the mission of the “Formula of the Institute of the Society”, the first Jesuits concentrated on a few key activities. First, they founded schools throughout Europe. Jesuit teachers were rigorously trained in both classical studies and theology, and their schools reflected this. Second, they sent out missionaries across the globe to evangelize those peoples who had not yet heard the Gospel, founding missions in widely diverse regions, such as modern-day Paraguay, Japan, Ontario, and Ethiopia. Finally, though not initially formed for the purpose, they aimed to stop Protestantism from spreading and to preserve communion with Rome and the successor of Peter. The zeal of the Jesuits overcame the drift toward Protestantism in Poland-Lithuania and southern Germany.

Ignatius wrote the Jesuit Constitutions, adopted in 1553, which created a tightly centralized organization and stressed total abnegation and obedience to the Pope and their religious superiors (perinde ac [si] cadaver [essent],[20] “[well-disciplined] like a corpse” as Ignatius put it).[21][22]

His main principle became the unofficial Jesuit motto: Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam (“For the greater glory of God”). This phrase is designed to reflect the idea that any work that is not evil can be meritorious for the spiritual life if it is performed with this intention, even things considered normally indifferent.[19]

The Society of Jesus is classified among institutes as a mendicant order of clerks regular, that is, a body of priests organized for apostolic work, following a religious rule, and relying on alms, or donations, for support.

The term “Jesuit” (of 15th-century origin, meaning one who used too frequently or appropriated the name of Jesus), was first applied to the Society in reproach (1544–52). It was never used by its founder, though members and friends of the Society in time appropriated the name in its positive meaning.

Early works

Ratio Studiorum, 1598

The Jesuits were founded just before the Counter-Reformation (or at least before the date those historians with a classical view of the counter reformation hold to be the beginning of the Counter-Reformation), a movement whose purpose was to reform the Catholic Church from within and to counter the Protestant Reformers, whose teachings were spreading throughout Catholic Europe.

As part of their service to the Roman Church, the Jesuits encouraged people to continue their obedience to scripture as interpreted by Catholic doctrine. Ignatius is known to have written: “o I will believe that the white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it.”[23]

Ignatius and the early Jesuits did recognize, though, that the hierarchical Church was in dire need of reform. Some of their greatest struggles were against corruption, venality, and spiritual lassitude within the Catholic Church. Ignatius’s insistence on an extremely high level of academic preparation for ministry, for instance, was a deliberate response to the relatively poor education of much of the clergy of his time. The Jesuit vow against “ambitioning prelacies” was a deliberate effort to prevent greed for money or power invading Jesuit circles.

As a result, in spite of their loyalty, Ignatius and his successors often tangled with the pope and the Roman Curia. Over the 450 years since its founding, the Society has been called the papal “elite troops” and been forced into suppression.

Jesuits at Akbar‘s court in India, c. 1605

St. Ignatius and the Jesuits who followed him believed that the reform of the Church had to begin with the conversion of an individual’s heart. One of the main tools the Jesuits have used to bring about this conversion has been the Ignatian retreat, called the Spiritual Exercises. During a four-week period of silence, individuals undergo a series of directed meditations on the life of Christ. During this period, they meet regularly with a spiritual director, who helps them understand any call or message from God that they have received in their meditations.

The retreat follows a “Purgative-Illuminative-Unitive” pattern in the tradition of the spirituality of John Cassian and the Desert Fathers. Ignatius’ innovation was to make this style of contemplative mysticism available to all people in active life. Further, he used it as a means of rebuilding the spiritual life of the Church. The Exercises became both the basis for the training of Jesuits and one of the essential ministries of the order: giving the exercises to others in what became known as “retreats”.

The Jesuits’ contributions to the late Renaissance were significant in their roles both as a missionary order and as the first religious order to operate colleges and universities as a principal and distinct ministry. By the time of Ignatius’ death in 1556, the Jesuits were already operating a network of 74 colleges on three continents. A precursor to liberal education, the Jesuit plan of studies incorporated the Classical teachings of Renaissance humanism into the Scholastic structure of Catholic thought.

Jesuit missionary, painting from 1779

In addition to teaching faith, the Ratio Studiorum emphasized the study of Latin, Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy as well as non-European languages, sciences and the arts. Furthermore, Jesuit schools encouraged the study of vernacular literature and rhetoric, and thereby became important centers for the training of lawyers and public officials.

The Jesuit schools played an important part in winning back to Catholicism a number of European countries which had for a time been predominantly Protestant, notably Poland and Lithuania. Today, Jesuit colleges and universities are located in over one hundred nations around the world. Under the notion that God can be encountered through created things and especially art, they encouraged the use of ceremony and decoration in Catholic ritual and devotion. Perhaps as a result of this appreciation for art, coupled with their spiritual practice of “finding God in all things”, many early Jesuits distinguished themselves in the visual and performing arts as well as in music.

Jesuit priests often acted as confessors to kings during the Early Modern Period. They were an important force in the Counter-Reformation and in the Catholic missions, in part because their relatively loose structure (without the requirements of living in community, saying the divine office together, etc.) allowed them to be flexible in meeting the needs of the people at the time.

It is believed that as a response to the varying Protestant reformations against the Catholic Church, Pope Paul III gave formal approval to St. Ignatius of Loyola to lead this order. This order was the most influential, intellectual Counter Reformation by the Catholic Church. They were most notably marked by their ability for intellectual influence and debate among the aristocracy of Europe. They were also marked by their elaborate open air revival-style meetings. These theatrical provocative and entertaining sermons created their own celebrity status.[24]

Expansion

See also: Jesuit missions in North America and Jesuit Reductions

The Bell of Nanbanji, made in Portugal for Nanbanji Church, established by Jesuits in 1576 and destroyed 1587, Japan.

The ruins of La Santisima Trinidad de Parana in Paraguay, one of the many Jesuit missions established in South America during the 17th and 18th centuries

Early missions in Japan resulted in the government granting the Jesuits the feudal fiefdom of Nagasaki in 1580. However, this was removed in 1587 due to fears over their growing influence.

Francis Xavier, one of the original companions of Loyola, arrived in Goa, in Portuguese India, in 1541 to consider evangelical service in the Indies. In a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, he requested an Inquisition to be installed in Goa (see Goa Inquisition). He died in China after a decade of evangelism in Southern India. Two Jesuit missionaries, Johann Grueber and Albert Dorville, reached Lhasa in Tibet in 1661.

Jesuit missions in America were very controversial in Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal where they were seen as interfering with the proper colonial enterprises of the royal governments. The Jesuits were often the only force standing between the Native Americans and slavery. Together throughout South America but especially in present-day Brazil and Paraguay, they formed Christian Native American city-states, called “reductions” (Spanish Reducciones, Portuguese Reduções). These were societies set up according to an idealized theocratic model. It is partly because the Jesuits, such as Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, protected the natives (whom certain Spanish and Portuguese colonizers wanted to enslave) that the Society of Jesus was suppressed.

Jesuit priests such as Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification, religious conversion and education of Indian nations.

Jesuit scholars working in foreign missions were very important in studying their languages and strove to produce Latinized grammars and dictionaries. This was done, for instance, for Japanese (see Nippo jisho also known as Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam, (Vocabulary of the Japanese Language) a Japanese–Portuguese dictionary written 1603), Vietnamese (French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes formalized the Vietnamese alphabet in use today with his 1651 Vietnamese–Portuguese–Latin dictionary Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum) and Tupi (the main language of Brazil). Jean François Pons in the 1740s pioneered the study of Sanskrit in the West.

Under Portuguese royal patronage, the order thrived in Goa and until 1759 successfully expanded its activities to education and healthcare. In 1594 they founded the first Roman-style academic institution in the East, St. Paul Jesuit College in Macau. Founded by Alessandro Valignano, it had a great influence on the learning of Eastern languages (Chinese and Japanese) and culture by missionary Jesuits, becoming home to the first western sinologists such as Matteo Ricci. On 17 December 1759, the Marquis of Pombal, Secretary of State in Portugal, expelled the Jesuits from Portugal and Portuguese possessions overseas.

Jesuit missionaries were active among indigenous peoples in New France in North America. Many of them compiled dictionaries or glossaries of the First Nations and Native American languages which they learned. For instance, Jacques Gravier, vicar general of the Illinois Mission in the Mississippi River valley, compiled the most extensive Kaskaskia Illinois–French dictionary among works of the missionaries before his death in 1708.[25]

Jesuit activity in China

Main article: Jesuit China missions

Jesuits in China

“Life and works of Confucius, by Prospero Intorcetta, 1687

The Jesuits first entered China through the Portuguese possession of Macau where they founded the University of Macau.

The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. The scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when scientific innovation had declined in China:

[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.

—Agustín Udías, [26]

Conversely, the Jesuits were very active in transmitting Chinese knowledge and philosophy to Europe. Confucius‘s works were translated into European languages through the agency of Jesuit scholars stationed in China, which is why Kǒng Fūzǐ is known in the West under his Latinized name to this day.

Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and father Prospero Intorcetta published the life and works of Confucius into Latin in 1687.[27] It is thought that such works had considerable influence on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Catholicism.[27][28]

Jesuit activity in Canada

With the discovery and colonization of New France during the 17th century, the Society of Jesus and the Jesuits played an active role in Canada. When Samuel de Champlain was placing the foundations of the French colony at Quebec, he realized that this land was inhabited by native tribes that possessed their own languages, customs and traditions. These natives that inhabited modern day Ontario, Quebec, and country around Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay were the Montagnais, the Algonquins and the Huron.[29] Champlain was a Christian man who felt that the soul was the only thing that mattered on Earth and that the souls of these Montagnais, Algonquin, and Huron must be saved. As a result, in 1614 Champlain invited the Recollects from France to spread the word of the true God, to convert the native inhabitants, and to save their souls from eternal damnation in New France.[30] However, in 1624 the French Recollects realized that the magnitude of their task was too much to bear alone and that they would need more missionary bodies.[31] The Recollects sent a delegate to France to invite the Society of Jesus to help them with their mission. The invitation was accepted and Jesuits, Jean de Brebeuf, Ennemond Masse and Charles Lalemant arrived in Quebec in 1625.[32]

Father Jacques Marquette with Native Americans

The Jesuits became involved in the Huron mission in 1626 and lived among the Huron peoples. Father Brebeuf learned the native language and created the first Huron language dictionary. Due to outside conflicts, though, the Jesuits were forced to leave all of New France and their efforts as Quebec was captured by the Kirke brothers under the English flag. Yet, in 1632 Quebec was returned to the French under the Treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye and the Jesuits were back in Huronia by 1634.[33]

In 1639 Jesuit Jerome Lalemant decided that the missionaries in Huronia needed a local residence so they could relax, reflect, and conduct activities. As a result, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was established. The Sainte-Marie expanded into a small community and acted as a living replica of European society.[34] The Sainte-Marie became the headquarters of the Jesuits and is now an important part of Canadian history. Throughout most of the 1640s the Jesuits were having a tremendous amount of success. They established 5 chapels in Huronia and baptized over one thousand Huron natives.[35] However, as the Jesuits began to expand westward they encountered more and more Iroquois natives (Huron rivals). With the Iroquois growing jealous of the Hurons’ wealth and fur trade system they began to attack Huron villages in 1648. The Iroquois killed missionaries, burned villages and scattered many of the Huron natives. Both Father Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were killed in the Iroquois series of raids. It was said that the two men had died as martyrs of the Catholic Church and that their bones would be holy relics.[36] With the knowledge of the invading Iroquois, Father Paul Ragueneau burned down Sainte-Marie instead of allowing the Iroquois get the satisfaction of destroying it. By late June 1649, the French and some Christian Hurons built Sainte-Marie II on Christian Island (Isle de Saint-Joseph). However, the small Sainte-Marie II was facing starvation, lack of supplies and constant threats of Iroquois attack. Sainte-Marie II was abandoned in June 1650 as the remaining Hurons and Jesuits departed for Quebec and Ottawa.[36] With all this destruction the Huron began to claim that the Jesuits were sorcerers sent to their homeland to kill. They would blame the outbreak of disease on the Jesuits, claiming that they were casting spells from their books. With the outbreak of disease, many people began to mistrust the Jesuits and suspect them of witchcraft.[37] As a result of the Iroquois raids and disease, many missionaries, traders, and soldiers were killed or captured. The Huron tribe ceased to exist.[38]

After the collapse of the Huron tribe, the Jesuits were to undertake the task of converting the Iroquois natives themselves. In 1642, previous Jesuits attempted to convert the Iroquois but had little success. The Jesuits risked their own lives and well being for the sake of this Iroquois mission. In 1653 the Iroquois nation had a fall out with the Dutch. They then signed a peace treaty with the French and a mission was established. The Iroquois took the treaty very lightly and soon turned on the French again. In 1658, the Jesuits were having very little success and were under constant threat of being tortured or killed.[38] The Jesuits continued to struggle with the Iroquois until 1687 when they abandoned their permanent posts in the Iroquois homeland.[39]

By 1700 Jesuits began to only maintain their old posts instead of trying to establish new ones beyond Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa.[40] During the Seven Years’ War, Quebec fell to the English in 1759 and New France was under British control. The English barred the immigration of more Jesuits to New France. By 1763 there were only twenty-one Jesuits that were still stationed in New France. By 1773 only eleven Jesuits remained. During the same year the English crown laid claim to its property in Canada and declared that the Society of Jesus in New France was dissolved.[41]

Jesuits of Quito in South America

Father Rafael Ferrer was the first Jesuita de Quito (Jesuit of Quito) to explore and found missions in the upper Amazon regions of South America from 1602 to 1610, which at that period belonged to the Audiencia of Quito, that was a part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until the Audiencia of Quito was transferred to the newly created Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717. In 1602, Father Rafael Ferrer began to explore the Aguarico, Napo, and Marañon rivers ( Sucumbios region in what is today Ecuador and Peru), and set up, between 1604 and 1605, missions among the Cofane natives. Father Rafael Ferrer was martyred when an apostate native killed him in 1610.

In 1637, the Jesuits of Quito, Gaspar Cugia and Lucas de la Cueva began establishing some Jesuit missions in Mainas or Maynas. These missions were called the Mainas Missions after the Mainas natives that were found on the banks of the Marañon river, around the Pongo de Manseriche region, in close proximity to the close to the Spanish settlement of Borja.

In 1639, the Audiencia of Quito organized an expedition to renew its exploration of the Amazon river and the Quito Jesuit (Jesuita Quiteño) Father Cristobal de Acuña was a part of this expedition. The expedition disembarked from the Napo river February 16, 1639, and arrived in what is today Pará Brazil, on the banks of the Amazon river on December 12, 1639. In 1641, Father Cristobal de Acuña published in Madrid a memoire of his expedition to the Amazon river. The title of the memoire is called Nuevo Descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas, and it was used by academics as a fundamental reference pertaining to the Amazon region.

Between 1637 and 1652, there were 14 missions established along the Marañon river and its southern tributaries – the Huallaga and the Ucayali rivers. Jesuit Fathers de la Cueva and Raimundo de Santacruz opened up 2 new routes of communication with Quito, through the Pastaza and Napo rivers.

Between 1637 and 1715, Samuel Fritz founded 38 missions along the length of the Amazon river, between the Napo and Negro rivers, that were called the Omagua Missions. These missions were continually attacked by the Brazilian Bandeirantes beginning in the year 1705. In 1768, the only Omagua mission that was left was San Joaquin de Omaguas, since it had been moved to a new location on the Napo river away from the Bandeirantes.

In the immense territory of Mainas, also referred to as Maynas, the Jesuitas of Quito, made contact with a number of indigenous tribes which spoke 40 different languages, and founded a total of 173 Jesuit missions with a total population of 150, 000 inhabitants. Because of the constant plague of epidemics (smallpox and measles) and warfare with other tribes and the Bandeirantes, the total number of Jesuit Missions were reduced to 40 by 1744. At the time when the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish America in 1767, the Jesuits of Quito registered 36 missions run by 25 Jesuits of Quito in the Audiencia of Quito – 6 Jesuits of Quito in the Napo Missions and Aguarico Missions, and 19 Jesuits of Quito in the Pastaza Missions and Iquitos Missions of Maynas with a total population of 20,000 inhabitants.

Suppression and restoration

Main article: Suppression of the Jesuits

The Suppression of the Jesuits in Portugal, France, the Two Sicilies, Parma and the Spanish Empire by 1767 was troubling to the Society’s defender, Pope Clement XIII. A decree signed under secular pressure by Pope Clement XIV in July 1773 suppressed the Order. The suppression was carried out in all countries except Prussia and Russia, where Catherine the Great had forbidden the papal decree to be executed. Because millions of Catholics (including many Jesuits) lived in the Polish provinces recently annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, the Society was able to maintain its existence and carry on its work all through the period of suppression. Subsequently, Pope Pius VI would grant formal permission for the continuation of the Society in Russia and Poland. Based on that permission, Pole Stanislaus Czerniewicz was elected superior of the Society in 1782. Pope Pius VII during his captivity in France, had resolved to restore the Jesuits universally; and after his return to Rome he did so with little delay: on 7 August 1814, by the bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum, he reversed the suppression of the Order and therewith, the then Superior in Russia, another Pole, Thaddeus Brzozowski, who had been elected in 1805, acquired universal jurisdiction.

The period following the Restoration of the Jesuits in 1814 was marked by tremendous growth, as evidenced by the large number of Jesuit colleges and universities established in the 19th century. In the United States, 22 of the Society’s 28 universities were founded or taken over by the Jesuits during this time. Some claim that the experience of suppression served to heighten orthodoxy among the Jesuits upon restoration. While this claim is debatable, Jesuits were generally supportive of Papal authority within the Church, and some members were associated with the Ultramontanist movement and the declaration of Papal Infallibility in 1870.

In Switzerland, following the defeat of the Sonderbund of some Catholic cantons by the other cantons, the constitution was modified and Jesuits were banished in 1848. The ban was lifted on 20 May 1973, when 54.9% of voters accepted a referendum modifying the Constitution.[42]

The 20th century witnessed both aspects of growth and decline. Following a trend within the Catholic priesthood at large, Jesuit numbers peaked in the 1950s and have declined steadily since. Meanwhile the number of Jesuit institutions has grown considerably, due in large part to a late 20th-century focus on the establishment of Jesuit secondary schools in inner-city areas and an increase in lay association with the order. Among the notable Jesuits of the 20th century, John Courtney Murray, was called one of the “architects of the Second Vatican Council” and drafted what eventually became the council’s endorsement of religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae Personae.

In the Constitution of Norway from 1814, a relic from the earlier anti-catholic laws of Denmark-Norway, Paragraph 2 originally read, “The Evangelical-Lutheran religion remains the public religion of the State. Those inhabitants, who confess thereto, are bound to raise their children to the same. Jesuits and monastic orders are not permitted. Jews are still prohibited from entry to the Realm.” Jews were first allowed into the Realm in 1851 after the famous Norwegian poet Henrik Wergeland had campaigned for it. Monastic orders were permitted in 1897, but the ban on Jesuits was only lifted in 1956.[citation needed]

Theological developments

See also: Henri de Lubac, Jean Daniélou, Karl Rahner, John Courtney Murray and Bernard Lonergan
[icon] This section requires expansion. (November 2011)

In recent years

See also: Jesuit Cardinal and Sexual abuse scandal in the Society of Jesus

In Latin America, the Jesuits have had significant influence in the development of liberation theology, a movement which has been highly controversial in the Catholic theological community and condemned by Pope John Paul II on several fundamental aspects.[citation needed]

Under Superior General Pedro Arrupe, social justice and the preferential option for the poor emerged as dominant themes of the work of the Jesuits. In 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Paolo Dezza S.J., a scholar, to head the Jesuit order as special Papal Delegate, instead of a liberal American, Father Vincent O’Keefe, who was nominated by the Society. The Pope referred to that moment as “an important phase of its history.” Dezza “knew of the faults that existed in the Church and in her men, but with caring dedication, full of love and faith, he helped to alleviate their effects, working for the authentic renewal of the Church.”[43]

On 16 November 1989, six Jesuit priests (Ignacio Ellacuria, Segundo Montes, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Joaquin López y López, Juan Ramon Moreno, and Amado López); their housekeeper, Elba Ramos; and her daughter, Celia Marisela Ramos, were murdered by the Salvadoran military on the campus of the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador, because they had been labeled as subversives by the government.[44] The assassinations galvanized the Society’s peace and justice movements, including annual protests at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States, where the assassins were trained under US government sponsorship.[45]

On 21 February 2001, Father Avery Dulles, SJ, an internationally known author, lecturer and theologian, was created a Cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II. The son of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Cardinal Dulles was long known for his carefully reasoned argumentation and fidelity to the teaching office of the Church. An author of 22 books and over 700 theological articles, Cardinal Dulles died on 12 December 2008 at Fordham University, where he taught for twenty years as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society. He was, at his passing, one of ten Jesuit cardinals in the Catholic Church.

In 2002, Boston College president Father William P. Leahy, SJ, initiated the Church in the 21st century program as a means of moving the Church “from crisis to renewal.” The initiative has provided the Society with a platform for examining issues brought about by the worldwide Catholic sex abuse cases, including the priesthood, celibacy, sexuality, women’s roles, and the role of the laity.

On 6 January 2005, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, on the occasion of the Jubilee Year, wrote that the Jesuits “should truly profit from the jubilee year to examine our way of life and taking the means to live more profoundly the charisms received from our Founders.”[46]

In April 2005, Thomas J. Reese, SJ, editor of the American Jesuit weekly magazine America, resigned at the request of the Society. The move was widely published in the media as the result of pressure from the Vatican, following years of criticism by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on articles touching subjects such as HIV/AIDS, religious pluralism, homosexuality and the right of life for the unborn. Following his resignation, Reese spent a year-long sabbatical at Santa Clara University before being named a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, D.C.

Visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Gregorian University, “one of the greatest services the Society of Jesus carries out for the universal Church.”

On 2 February 2006, Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach informed members of the Society of Jesus, that, with the consent of Pope Benedict XVI, he intended to step down as Superior General in 2008, the year he would turn 80.

On 22 April 2006, Feast of Our Lady, Mother of the Society of Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI greeted thousands of Jesuits on pilgrimage to Rome, and took the opportunity to thank God “for having granted to your Company the gift of men of extraordinary sanctity and of exceptional apostolic zeal such as St Ignatius of Loyola, St Francis Xavier and Bl Peter Faber.” He said “St Ignatius of Loyola was above all a man of God, who gave the first place of his life to God, to his greater glory and his greater service. He was a man of profound prayer, which found its center and its culmination in the daily Eucharistic Celebration.”[47]

In May 2006, Benedict XVI also wrote a letter to Superior General Peter Hans Kolvenbach on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Haurietis aquas, on devotion to the Sacred Heart, because the Jesuits have always been “extremely active in the promotion of this essential devotion”.[48] In his 3 November 2006 visit to the Pontifical Gregorian University, Benedict XVI cited the university as “one of the greatest services that the Society of Jesus carries out for the universal Church”.[49]

The 35th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus convened on 5 January 2008 and elected Fr. Adolfo Nicolás as the new Superior General on 19 January 2008. A month after, the Pope received members of the General Congregation and urged them to “to continue on the path of this mission in full fidelity to your original charism” and asked them to reflect so as “to rediscover the fullest meaning of your characteristic ‘fourth vow’ of obedience to the Successor of Peter.” For this, he told them to “adhere totally to the Word of God and to the Magisterium’s task of preserving the integral truth and unity of Catholic doctrine.” This clear identity, according to the Pope, is important so that “many others may share in your ideals and join you effectively and enthusiastically.”[50] The Congregation responded with a formal declaration titled “With New Fervor and Dynamism, the Society of Jesus Responds to the Call of Benedict XVI”, whereby they confirmed the Society’s fidelity to the Pope.[51]

Ignatian spirituality

Main article: Ignatian spirituality

The spirituality practiced by the Jesuits, called Ignatian spirituality, ultimately based on the Catholic faith and the gospels, is drawn from the “Constitutions”, “The Letters”, and “Autobiography”, and most specially from St. Ignatius’ “Spiritual Exercises“, whose purpose is “to conquer oneself and to regulate one’s life in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any inordinate attachment.”

Jesuit formation (training)

Main article: Jesuit formation

The formation (training) of Jesuits seeks to prepare men spiritually, academically and practically for the ministries they will be called to offer the Church and world. St. Ignatius was strongly influenced by the Renaissance and wanted Jesuits to be able to offer whatever ministries were most needed at any given moment, and especially, to be ready to respond to missions (assignments) from the pope. Formation for Priesthood normally takes between 8 and 14 years, depending on the man’s background and previous education, and final vows are taken several years after that, making Jesuit formation among the longest of any of the religious orders.

Government of the society

The society is headed by a Superior General. In the Jesuit order, the formal title of the Superior General is Praepositus Generalis, Latin for “provost-general”, more commonly called Father General or General, who is elected by the General Congregation for life or until he resigns, is confirmed by the Pope, and has absolute authority in running the society. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is the Spanish Jesuit, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás Pachón who was elected on 19 January 2008.

He is assisted by “assistants”, four of whom are “assistants for provident care” and serve as general advisors and a sort of inner council to the superior general, and several other regional assistants each of whom heads an “assistancy”, which is either a geographic area (for instance, the North American Assistancy) or an area of ministry (for instance, higher education). The assistants normally reside with the Superior General in Rome. The assistants, together with a number of other advisors, form an advisory council to the General. A vicar general and secretary of the society run day-to-day administration. The General is also required to have an “admonitor“, a confidential advisor whose specific job is to warn the General honestly and confidentially when he is acting imprudently or is straying toward disobedience to the Pope or heresy. The central staff of the General is known as the Curia.

The order is divided into geographic provinces, each of which is headed by a Provincial Superior, generally called Father Provincial, chosen by the General. He has authority over all Jesuits and ministries in his area, and is assisted by a socius, who acts as a sort of secretary and chief of staff. With the approval of the General, the father provincial appoints a novice master and a master of tertians to oversee formation, and rectors of local houses of Jesuits.

Each Jesuit community within a province is normally headed by a rector who is assisted by a “minister”, from the Latin for “servant”, a priest who helps oversee the community’s day-to-day needs.

The General Congregation is a meeting of all of the assistants, provincials and additional representatives who are elected by the professed Jesuits of each province. It meets irregularly and rarely, normally to elect a new superior general and/or to take up some major policy issues for the order. The General meets more regularly with smaller councils composed of just the provincials.

Habit and dress

Jesuits do not have an official habit. In the Constitutions of the Society, it gives these instructions concerning clothing; “The clothing too should have three characteristics: first, it should be proper; second, conformed to the usage of the country of residence; and third, not contradictory to the poverty we profess…” (Const. 577)

Historically, a “Jesuit-style cassock” became standard issue: it wrapped around the body and was tied with a cincture, rather than the customary buttoned front, a tuftless biretta (only diocesan clergy wore tufts), and a ferraiolo (cape). As such, though it was the common priestly dress of Ignatius’ day, Jesuit garb appeared distinctive, and became identifiable over time. During the missionary periods of North America, the various native peoples referred to Jesuits as “Blackrobes” because of their black cassocks.

Today, most Jesuits in the USA wear the Roman collar and black clothing of ordinary priests, although some still wear the black cassock.[52]

Controversies

Power-seeking

The Monita Secreta (Secret Instructions of the Jesuits), published in 1612 and in 1614, in Kraków, is alternately alleged to have been written either by Claudio Acquaviva, the fifth general of the society, or written by Jerome Zahorowski. The purported Secret Instructions of the Jesuits are the methods to be adopted by the Jesuits for the acquisition of greater power and influence for the Society and for the Roman Catholic Church.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states the book is a forgery, fabricated to ascribe a sinister reputation to Society of Jesus.[53]

Political intrigue

In England, Henry Garnet, one of the leading English Jesuits, was hanged for misprision of treason, because of his knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot (1605). The Plot was the attempted assassination of King James I of England and VI of Scotland, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack, by exploding the Houses of Parliament. Another Jesuit, Oswald Tesimond, managed to escape arrest for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.[54]

Casuistic justification

Jesuits have been accused of using casuistry to obtain justifications for unjustifiable actions. (cf. formulary controversy and Lettres Provinciales, by Blaise Pascal).[55] Hence, the Concise Oxford Dictionary of the English language, records “equivocating” as a secondary denotation of the word “Jesuit”. Contemporary critics of the Society of Jesus include Jack Chick, Avro Manhattan, Alberto Rivera, and Malachi Martin, author of The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church (1987).[56]

Anti-Semitism

Although in the first 30 years of the existence of the Society of Jesus there were many Jesuit conversos (Catholic-convert Jews),[57] an anti-converso faction led to the Decree de genere (1593) which proclaimed that either Jewish or Muslim ancestry, no matter how distant, was an insurmountable impediment for admission to the Society of Jesus.[58] The 16th-century Decree de genere remained in exclusive force until the 20th century, when it was repealed in 1946.[59]

Theological rebellion

Within the Roman Catholic Church, there has existed a sometimes tense relationship between Jesuits and the Holy See due to questioning of official Church teaching and papal directives, such as those on abortion,[60][61] birth control,[62][63][64][65] women deacons,[66] homosexuality, and liberation theology.[67][68] Usually this theological free thinking is academically oriented, being prevalent at the university level. From this standpoint, the function of this debate is less to challenge the magisterium than illustrate the church’s ability to compromise in a pluralist society based on shared values which do not always align with religious teachings.[69] The previous two Popes have appointed Jesuits to powerful positions in the Church; John Paul II appointed Roberto Tucci, S.J., to the College of Cardinals, after serving as the chief organizer of papal trips and public events. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have appointed 10 Jesuit Cardinals to notable jobs. Benedict XVI appointed Jesuits to notable positions in his curia, such as Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J. as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., Vatican Press Secretary.[70] Pope Francis, elected in 2013, has become the first Jesuit Pope.

Jesuit rescue efforts during the Holocaust

Twelve Jesuit priests have been formally recognized by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust of World War II: Roger Braun (1910–1981) of France; Pierre Chaillet (1900–1972) of France; Jean-Baptist De Coster (1896–1968) of Belgium; Jean Fleury (1905–1982) of France; Emile Gessler (1891–1958) of Belgium; Jean-Baptiste Janssens (1889–1964) of Belgium; Alphonse Lambrette (1884–1970) of Belgium; Emile Planckaert (b. 1906–2006) of France; Jacob Raile (1894–1949) of Hungary; Henri Revol (1904–1992) of France; Adam Sztark (1907–1942) of Poland; and Henri Van Oostayen (1906–1945) of Belgium.

Several other Jesuits are known to have rescued or given refuge to Jews during that period.[71] A plaque commemorating the 152 Jesuit priests who gave of their lives during the Holocaust was installed at Rockhurst University, a Jesuit university, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, in April 2007, the first such plaque in the world.

The Nazi regime considered the Jesuits one of their most dangerous enemies. According to John Pollard, the Jesuit’s “ethos represented the most intransigent opposition to the philosophy of Nazism.”[72] A Jesuit college in the city of Innsbruck served as a center for anti-Nazi resistance and was closed down by the Nazis in 1938.[73] Jesuits were a target for Gestapo prosecution and many Jesuit priests were deported to concentration camps.[74]

Jesuits in science

Main article: List of Jesuit scientists

Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid’s Elements published in 1607.

The Jesuits have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science. For example, the Jesuits have dedicated significant study to earthquakes, and seismology has been described as “the Jesuit science.”[75] The Jesuits have been described as “the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century.”[76] According to Jonathan Wright in his book God’s Soldiers, by the eighteenth century the Jesuits had “contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter‘s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light.”[77]

The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. One modern historian writes that in late Ming courts, the Jesuits were “regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography.”[78] The Society of Jesus introduced, according to Thomas Woods, “a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible.”[79] Another expert quoted by Woods said the scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when science was at a very low level in China.

Notable Jesuits

Main articles: List of Jesuits and List of Jesuit scientists

North American Martyrs

Notable Jesuits include missionaries, educators, scientists, artists, philosophers, and the current pope. Among many distinguished early Jesuits was St. Francis Xavier, a missionary to Asia who converted more people to Catholicism than anyone before. José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega, founders of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, were also Jesuit priests. Another famous Jesuit was St. Jean de Brebeuf, a French missionary who was martyred in what was once New France (now Ontario) in Canada during the 17th century. Eusebio Kino is renowned in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico (an area then called the Pimeria Alta). He founded numerous missions and served as the peace bringer between the tribes and the government of New Spain. One other notable Jesuit was Gerard Manley Hopkins, the poet. On 10 April 1912, the Rev. Francis Browne, a Jesuit priest, sailed the first leg of the Titanic’s maiden voyage, between Southampton, England, Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland—taking a series of black-and-white photos of life on board the luxury liner. He had planned to stay on the ship to New York but was ordered by his superior to return home instead.

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality. Fr. Anthony De Mello developed a new approach to Christian spirituality, by integrating wisdom from eastern and western sources that brought enlightenment to people of all backgrounds.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected Pope Francis on March 13, 2013 and is the first Jesuit pope.[80][81]

Thomas More

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The Right Honourable
Sir Thomas More
Lord Chancellor
In office
October 1529 – May 1532
Monarch Henry VIII
Preceded by Thomas Wolsey
Succeeded by Thomas Audley
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
31 December 1525 – 3 November 1529
Monarch Henry VIII
Preceded by Richard Wingfield
Succeeded by William FitzWilliam
Speaker of the House of Commons
In office
16 April 1523 – 13 August 1523
Monarch Henry VIII
Preceded by Thomas Neville
Succeeded by Thomas Audley
Personal details
Born 7 February 1478
City of London, London
Kingdom of England
Died 6 July 1535 (aged 57)
Tower Hill,
Liberties of the Tower of London, Tower Hamlets
Kingdom of England
Resting place Church of St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, London, United Kingdom
51.508611°N 0.076944°W
Spouse(s) Jane Colt (m. 1505)
Alice Middleton (m. 1511)
Children Margaret
Elizabeth
Cicely
John
Alma mater University of Oxford
Lincoln’s Inn
Religion Roman Catholicism
Signature

Sir Thomas More (/ˈmɔr/; 7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), known to Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More,[1][2] was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII and Lord Chancellor from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.[3] More opposed the Protestant Reformation, in particular the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. More also wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation. More later opposed the King’s separation from the Catholic Church and refused to accept him as Supreme Head of the Church of England because it disparaged papal authority and he also opposed Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. Tried for treason, More was convicted likely due to perjured testimony and beheaded.

Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr of the schism that separated the Church of England from Rome; Pope John Paul II in 2000 declared More the “heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians”.[4] Since 1980, the Church of England has remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.[5] In 2002, he was placed at number 37 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[6]

Early life

Saint Thomas More, T.O.S.F.

Thomas More Signature.svg
Medallion of Thomas More
Martyr
Honored in
 Catholic Church; Anglican Communion
Beatified 29 December 1886, Florence, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized 19 May 1935, Vatican City, by Pope Pius XI
Feast 22 June (Catholic Church)
6 July (Church of England)
Attributes dressed in the robe of the Chancellor and wearing the Collar of Esses; axe
Patronage Adopted children; civil servants; court clerks; difficult marriages; large families; lawyers, politicians, and statesmen; stepparents; widowers; Ateneo de Manila Law School; Diocese of Arlington; Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee; Kerala Catholic Youth Movement; University of Malta; University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters

I die the king’s faithful servant, but God‘s first.

WikiQuote

  • Now there was a young gentleman which had married a merchant’s wife. And having a little wanton money, which him thought burned out the bottom of his purse, in the first year of his wedding took his wife with him and went over sea, for none other errand but to see Flanders and France and ride out one summer in those countries.
    • Works (c. 1530)
    • Sometimes paraphrased “A little wanton money, which burned out the bottom of his purse.”
  • For men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble: and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust.
    • Richard III and His Miserable End (1543)
  • And when the devil hath seen that they have set so little by him, after certain essays, made in such times as he thought most fitting, he hath given that temptation quite over. And this he doth not only because the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked, but also lest, with much tempting the man to the sin to which he could not in conclusion bring him, he should much increase his merit.
    • Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1553), Book Two, Section XVI
  • The increasing influence of the Bible is marvelously great, penetrating everywhere. It carries with it a tremendous power of freedom and justice guided by a combined force of wisdom and goodness.
    • Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 34.
  • See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.
    • On ascending the platform to his execution, as quoted in History of England (1856-1870) by James Anthony Froude
  • I die the king’s faithful servant, but God‘s first.
    • Words on the scaffold, attributed in The Essentials of Freedom : The Idea and Practice of Ordered Liberty in the Twentieth Century as explored at Kenyon College (1960) by Paul Gray Hoffman, p. 43
  • This hath not offended the king.
    • As he drew his beard aside upon placing his head on the block, as quoted in Apothegms by Francis Bacon, no. 22
  • If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.
    • Attributed in Lives That Made a Difference: An RSME Book for Schools (2011) by P. J. Clarke

Utopia (1516)

The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent.

Full text at Wikisource

Other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck.

The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments, or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the high priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a wax light.
  • The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured from winds. In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce. But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck.
    • Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
  • Plato by a goodly similitude declareth, why wise men refrain to meddle in the commonwealth. For when they see the people swarm into the streets, and daily wet to the skin with rain, and yet cannot persuade them to go out of the rain, they do keep themselves within their houses, seeing they cannot remedy the folly of the people.
    • Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
    • Modern phrase: Not sense enough to come in out of the rain.
  • I must say, extreme justice is an extreme injury: For we ought not to approve of those terrible laws that make the smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the Stoics that makes all crimes equal; as if there were no difference to be made between the killing a man and the taking his purse, between which, if we examine things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion. God has commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easily for a little money?
    • Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
  • I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty.
    • Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
  • One rule observed in their council is, never to debate a thing on the same day in which it is first proposed; for that is always referred to the next meeting, that so men may not rashly and in the heat of discourse engage themselves too soon, which might bias them so much that, instead of consulting the good of the public, they might rather study to support their first opinions, and by a perverse and preposterous sort of shame hazard their country rather than endanger their own reputation, or venture the being suspected to have wanted foresight in the expedients that they at first proposed; and therefore, to prevent this, they take care that they may rather be deliberate than sudden in their motions.
    • Ch. 3 : Of Their Magistrates
  • They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.
    • Ch. 6 : Of the Travelling of the Utopians
  • The Prince himself has no distinction, either of garments, or of a crown; but is only distinguished by a sheaf of corn carried before him; as the high priest is also known by his being preceded by a person carrying a wax light.
    • Ch. 7 : Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
  • leges habent perquam paucas. sufficiunt enim sic institutis paucissimae. quin hoc in primis apud alios improbant populos, quod legum interpretumque uolumina, non infinita sufficiunt. ipsi uero censent iniquissimum; ullos homines his obligari legibus; quae aut numerosiores sint, quam ut perlegi queant; aut obscuriores quam ut a quouis possint intelligi.
    • They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many. They very much condemn other nations whose laws, together with the commentaries on them, swell up to so many volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulk, and so dark as not to be read and understood by every one of the subjects.
    • Ch. 7 : Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages
  • They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters and to wrest the laws, and, therefore, they think it is much better that every man should plead his own cause, and trust it to the judge, as in other places the client trusts it to a counsellor; by this means they both cut off many delays and find out truth more certainly; for after the parties have laid open the merits of the cause, without those artifices which lawyers are apt to suggest, the judge examines the whole matter, and supports the simplicity of such well-meaning persons, whom otherwise crafty men would be sure to run down; and thus they avoid those evils which appear very remarkably among all those nations that labour under a vast load of laws. Every one of them is skilled in their law; for, as it is a very short study, so the plainest meaning of which words are capable is always the sense of their laws; and they argue thus: all laws are promulgated for this end, that every man may know his duty; and, therefore, the plainest and most obvious sense of the words is that which ought to be put upon them, since a more refined exposition cannot be easily comprehended, and would only serve to make the laws become useless to the greater part of mankind, and especially to those who need most the direction of them; for it is all one not to make a law at all or to couch it in such terms that, without a quick apprehension and much study, a man cannot find out the true meaning of it, since the generality of mankind are both so dull, and so much employed in their several trades, that they have neither the leisure nor the capacity requisite for such an inquiry.
    • Ch. 7 : Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages

In no victory do they glory so much as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct without bloodshed.

  • In no victory do they glory so much as in that which is gained by dexterity and good conduct without bloodshed. In such cases they appoint public triumphs, and erect trophies to the honour of those who have succeeded; for then do they reckon that a man acts suitably to his nature, when he conquers his enemy in such a way as that no other creature but a man could be capable of, and that is by the strength of his understanding. Bears, lions, boars, wolves, and dogs, and all other animals, employ their bodily force one against another, in which, as many of them are superior to men, both in strength and fierceness, so they are all subdued by his reason and understanding.
    • Ch. 8 : Of Their Military Discipline
  • There are several sorts of religions, not only in different parts of the island, but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon or one of the planets. Some worship such men as have been eminent in former times for virtue or glory, not only as ordinary deities, but as the supreme god. Yet the greater and wiser sort of them worship none of these, but adore one eternal, invisible, infinite, and incomprehensible Deity; as a Being that is far above all our apprehensions, that is spread over the whole universe, not by His bulk, but by His power and virtue; Him they call the Father of All, and acknowledge that the beginnings, the increase, the progress, the vicissitudes, and the end of all things come only from Him; nor do they offer divine honours to any but to Him alone. And, indeed, though they differ concerning other things, yet all agree in this: that they think there is one Supreme Being that made and governs the world, whom they call, in the language of their country, Mithras. They differ in this: that one thinks the god whom he worships is this Supreme Being, and another thinks that his idol is that god; but they all agree in one principle, that whoever is this Supreme Being, He is also that great essence to whose glory and majesty all honours are ascribed by the consent of all nations.
    • Ch. 9 : Of the Religions of the Utopians
  • Those among them that have not received our religion do not fright any from it, and use none ill that goes over to it, so that all the while I was there one man was only punished on this occasion. He being newly baptised did, notwithstanding all that we could say to the contrary, dispute publicly concerning the Christian religion, with more zeal than discretion, and with so much heat, that he not only preferred our worship to theirs, but condemned all their rites as profane, and cried out against all that adhered to them as impious and sacrilegious persons, that were to be damned to everlasting burnings. Upon his having frequently preached in this manner he was seized, and after trial he was condemned to banishment, not for having disparaged their religion, but for his inflaming the people to sedition; for this is one of their most ancient laws, that no man ought to be punished for his religion.
    • Ch. 9 : Of the Religions of the Utopians

A man of an angel‘s wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. … A man for all seasons. ~ Robert Whittington

  • Utopus having understood that before his coming among them the old inhabitants had been engaged in great quarrels concerning religion, by which they were so divided among themselves, that he found it an easy thing to conquer them, since, instead of uniting their forces against him, every different party in religion fought by themselves. After he had subdued them he made a law that every man might be of what religion he pleased, and might endeavour to draw others to it by the force of argument and by amicable and modest ways, but without bitterness against those of other opinions; but that he ought to use no other force but that of persuasion, and was neither to mix with it reproaches nor violence; and such as did otherwise were to be condemned to banishment or slavery.
    This law was made by Utopus, not only for preserving the public peace, which he saw suffered much by daily contentions and irreconcilable heats, but because he thought the interest of religion itself required it. He judged it not fit to determine anything rashly; and seemed to doubt whether those different forms of religion might not all come from God, who might inspire man in a different manner, and be pleased with this variety; he therefore thought it indecent and foolish for any man to threaten and terrify another to make him believe what did not appear to him to be true. And supposing that only one religion was really true, and the rest false, he imagined that the native force of truth would at last break forth and shine bright, if supported only by the strength of argument, and attended to with a gentle and unprejudiced mind; while, on the other hand, if such debates were carried on with violence and tumults, as the most wicked are always the most obstinate, so the best and most holy religion might be choked with superstition, as corn is with briars and thorns; he therefore left men wholly to their liberty, that they might be free to believe as they should see cause.

    • Ch. 9 : Of the Religions of the Utopians
  • Haec non suis commodis prosperitatem, sed ex alienis metitur incommodis.[1]
    • Translation: This vice [Pride] does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniences, as by the miseries of others.
    • Alternate translation: [Pride] measures her prosperity not by her own goods but by others’ wants.
    • Ch. 9 : Of the Religions of the Utopians

Quotes about More

  • A man of an angel‘s wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.
    • Robert Whittington, in Vulgaria (1520), as quoted in Thomas More and Erasmus (1965) by Ernest Edwin Reynolds, p. 22

Misattributed

  • As for rosemarie, I lett it run alle over my garden walls,
    not onlie because my bees love it,
    but because ’tis the herb sacred to remembrance and therefore to friendship,
    whence a sprig of it hath a dumb language that maketh ye chosen emblem at our funeral wakes and in our buriall grounds.

    • Actually written in 1852 by Anne Manning in her fictional novel The Household of St Thomas More, as if a diary entry was made by his daughter Margaret; and so, although written as said by the character Thomas More in the novel by Anne Manning, it was not actually said by Thomas More. This quote on Rosemary is often quoted in gardening books – the name of the herb in the quote is usually updated to the modern spelling of Rosemary (also known as Rosmary, Rosmarie, Rosemarie, Rosmarinus, Rosmarine, Romero), and a number of other words may also be modernised. The misattribution was first noted in Garden Guild at lochac.sca.org/herb/, where the alternate spellings of Rosemary are also sourced.

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Scholarly and literary work

History of King Richard III

Between 1512 and 1519, Thomas More worked on a History of King Richard III, which he never finished but which was published after his death. The History of King Richard III is a Renaissance history, remarkable more for its literary skill and adherence to classical precepts than for its historical accuracy.[citation needed] Some consider it an attack on royal tyranny, rather than on Richard III himself or the House of York.[citation needed] More and his contemporary Polydore Vergil both use a more dramatic writing style than most medieval chronicles; for example, the shadowy King Richard is an outstanding, archetypal tyrant more like the Romans portrayed by Sallust.[clarification needed]

The History of King Richard III was written and published in both English and Latin, each written separately, and with information deleted from the Latin edition to suit a European readership.[citation needed] It greatly influenced William Shakespeare‘s play Richard III. Contemporary historians attribute the unflattering portraits of King Richard III in both works to both authors’ allegiance to the reigning Tudor dynasty that wrested the throne from Richard III in the Wars of the Roses.[citation needed] More’s version also barely mentions King Henry VII, the first Tudor king, perhaps for having persecuted his father, Sir John More.[citation needed] Clements Markham suggests that the actual author of the work was Archbishop Morton and that More was simply copying or perhaps translating the work.[37]

Utopia

Main article: Utopia (book)

More’s best known and most controversial work, Utopia is a novel written in Latin. More completed and Erasmus published the book in Leuven in 1516, but it was only translated into English and published in his native land in 1551 (long after More’s execution), and the 1684 translation became the most commonly cited. More (also a character in the book) and the narrator/traveller, Raphael Hythlodeaus (whose name alludes both to the healer archangel Raphael, and ‘speaker of nonsense’, the surname’s Greek meaning), discuss modern ills in Antwerp, as well as describe the political arrangements of the imaginary island country of Utopia (Greek pun on ‘ou-topos’ [no place], ‘eu-topos’ [good place]) among themselves as well as to Pieter Gillis and Jerome de Busleyden. Utopia’s original edition included a symmetrical “Utopian alphabet” omitted by later editions, but which may have been an early attempt at cryptography or precursor of shorthand.

Utopia contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly, reasonable social arrangements of Utopia and its environs (Tallstoria, Nolandia, and Aircastle). In Utopia, there are no lawyers because of the laws’ simplicity and because social gatherings are in public view (encouraging participants to behave well), communal ownership supplants private property, men and women are educated alike, and there is almost complete religious toleration (except for atheists, who are allowed but despised). More may have used monastic communalism (rather than the biblical communalism in the Acts of the Apostles) as his model, although other concepts such as legalizing euthanasia remain far outside Church doctrine. Hythlodeaus asserts that a man who refuses to believe in a god or an afterlife could never be trusted, because he would not acknowledge any authority or principle outside himself. Some take the novel’s principal message to be the social need for order and discipline rather than liberty. Ironically, Hythlodeaus, who believes philosophers should not get involved in politics, addresses More’s ultimate conflict between his humanistic beliefs and courtly duties as the King’s servant, pointing out that one day those morals will come into conflict with the political reality.

Utopia gave rise to a literary genre, Utopian and dystopian fiction, which features ideal societies or perfect cities, or their opposite. Early works influenced by Utopia included New Atlantis by Francis Bacon, Erewhon by Samuel Butler, and Candide by Voltaire. Although Utopianism combined classical concepts of perfect societies (Plato and Aristotle) with Roman rhetorical finesse (cf. Cicero, Quintilian, epideictic oratory), the Renaissance genre continued into the Age of Enlightenment and survives in modern science fiction.

Religious polemics

In 1520 the reformer Martin Luther published three works in quick succession: An Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (Aug.), Concerning the Babylonish Captivity of the Church (Oct.), and On the Liberty of a Christian Man (Nov.).[10]:225 In these books, Luther set out his doctrine of salvation through grace alone, rejected certain Catholic practices, and attacked abuses and excesses within the Catholic Church.[10]:225–6 In 1521, Henry VIII formally responded to Luther’s criticisms with the Assertio, written with More’s assistance. Pope Leo X rewarded the English king with the title ‘Fidei defensor’ (“Defender of the Faith”) for his work combating Luther’s heresies.[10]:226–7

Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a “pig, dolt, and liar”.[10]:227 At the king’s request, More composed a rebuttal: the Responsio ad Lutherum was published at the end of 1523. In the Responsio, More defended papal supremacy, the sacraments, and other Church traditions. More’s language, like Luther’s, was virulent: he branded Luther an “ape”, a “drunkard”, and a “lousy little friar” amongst other insults.[10]:230 Writing as Rosseus, More offers to “throw back into your paternity’s shitty mouth, truly the shit-pool of all shit, all the muck and shit which your damnable rottenness has vomited up”.[20]

Confronting Luther confirmed More’s theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority.[10]:230 In 1528, More published another religious polemic, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies, that asserted the Catholic Church was the one true church, established by Christ and the Apostles, and affirmed the validity of its authority, traditions and practices.[10]:279–81 In 1529, the circulation of Simon Fish’s Supplication for the Beggars prompted More to respond with The Supplication of Souls.

In 1531, a year after More’s father died, William Tyndale published An Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue in response to More’s Dialogue Concerning Heresies. More responded with a half million words: the Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer. The Confutation is an imaginary dialogue between More and Tyndale, with More addressing each of Tyndale’s criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines.[10]:307–9 More, who valued structure, tradition and order in society as safeguards against tyranny and error, vehemently believed that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.[10]:307–9

Correspondence

Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. However, as in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters), survived. These include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More’s own works, letters to More’s children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called “prison-letters” (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter, Margaret Roper while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution.[21] More also engaged in controversies, most notably with the French poet Germain de Brie, which culminated in the publication of de Brie’s Antimorus (1519). Erasmus intervened, however, and ended the dispute.[22]

More also wrote about more spiritual matters. They include: A Treatise on the Passion (a/k/a Treatise on the Passion of Christ), A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body (a/k/a Holy Body Treaty), and De Tristitia Christi (a/k/a The Agony of Christ). More handwrote the last which reads in the Tower of London while awaiting his execution. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of Emperor Charles V. More’s friend Luis Vives received it in Valencia, where it remains in the collection of Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi Museum.

Canonisation

Statue of Thomas More at the Ateneo Law School chapel.

Pope Leo XIII beatified Thomas More, John Fisher and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonised More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More’s feast day was established as 9 July. Since 1970 the General Roman Calendar has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher’s execution). In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared More “the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians”.[4] In 1980, despite their opposing the English Reformation that created the Church of England, More and Fisher were jointly added as martyrs of the reformation to the Church of England‘s calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More’s execution) as “Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535”.[5]

Legacy

The steadfastness and courage with which More maintained his religious convictions, and his dignity during his imprisonment, trial, and execution, contributed much to More’s posthumous reputation, particularly among Catholics. However, his zealous persecution of Protestants while Lord Chancellor contravenes modern notions of religious liberty as discussed below. Many historians consider More’s treason conviction unjust, or at least his execution heavy-handed.[citation needed] His friend Erasmus defended More’s character as “more pure than any snow” and described his genius as “such as England never had and never again will have.”[38] Upon learning of More’s execution, Emperor Charles V said: “Had we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions than such a worthy councillor.”[39] G. K. Chesterton, a Catholic convert from the Church of England, predicted More “may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history.”[40] Hugh Trevor-Roper called More “the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance.”[41]

Jonathan Swift, an Anglican, wrote that More was “a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced”.[42][43][44] Some consider Samuel Johnson that quote’s author, although neither his writings nor Boswell contain such.[45][46] The metaphysical poet John Donne, also honored as a saint by Anglicans, was More’s great-great-nephew.[47]

While Catholic scholars maintain that More used irony in Utopia, and that he remained an orthodox Christian, Marxist theoretician Karl Kautsky considered the book a shrewd critique of economic and social exploitation in pre-modern Europe; More thus influenced the early development of socialist ideas.[48] Others thought Utopia mythologised Indian cultures in the New World at a time when the Catholic Church was still debating internally its view toward those decidedly non-Christian cultures.[citation needed]

Several authors criticised More for his war against Protestantism. Brian Moynahan, in his book God’s Messenger: William Tyndale, Thomas More and the Writing of the English Bible, criticised More’s intolerance, as does Michael Farris[citation needed] Richard Marius also criticised More for Anti-Protestantism and intolerance.[citation needed] Jasper Ridley, who wrote biographies of Henry VIII and Mary Tudor, goes much further in his dual biography of More and Cardinal Wolsey, The Statesman and the Fanatic, describing More as “a particularly nasty sadomasochistic pervert.”[citation needed] Joanna Denny in her 2004 biography of Anne Boleyn also criticised More.[citation needed]

Literature and popular culture

William Roper‘s biography of More was one of the first biographies in Modern English.

More was portrayed as a wise and honest statesman in the 1592 play Sir Thomas More, which was probably written in collaboration by Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, William Shakespeare, and others, and which survives only in fragmentary form after being censored by Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels in the government of Queen Elizabeth I (any direct reference to the Act of Supremacy was censored out).

The 20th-century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt portrayed Thomas More as the tragic hero of his 1960 play A Man for All Seasons. The title is drawn from what Robert Whittington in 1520 wrote of More:

More is a man of an angel’s wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.[41]

In 1966, the play was made into the successful film A Man for All Seasons directed by Fred Zinnemann, adapted for the screen by the playwright himself, and starring Paul Scofield in an Oscar-winning performance. Scofield, an actor known many acclaimed performances in Classical theater, later called Sir Thomas More, “The most difficult part I played.”[49]

The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year. In 1988, Charlton Heston starred in and directed a made-for-television film that followed Bolt’s original play almost verbatim, restoring for example the commentaries of “the common man”.

Catholic science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty wrote his novel Past Master as a modern equivalent to More’s Utopia, which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More travels through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the world “Astrobe”, only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One character compares More favourably to almost every other major historical figure: “He had one completely honest moment right at the end. I cannot think of anyone else who ever had one.”

Karl Zuchardt‘s novel, Stirb du Narr! (“Die you fool!”), about More’s struggle with King Henry, portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.

The novelist Hilary Mantel portrays More as a religious and masochistic fanatic in her 2009 novel Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall is told through the eyes of a sympathetic Thomas Cromwell. Literary critic James Wood calls him “cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics”.[46]

Aaron Zelman‘s non-fiction book The State Versus the People includes a comparison of Utopia with Plato’s Republic. Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being ironic in his book or was genuinely advocating a police state. Zelman comments, “More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at the Kremlin.”[citation needed] By this Zelman implies that Utopia influenced Vladimir Lenin‘s Bolsheviks, despite their brutal repression of organised religion.

Other biographers, such as Peter Ackroyd, have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated philosopher and man of letters, as well as a zealous Catholic who believed in the authority of the Holy See over Christendom.

The protagonist of Walker Percy‘s novels, Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome, is “Dr Thomas More”, a reluctant Catholic and descendant of More.

More is the focus of the Al Stewart song “A Man For All Seasons” from the 1978 album Time Passages, and of the Far song “Sir”, featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 album Quick. In addition, the song “So Says I” by indie rock outfit The Shins alludes to the socialist interpretation of More’s Utopia.

Jeremy Northam depicts More in the television series The Tudors as a peaceful man, as well as a devout Roman Catholic and loving family patriarch. He also shows More loathing Protestantism, burning both Martin Luther’s books and English Protestants who have been convicted of heresy. The portrayal has unhistorical aspects, such as that More neither personally caused nor attended Simon Fish‘s execution (since Fish actually died of bubonic plague in 1531 before he could stand trial), although More’s The Supplycatyon of Soulys, published in October 1529, addressed Fish’s Supplication for the Beggars.[50][51] Indeed there is no evidence that More ever attended or personally caused the execution of any heretic (as distinct from helping to create a climate of opinion that encouraged such death sentences by the courts). The series also neglected to show More’s avowed insistence that Richard Rich’s testimony about More disputing the King’s title as Supreme Head of the Church of England was perjured.

The cultus of More has been satirised. In The Simpsons, an episode, “Margical History Tour“, contains a parody of both Henry VIII and More. King Henry (Homer Simpson) is depicted as a gluttonous slob who stuffs his face while singing “I’m Henery the Eighth, I am“. He then wipes his mouth with the Magna Carta and sets out to dump Queen Catherine (Marge Simpson). Sir Thomas (Ned Flanders) objects, “Divorce! Well, there’s no such thing in the Cath-diddly-atholic Church! But it’s the only Church we got, so what are you gonna do?” King Henry retorts, “I’ll start my own Church… Where divorce will be so easy, more than half of all marriages will end in it!” When a horrified Sir Thomas refuses to go along, King Henry has him shot out of a cannon.

Works

NOTE: The reference “CW” is to the relevant volume of the Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More (New Haven and London 1963–1997)

Published during More’s life (with dates of publication)

  • A Merry Jest (c. 1516) (CW 1)
  • Utopia (1516) (CW 4)
  • Latin Poems (1518, 1520) (CW 3, Pt.2)
  • Letter to Brixius (1520) (CW 3, Pt. 2, App C)
  • Responsio ad Lutherum (1523) (CW 5)
  • A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529, 1530) (CW 6)
  • Supplication of Souls (1529) (CW 7)
  • Letter Against Frith (1532) (CW 7)
  • The Confutation of Tyndale’s Answer (1532, 1533) (CW 8)
  • Apology (1533) (CW 9)
  • Debellation of Salem and Bizance (1533) (CW 10)
  • The Answer to a Poisoned Book (1533) (CW 11)

Published after More’s death (with likely dates of composition)

  • The History of King Richard III (c. 1513–1518) (CW 2 & 15)
  • The Four Last Things (c. 1522) (CW 1)
  • A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534) (CW 12)
  • Treatise Upon the Passion (1534) (CW 13)
  • Treatise on the Blessed Body (1535) (CW 13)
  • Instructions and Prayers (1535) (CW 13)
  • De Tristitia Christi (1535) (CW 14)

Translations

  • Translations of Lucian (many dates 1506–1534) (CW 3, Pt.1)
  • The Life of Pico della Mirandola (c. 1510) (CW 1)

John Milton

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John Milton

Portrait of Milton c. 1629, National Portrait Gallery, London. Unknown artist (detail)
Born 9 December 1608 (Old style)
Bread Street, Cheapside, London, England
Died 8 November 1674 (aged 65)
Bunhill, London, England
Resting place St Giles-without-Cripplegate
Occupation Poet, prose polemicist, civil servant
Language English, Latin, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Aramaic, Syriac
Nationality English
Alma mater Christ’s College, Cambridge
Signature

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WikiQuote

  • What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones,
    The labor of an age in pilèd stones,
    Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
    Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?
    Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
    What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?

    • On Shakespeare (1630).
  • And so sepúlchred in such pomp dost lie,
    That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.

    • On Shakespeare (1630).
  • How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
    Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

    • On His Having Arrived at the Age of Twenty-three (1631).
  • Captain or Colonel, or Knight in Arms,
    Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,
    If ever deed of honour did thee please,
    Guard them, and him within protect from harms.

    • Sonnet VIII: When the Assault was Intended to the City.
  • The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
    The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
    Went to the ground.

    • Sonnet VIII: When the Assault was intended to the City.
  • Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
    • Arcades (1630-1634), line 68.
  • Under the shady roof
    Of branching elm star-proof.

    • Arcades (1630-1634), line 88.
  • Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race:
    Call on the lazy leaden-stepping Hours,
    Whose speed is but the heavy plummet’s pace;
    And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
    Which is no more than what is false and vain,
    And merely mortal dross.

    • On Time (1633–34).
  • O nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray
    Warbl’st at eve, when all the woods are still.

    • Sonnet, To the Nightingale (c. 1637).
  • Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven’s joy,
    • At a Solemn Music (c. 1637), line 1.
  • Where the bright seraphim in burning row
    Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow.

    • At a Solemn Music.
  • A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.
    • The Reason of Church Government (1641), Book II, Introduction.
  • By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after-times, as they should not willingly let it die.
    • The Reason of Church Government (1641), Book II, Introduction.
  • He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.
    • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642).
  • His words … like so many nimble and airy servitors trip about him at command.
    • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642).
  • I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.
    • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642).
  • So little care they of beasts to make them men, that by their sorcerous doctrine of formalities, they take the way to transform them out of Christian men into judaizing beasts. Had they but taught the land, or suffered it to be taught, as Christ would it should have been in all plenteous dispensation of the word, then the poor mechanic might have so accustomed his ear to good teaching, as to have discerned between faithful teachers and false. But now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness; just as the Pharisees their true fathers were wont, who could not endure that the people should be thought competent judges of Christ’s doctrine, although we know they judged far better than those great rabbis: yet “this people,” said they, “that know not the law is accursed.”
    • Apology for Smectymnuus (1642), section VIII.
  • Truth…never comes into the world but like a bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.
    • The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), Introduction.
  • Truth is as impossible to be soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam.
    • The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643), Introduction. Compare: “The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before”, Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Book ii (1605).
  • Men of most renowned virtue have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.
    • Tetrachordon (1644–1645).
  • New Presbyter is but Old Priest writ Large.
    • On the new forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament (1645).
  • For other things mild Heav’n a time ordains,
    And disapproves that care, though wise in show,
    That with superfluous burden loads the day,
    And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.

    • To Cyriack Skinner (1646–1647).
  • For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.
    • Eikonoklastes (1649), 23.
  • None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.
    • Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649).
  • No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.
    • Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649).
  • Peace hath her victories
    No less renowned than war.

    • To the Lord General Cromwell (1652).
  • When I consider how my light is spent,
    Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
    And that one talent which is death to hide
    Lodged with me useless.

    • On His Blindness (1652).
  • Who best
    Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best: his state
    Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed,
    And post o’er land and ocean without rest;
    They also serve who only stand and wait.

    • On His Blindness (1652).
  • Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
    Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
    Ev’n them who kept thy truth so pure of old
    When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones
    Forget not.

    • On the Late Massacre in Piedmont (1655).
  • Cyriack, whose Grandsire on the Royal Bench
    Of British Themis, with no mean applause
    Pronounced and in his volumes taught our Laws,
    Which others at their Bar so often wrench

    • To Cyriack Skinner (1655).
  • Yet I argue not
    Against Heav’n’s hand or will, nor bate one jot
    Of heart or hope; but still bear up, and steer
    Right onward.

    • To Cyriack Skinner, upon His Blindness (c. 1655).
  • Of which all Europe rings from side to side.
    • To Cyriack Skinner, upon His Blindness (c. 1655).
  • In mirth that after no repenting draws.
    • To Cyriack Skinner, upon His Blindness (c. 1655).
  • Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son
    • To Mr. Lawrence (1656).
  • Methought I saw my late espousèd saint
    Brought to me like Alcestis from the grave.

    • On His Deceased Wife (c. 1658).
  • But oh! as to embrace me she inclined,
    I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night.

    • On His Deceased Wife (c. 1658).
  • [Rhyme is] but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meter; … Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme, … as have also long since our best English tragedies, as… trivial and of no true musical delight; which [truly] consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory.
    • Introduction to Paradise Lost Added, 1668.
  • Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our writers, what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?
    • The History of England (1670), Book IV .
  • For stories teach us, that liberty sought out of season, in a corrupt and degenerate age, brought Rome itself to a farther slavery: for liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands: neither is it completely given, but by them who have the happy skill to know what is grievance and unjust to a people, and how to remove it wisely; what good laws are wanting, and how to frame them substantially, that good men may enjoy the freedom which they merit, and the bad the curb which they need.
  • Madam, methinks I see him living yet;
    So well your words his noble virtues praise,
    That all both judge you to relate them true,
    And to possess them, honour’d Margaret.

  • The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him and imitate Him.
    • Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 364.
  • Such as may make thee search the coffers round.
    • At a Vacation Exercise. Line 31, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • O fairest flower! no sooner blown but blasted,
    Soft silken primrose fading timelessly.

    • Ode on the Death of a fair Infant, dying of a Cough, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day.
    • Sonnet to the Nightingale, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: “That well by reason men it call may / The daisie, or els the eye of the day, / The emprise, and floure of floures all”, Geoffrey Chaucer, Prologue of the Legend of Good Women, line 183.
  • As ever in my great Taskmaster’s eye.
    • On his being arrived to the Age of Twenty-three, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • That old man eloquent.
    • To the Lady Margaret Ley, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.
    • On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • License they mean when they cry, Liberty!
    For who loves that must first be wise and good.

    • On the Detraction which followed upon my writing certain Treatises, reported in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
  • What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice,
    Of Attic taste?

    • To Mr. Lawrence.
  • Have hung
    My dank and dropping weeds
    To the stern god of sea.

    • Translation of Horace. Book i. Ode 5.
  • Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.
    • The Reason of Church Government, Introduction, Book ii.
  • I neither oblige the belief of other person, nor overhastily subscribe mine own. Nor have I stood with others computing or collating years and chronologies, lest I should be vainly curious about the time and circumstance of things, whereof the substance is so much in doubt. By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes.
    • The History of England, Book ii.

On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity (1629)

  • This is the month, and this the happy morn,
    Wherein the Son of Heav’n’s eternal King,
    Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,
    Our great redemption from above did bring;
    For so the holy sages once did sing,
    That He our deadly forfeit should release,
    And with His Father work us a perpetual peace.

    • Stanza 1, line 1.
  • It was the winter wild
    While the Heav’n-born child
    All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies.

    • Hymn, stanza 1, line 29.
  • No war, or battle’s sound
    Was heard the world around.
    The idle spear and shield were high up hung.

    • Hymn, stanza 4, line 53.
  • Time will run back and fetch the Age of Gold.
    • Hymn, stanza 14, line 135.
  • Swinges the scaly horror of his folded tail.
    • Hymn, stanza 18, line 172.
  • The oracles are dumb,
    No voice or hideous hum
    Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.
    Apollo from his shrine
    Can no more divine,
    With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.
    No nightly trance or breathed spell
    Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.

    • Hymn, stanza 19, line 173.
  • From haunted spring and dale
    Edged with poplar pale
    The parting genius is with sighing sent.

    • Hymn, stanza 20, line 184.
  • Peor and Baälim
    Forsake their temples dim.

    • Hymn. Line 197.

L’Allegro (1631)

  • Hence, loathèd Melancholy,
    Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,
    In Stygian cave forlorn,
    ‘Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy.

    • Line 1.
  • Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee
    Jest, and youthful jollity,
    Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
    Nods and becks and wreathèd smiles.

    • Line 25.
  • Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,
    And Laughter, holding both his sides.
    Come, and trip it, as you go.
    On the light fantastic toe.

    • Line 31.
  • The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty.
    • Line 36.
  • Mirth, admit me of thy crew,
    To live with her, and live with thee,
    In unreprovèd pleasures free.

    • Line 38.
  • While the cock with lively din
    Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
    And to the stack, or the barn door,
    Stoutly struts his dames before,
    Oft list’ning how the hounds and horn
    Cheerly rouse the slumb’ring morn.

    • Line 49.
  • And every shepherd tells his tale
    Under the hawthorn in the dale.

    • Line 67.
  • Meadows trim, with daisies pied,
    Shallow brooks, and rivers wide;
    Towers and balements it sees
    Bosomed high in tufted trees,
    Where perhaps some beauty lies,
    The cynosure of neighboring eyes.

    • Line 75.
  • Herbs, and other country messes,
    Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses.

    • Line 85.
  • And the jocund rebecks sound
    To many a youth, and many a maid,
    Dancing in the checkered shade.
    And young and old come forth to play
    On a sunshine holiday.

    • Line 94.
  • Then to the spicy nut-brown ale.
    • Line 100.
  • Then lies him down the lubber fiend,
    And stretched out all the chimney’s length,
    Basks at the fire his hairy strength.

    • Line 110.
  • Towered cities please us then,
    And the busy hum of men.

    • Line 117.
  • Ladies, whose bright eyes
    Rain influence, and judge the prize.

    • Line 121.
  • And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
    With mask, and antique pageantry,
    Such sights as youthful poets dream
    On summer eves by haunted stream.
    Then to the well-trod stage anon,
    If Jonson’s learned sock be on,
    Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy’s child,
    Warble his native wood-notes wild,
    And ever, against eating cares,
    Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
    Married to immortal verse
    Such as the meeting soul may pierce,
    In notes with many a winding bout
    Of linked sweetness long drawn out.

    • Line 127. Compare: “Wisdom married to immortal verse”, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, book vii.
  • Untwisting all the chains that tie
    The hidden soul of harmony.

    • Line 143.
  • Such strains as would have won the ear
    Of Pluto, to have quite set free
    His half-regained Eurydice.
    These delights, if thou canst give,
    Mirth, with thee, I mean to live.

    • Line 148.

Il Penseroso (1631)

  • Hence vain deluding Joys,
    The brood of Folly without father bred!

    • Line 1.
  • The gay motes that people the sunbeams.
    • Line 8.
  • And looks commercing with the skies,
    Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.

    • Line 39.
  • Forget thyself to marble.
    • Line 42.
  • And join with thee, calm Peace and Quiet,
    Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.

    • Line 45.
  • And add to these retired Leisure,
    That in trim gardens takes his pleasure.

    • Line 49.
  • Sweet bird, that shunn’st the noise of folly,
    Most musical, most melancholy!

    • Line 61.
  • I walk unseen
    On the dry smooth-shaven green,
    To behold the wandering moon,
    Riding near her highest noon,
    Like one that had been led astray
    Through the heav’n’s wide pathless way,
    And oft, as if her head she bowed,
    Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

    • Line 65.
  • Oft, on a plat of rising ground,
    I hear the far-off curfew sound
    Over some wide-watered shore,
    Swinging low with sullen roar.

    • Line 73.
  • Where glowing embers through the room
    Teach light to counterfeit a gloom,
    Far from all resort of mirth,
    Save the cricket on the hearth.

    • Line 79.
  • Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy
    In sceptred pall come sweeping by,
    Presenting Thebes, or Pelops’ line,
    Or the tale of Troy divine.

    • Line 97.
  • But, O sad Virgin, that thy power
    Might raise Musaeus from his bower,
    Or bid the soul of Orpheus sing
    Such notes as warbled to the string,
    Drew Iron tears down Pluto’s cheek,
    And made Hell grant what Love did seek.

    • Line 105.
  • Or call up him that left half told
    The story of Cambuscan bold.

    • Line 109.
  • Where more is meant than meets the ear.
    • Line 120.
  • When the gust hath blown his fill,
    Ending on the rustling leaves
    With minute drops from off the eaves.

    • Line 128.
  • Hide me from day’s garish eye,
    While the bee with honied thigh,
    That at her flowery work doth sing,
    And the waters murmuring
    With such consort as they keep,
    Entice the dewy-feathered sleep.

    • Line 141.
  • And storied windows richly dight,
    Casting a dim religious light.
    There let the pealing organ blow,
    To the full-voiced choir below,
    In service high, and anthems clear
    As may, with sweetness, through mine ear
    Dissolve me into ecstasies,
    And bring all heaven before mine eyes.

    • Line 159.
  • Till old experience do attain
    To something like prophetic strain.

    • Line 173.

Lycidas (1637)

  • Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more
    Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,
    I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,
    And with forced fingers rude
    Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

    • Line 1.
  • He knew
    Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.

    • Line 10.
  • Without the meed of some melodious tear.
    • Line 14.
  • Under the opening eyelids of the morn,
    We drove afield; and both together heard
    What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn,
    Batt’ning our flocks with the fresh dews of night.

    • Line 26.
  • But O the heavy change, now thou art gone,
    Now thou art gone and never must return!

    • Line 37.
  • The gadding vine.
    • Line 40.
  • Alas! what boots it with incessant care
    To tend the homely slighted shepherd’s trade,
    And strictly meditate the thankless Muse?
    Were it not better done as others use,
    To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
    Or with the tangles of Neaera’s hair?
    Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
    (That last infirmity of noble mind)
    To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
    But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
    And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
    Comes the blind Fury with th’ abhorrèd shears,
    And slits the thin-spun life.

    • Line 64. Compare: “Erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur” (Translated: “Some might consider him as too fond of fame, for the desire of glory clings even to the best of men longer than any other passion”), Tacitus, Historiae, iv. 6; said of Helvidius Priscus.
  • Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
    (That last infirmity of Noble mind)
    To scorn delights, and live laborious dayes.

    • Line 70.
  • Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.
    • Line 78.
  • It was that fatal and perfidious bark,
    Built in th’ eclipse, and rigged with curses dark,
    That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.

    • Line 100.
  • Last came, and last did go,
    The Pilot of the Galilean lake;
    Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
    (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).

    • Line 108.
  • Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold
    A sheep-hook.

    • Line 119.
  • The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
    But, swoln with wind, and the rank mist they draw,
    Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread:
    Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
    Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
    But that two-handed engine at the door
    Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.

    • Line 123.
  • Throw hither all your quaint enamell’d eyes
    That on the green turf suck the honied showers,
    And purple all the ground with vernal flowers.
    Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies,
    The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine,
    The white pink, and the pansy freakt with jet,
    The glowing violet,
    The musk-rose, and the well-attir’d woodbine,
    With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head,
    And every flower that sad embroidery wears.

    • Line 139.
  • Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides,
    Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide
    Visit’st the bottom of the monstrous world.

    • Line 156.
  • Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth.
    • Line 163.
  • For Lycidas your sorrow is not dead,
    Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor;
    So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed;
    And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
    And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore
    Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.
    So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high,
    Through the dear might of him that walked the waves.

    • Line 166.
  • He touch’d the tender stops of various quills,
    With eager thought warbling his Doric lay.

    • Line 188.
  • At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue:
    Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.

    • Line 192.

Tractate of Education (1644)

  • Litigious terms, fat contentions, and flowing fees.
  • I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration of what we should not do, but straight conduct ye to a hillside, where I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education; laborious indeed at the first ascent, but else so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds on every side that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming.
  • Inflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.
  • Ornate rhetoric thought out of the rule of Plato… To which poetry would be made subsequent, or indeed rather precedent, as being less subtle and fine, but more simple, sensuous, and passionate.
  • In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out, and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.
  • Attic tragedies of stateliest and most regal argument.

Paradise Lost (1667)

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

Main article: Paradise Lost
  • And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
    Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
    Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
    Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
    Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
    And mad’st it pregnant: What in me is dark
    Illumine, what is low raise and support;
    That to the highth of this great Argument
    I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,
    And justifie the wayes of God to men.

    • i.17-26
  • The mind is its own place, and in itself
    Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.

    • i.254-255
  • To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
    Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

    • i.262-263
  • They looking back, all th’ Eastern side beheld
    Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,
    Wav’d over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
    With dreadful Faces throng’d and fierie Armes:
    Som natural tears they drop’d, but wip’d them soon;
    The World was all before them, where to choose
    Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
    They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
    Through EDEN took thir solitarie way.

    • x.1532-40

Misattributed

  • Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.
    • Attributed to Milton at [1], [2], great-quotes.com, and brainyquote.com.
    • Spirituality author Sarah Ban Breathnach writes, in her 1996 Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude: “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life (is it abundant or is it lacking?) and the world (is it friendly or is it hostile?).” A Milton quotation occurs on the same page.

Quotes about Milton

  • It is as much commendation as a man can bear, to own him excellent; all beyond it is idolatry.
    • John Dryden, Translations from Theocritus, Lucretius, and Horace, “Preface”; in Sylvæ: or, The second part of Poetical Miscellanies, published by Mr. Dryden, third edition (London, 1702).
  • [A] puppy, once my pretty little man, now blear-eyed, or rather a blinding; having never had any mental vision, he has now lost his bodily sight; a silly coxcomb, fancying himself a beauty ; an unclean beast, with nothing more human about him than his guttering eyelids; the fittest doom for him would be to hang him on the highest gallows, and set his head on the Tower of London.
    • Claudius Salmasius, Ad Ioannem Miltonum Responsio, 1660, in Mark Pattison, Milton (1926)
  • An acrimonious and surly republican.
  • The want of human interest is always felt. Paradise Lost is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than a pleasure. We read Milton for instruction, retire harassed and overburdened, and look elsewhere for recreation; we desert our master, and seek for companions.
  • John Milton was one whose natural parts might deservedly give him a place amongst the principal of our English Poets, having written two Heroick Poems and a Tragedy, namely Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Sampson Agonista. But his Fame is gone out like a Candle in a Snuff, and his Memory will always stink, which might have ever lived in honorable Repute, had not he been a notorious Traytor, and most impiously and villanously bely’d that blessed Martyr, King Charles the First.
  • The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he Wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.
  • “‘Better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.’ Eh, little brother-killer?”
    “Suh-certainly, Lord Lucifer. Whatever you say, Lord Lucifer.”
    “We didn’t say it. Milton said it. And he was blind.”

  • Milton, perhaps to relieve the uniformity of English structure, which tends to become too barely evident in blank verse, tries often to imitate the classical order; but the result is an effect often of artificiality, at best of solemnity. Homer‘s Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος Οὐλομένην, and Virgil‘s ‘Arma virumque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris,’ &c., put the right words in the right place, without any loss of spirit. Milton’s opening—
       Of man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
    Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
    Brought death into the world, and all our woe, &c.
    is like an organ prelude: no English writer of a secular epic in blank verse could begin thus with success. It is impossible not to feel how tense must have been the struggle of that toil which Milton had to bestow on the stubborn material of his native language, before the gold of his words and verses won its full refinement. Diction so magnificent yet so severe cannot carry the reader along; so far from being the mere slave of the thought, like Homer’s Greek, it is itself a marvel of study and meditation, which arrests and amazes him.

~~~~~~~~

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), written in blank verse.

Milton’s poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day. Writing in English, Latin, Greek, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644)—written in condemnation of pre-publication censorship—is among history’s most influential and impassioned defences of free speech and freedom of the press.

William Hayley‘s 1796 biography called him the “greatest English author,”[1] and he remains generally regarded “as one of the preeminent writers in the English language,”[2] though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death (often on account of his republicanism). Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as “a poem which…with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind,” though he (a Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Milton’s politics as those of an “acrimonious and surly republican”.[3]

Because of his republicanism, Milton has been the subject of centuries of British partisanship.[4][when?][citation needed]

Contents

Poetry

Milton’s poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was On Shakespear (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare. In the midst of the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government, Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise, the 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print, until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667.

Paradise Lost

Main article: Paradise Lost

Milton’s magnum opus, the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost, was composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (first edition) with small but significant revisions published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution, yet affirms an ultimate optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton encoded many references to his unyielding support for the “Good Old Cause“.[38]

On 27 April 1667,[39] Milton sold the publication rights to Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5, equivalent to approximately £7,400 income in 2008,[40] with a further £5 to be paid if and when each print run of between 1,300 and 1,500 copies sold out.[41] The first run, a quarto edition priced at three shillings per copy, was published in August 1667 and sold out in eighteen months.[42]

Milton followed up Paradise Lost with its sequel, Paradise Regained, published alongside the tragedy Samson Agonistes, in 1671. Both these works also resonate with Milton’s post-Restoration political situation. Just before his death in 1674, Milton supervised a second edition of Paradise Lost, accompanied by an explanation of “why the poem rhymes not” and prefatory verses by Marvell. Milton republished his 1645 Poems in 1673, as well a collection of his letters and the Latin prolusions from his Cambridge days. A 1668 edition of Paradise Lost, reported to have been Milton’s personal copy, is now housed in the archives of the University of Western Ontario.

Views

An unfinished religious manifesto, De doctrina christiana, probably written by Milton, lays out many of his heterodox theological views, and was not discovered and published until 1823. Milton’s key beliefs were idiosyncratic, not those of an identifiable group or faction, and often they go well beyond the orthodoxy of the time. Their tone, however, stemmed from the Puritan emphasis on the centrality and inviolability of conscience.[43] He was his own man, but it is Areopagitica, where he was anticipated by Henry Robinson and others, that has lasted best of his prose works.

Philosophy

By the late 1650s, Milton was a proponent of monism or animist materialism, the notion that a single material substance which is “animate, self-active, and free” composes everything in the universe: from stones and trees and bodies to minds, souls, angels, and God.[44] Milton devised this position to avoid the mind-body dualism of Plato and Descartes as well as the mechanistic determinism of Hobbes. Milton’s monism is most notably reflected in Paradise Lost when he has angels eat (5.433–39)[clarification needed] and engage in sexual intercourse (8.622–29)[clarification needed] and the De Doctrina, where he denies the dual natures of man and argues for a theory of Creation ex Deo.

Political thought

Title page of John Milton’s 1644 edition of Areopagitica

Main article: John Milton’s politics

In his political writing, Milton addressed particular themes at different periods. The years 1641–42 were dedicated to church politics and the struggle against episcopacy. After his divorce writings, Areopagitica, and a gap, he wrote in 1649–54 in the aftermath of the execution of Charles I, and in polemic justification of the regicide and the existing Parliamentarian regime. Then in 1659–60 he foresaw the Restoration, and wrote to head it off.[45]

Milton’s own beliefs were in some cases both unpopular and dangerous, and this was true particularly to his commitment to republicanism. In coming centuries, Milton would be claimed as an early apostle of liberalism.[46] According to James Tully:

… with Locke as with Milton, republican and contraction conceptions of political freedom join hands in common opposition to the disengaged and passive subjection offered by absolutists such as Hobbes and Robert Filmer.[47]

A friend and ally in the pamphlet wars was Marchamont Nedham. Austin Woolrych considers that although they were quite close, there is “little real affinity, beyond a broad republicanism”, between their approaches.[48] Blair Worden remarks that both Milton and Nedham, with others such as Andrew Marvell and James Harrington, would have taken the problem with the Rump Parliament to be not the republic, but the fact that it was not a proper republic.[49] Woolrych speaks of “the gulf between Milton’s vision of the Commonwealth’s future and the reality”.[50] In the early version of his History of Britain, begun in 1649, Milton was already writing off the members of the Long Parliament as incorrigible.[51]

He praised Oliver Cromwell as the Protectorate was set up; though subsequently he had major reservations. When Cromwell seemed to be backsliding as a revolutionary, after a couple of years in power, Milton moved closer to the position of Sir Henry Vane, to whom he wrote a sonnet in 1652.[52][53] The group of disaffected republicans included, besides Vane, John Bradshaw, John Hutchinson, Edmund Ludlow, Henry Marten, Robert Overton, Edward Sexby and John Streater; but not Marvell, who remained with Cromwell’s party.[54] Milton had already commended Overton, along with Edmund Whalley and Bulstrode Whitelocke, in Defensio Secunda.[55] Nigel Smith writes that

… John Streater, and the form of republicanism he stood for, was a fulfilment of Milton’s most optimistic ideas of free speech and of public heroism […][56]

As Richard Cromwell fell from power, he envisaged a step towards a freer republic or “free commonwealth”, writing in the hope of this outcome in early 1660. Milton had argued for an awkward position, in the Ready and Easy Way, because he wanted to invoke the Good Old Cause and gain the support of the republicans, but without offering a democratic solution of any kind.[57] His proposal, backed by reference (amongst other reasons) to the oligarchical Dutch and Venetian constitutions, was for a council with perpetual membership. This attitude cut right across the grain of popular opinion of the time, which swung decisively behind the restoration of the Stuart monarchy that took place later in the year.[58] Milton, an associate of and advocate on behalf of the regicides, was silenced on political matters as Charles II returned.

Theology

Main article: John Milton’s religion

Like many Renaissance artists before him, Milton attempted to integrate Christian theology with classical modes. In his early poems, the poet narrator expresses a tension between vice and virtue, the latter invariably related to Protestantism. In Comus, Milton may make ironic use of the Caroline court masque by elevating notions of purity and virtue over the conventions of court revelry and superstition. In his later poems, Milton’s theological concerns become more explicit.

Milton embraced many heterodox Christian theological views. He rejected the Trinity, in the belief that the Son was subordinate to the Father, a position known as Arianism; and his sympathy or curiosity was probably engaged by Socinianism: in August 1650 he licensed for publication by William Dugard the Racovian Catechism, based on a non-trinitarian creed.[59][60] A source has interpreted him as broadly Protestant, if not always easy to locate in a more precise religious category.

In his 1641 treatise, Of Reformation, Milton expressed his dislike for Catholicism and episcopacy, presenting Rome as a modern Babylon, and bishops as Egyptian taskmasters. These analogies conform to Milton’s puritanical preference for Old Testament imagery. He knew at least four commentaries on Genesis: those of John Calvin, Paulus Fagius, David Pareus and Andreus Rivetus.[61]

Through the Interregnum, Milton often presents England, rescued from the trappings of a worldly monarchy, as an elect nation akin to the Old Testament Israel, and shows its leader, Oliver Cromwell, as a latter-day Moses. These views were bound up in Protestant views of the Millennium, which some sects, such as the Fifth Monarchists predicted would arrive in England. Milton, however, would later criticise the “worldly” millenarian views of these and others, and expressed orthodox ideas on the prophecy of the Four Empires.[62]

The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 began a new phase in Milton’s work. In Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, Milton mourns the end of the godly Commonwealth. The Garden of Eden may allegorically reflect Milton’s view of England’s recent Fall from Grace, while Samson‘s blindness and captivity—mirroring Milton’s own lost sight—may be a metaphor for England’s blind acceptance of Charles II as king. Illustrated by Paradise Lost is mortalism, the belief that the soul lies dormant after the body dies.[63]

Despite the Restoration of the monarchy, Milton did not lose his personal faith; Samson shows how the loss of national salvation did not necessarily preclude the salvation of the individual, while Paradise Regained expresses Milton’s continuing belief in the promise of Christian salvation through Jesus Christ.

Though he may have maintained his personal faith in spite of the defeats suffered by his cause, the Dictionary of National Biography recounted how he had been alienated from the Church of England by Archbishop William Laud, and then moved similarly from the Dissenters by their denunciation of religious tolerance in England.

Milton had come to stand apart from all sects, though apparently finding the Quakers most congenial. He never went to any religious services in his later years. When a servant brought back accounts of sermons from nonconformist meetings, Milton became so sarcastic that the man at last gave up his place.

Religious toleration

Milton called in the Areopagitica for “the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties” (applied, however, only to the conflicting Protestant sects, and not to atheists, Jews, Muslims or Catholics[64]). “Milton argued for disestablishment as the only effective way of achieving broad toleration. Rather than force a man’s conscience, government should recognise the persuasive force of the gospel.”[65]

Divorce

Main article: Milton’s divorce tracts

Milton wrote The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce in 1643, at the beginning of the English Civil War. In August of that year, he presented his thoughts to the Westminster Assembly of divines, which had been created by the Long Parliament to bring greater reform to the Church of England. The Assembly convened on 1 July against the will of King Charles I.

Milton’s thinking on divorce caused him considerable trouble with the authorities. An orthodox Presbyterian view of the time was that Milton’s views on divorce constituted a one-man heresy:

The fervently Presbyterian Edwards had included Milton’s divorce tracts in his list in Gangraena of heretical publications that threatened the religious and moral fabric of the nation; Milton responded by mocking him as “shallow Edwards” in the satirical sonnet “On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament”, usually dated to the latter half of 1646.[66]

Even here, though, his originality is qualified: Thomas Gataker had already identified “mutual solace” as a principal goal in marriage.[67] Milton abandoned his campaign to legitimise divorce after 1645, but he expressed support for polygamy in the De Doctrina Christiana, the theological treatise that provides the clearest evidence for his views.[68]

Milton wrote during a period when thoughts about divorce were anything but simplistic; rather, there was active debate among thought-leaders. However, Milton’s basic approval of divorce within strict parameters set by the biblical witness was typical of many influential Christian intellectuals, particularly the Westminster divines. Milton addressed the Assembly on the matter of divorce in August 1643,[69] at a moment when the Assembly was beginning to form its opinion on the matter. In the Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, Milton argued that divorce was a private matter, not a legal or ecclesiastical one. Neither the Assembly nor Parliament condemned Milton or his ideas. In fact, when the Westminster Assembly wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith they allowed for divorce (‘Of Marriage and Divorce,’ Chapter 24, Section 5) in cases of infidelity or abandonment. Thus, the Christian community, at least within the ‘Puritan’ sub-set, approved of Milton’s views.

History

History was particularly important for the political class of the period, and Lewalski considers that Milton “more than most illustrates” a remark of Thomas Hobbes on the weight placed at the time on the classical Latin historical writers Tacitus, Livy, Sallust and Cicero, and their republican attitudes.[70] Milton himself wrote that “Worthy deeds are not often destitute of worthy relaters”, in Book II of his History of Britain. A sense of history mattered greatly to him:

The course of human history, the immediate impact of the civil disorders, and his own traumatic personal life, are all regarded by Milton as typical of the predicament he describes as “the misery that has bin since Adam”.[71]

Legacy and influence

Once Paradise Lost was published, Milton’s stature as epic poet was immediately recognised. He cast a formidable shadow over English poetry in the 18th and 19th centuries; he was often judged equal or superior to all other English poets, including Shakespeare. Very early on, though, he was championed by Whigs, and decried by Tories: with the regicide Edmund Ludlow he was claimed as an early Whig,[72] while the High Tory Anglican minister Luke Milbourne lumped Milton in with other “Agents of Darkness” such as John Knox, George Buchanan, Richard Baxter, Algernon Sidney and John Locke.[73]

Early reception of the poetry

John Dryden, an early enthusiast, in 1677 began the trend of describing Milton as the poet of the sublime.[74] Dryden’s The State of Innocence and the Fall of Man: an Opera (1677) is evidence of an immediate cultural influence. In 1695, Patrick Hume became the first editor of Paradise Lost, providing an extensive apparatus of annotation and commentary, particularly chasing down allusions.[75]

Title page of a 1752–1761 edition of “The Poetical Works of John Milton with Notes of Various Authors by Thomas Newton” printed by J. & R. Tonson in the Strand

In 1732, the classical scholar Richard Bentley offered a corrected version of Paradise Lost.[76] Bentley was considered presumptuous, and was attacked in the following year by Zachary Pearce. Christopher Ricks judges that, as critic, Bentley was both acute and wrong-headed, and “incorrigibly eccentric”; William Empson also finds Pearce to be more sympathetic to Bentley’s underlying line of thought than is warranted.[77][78]

There was an early, partial translation of Paradise Lost into German by Theodore Haak, and based on that a standard verse translation by Ernest Gottlieb von Berge. A subsequent prose translation by Johann Jakob Bodmer was very popular; it influenced Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. The German-language Milton tradition returned to England in the person of the artist Henry Fuseli.

Many enlightenment thinkers of the 18th century revered and commented on Milton’s poetry and non-poetical works. In addition to John Dryden, among them were Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Thomas Newton, and Samuel Johnson. For example, in The Spectator,[79] Joseph Addison wrote extensive notes, annotations, and interpretations of certain passages of Paradise Lost. Jonathan Richardson, senior, and Jonathan Richardson, the younger, co-wrote a book of criticism.[80] In 1749, Thomas Newton published an extensive edition of Milton’s poetical works with annotations provided by himself, Dryden, Pope, Addison, the Richardsons (father and son) and others. Newton’s edition of Milton was a culmination of the honour bestowed upon Milton by early Enlightenment thinkers; it may also have been prompted by Richard Bentley’s infamous edition, described above. Samuel Johnson wrote numerous essays on Paradise Lost, and Milton was included in his Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–1781).

Blake

Frontispiece to Milton a Poem

William Blake considered Milton the major English poet. Blake placed Edmund Spenser as Milton’s precursor, and saw himself as Milton’s poetical son.[81] In his Milton a Poem, Blake uses Milton as a character.

Romantic theory

Edmund Burke was a theorist of the sublime, and he regarded Milton’s description of Hell as exemplary of sublimity as an aesthetic concept. For Burke, it was to set alongside mountain-tops, a storm at sea, and infinity.[82] In The Beautiful and the Sublime, he wrote: “No person seems better to have understood the secret of heightening, or of setting terrible things, if I may use the expression, in their strongest light, by the force of a judicious obscurity than Milton.”[83]

The Romantic poets valued his exploration of blank verse, but for the most part rejected his religiosity. William Wordsworth began his sonnet “London, 1802” with “Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour”[84] and modelled The Prelude, his own blank verse epic, on Paradise Lost. John Keats found the yoke of Milton’s style uncongenial;[85] he exclaimed that “Miltonic verse cannot be written but in an artful or rather artist’s humour.”[86] Keats felt that Paradise Lost was a “beautiful and grand curiosity”, but his own unfinished attempt at epic poetry, Hyperion, was unsatisfactory to the author because, amongst other things, it had too many “Miltonic inversions”.[86] In The Madwoman in the Attic, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar note that Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein is, in the view of many critics, “one of the key ‘Romantic’ readings of Paradise Lost.”[87]

Later legacy

The Victorian age witnessed a continuation of Milton’s influence, George Eliot[88] and Thomas Hardy being particularly inspired by Milton’s poetry and biography. Hostile 20th-century criticism by T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound did not reduce Milton’s stature.[89] F. R. Leavis, in The Common Pursuit, responded to the points made by Eliot, in particular the claim that “the study of Milton could be of no help: it was only a hindrance,” by arguing, “As if it were a matter of deciding not to study Milton! The problem, rather, was to escape from an influence that was so difficult to escape from because it was unrecognized, belonging, as it did, to the climate of the habitual and ‘natural’.”[90] Harold Bloom, in The Anxiety of Influence, wrote that “Milton is the central problem in any theory and history of poetic influence in English […]”.[91]

Milton’s Areopagitica is still cited as relevant to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.[92] A quotation from Areopagitica—”A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life”—is displayed in many public libraries, including the New York Public Library.

The title of Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials trilogy is derived from a quotation, “His dark materials to create more worlds”, line 915 of Book II in Paradise Lost. Pullman was concerned to produce a version of Milton’s poem accessible to teenagers,[93] and has spoken of Milton as “our greatest public poet”.[94]

T. S. Eliot believed that “of no other poet is it so difficult to consider the poetry simply as poetry, without our theological and political dispositions… making unlawful entry”.[95]

Literary legacy

Milton’s use of blank verse, in addition to his stylistic innovations (such as grandiloquence of voice and vision, peculiar diction and phraseology) influenced later poets. At the time, poetic blank verse was considered distinct from its use in verse drama, and Paradise Lost was taken as a unique examplar.[96] Said Isaac Watts in 1734, “Mr. Milton is esteemed the parent and author of blank verse among us”.[97] “Miltonic verse” might be synonymous for a century with blank verse as poetry, a new poetic terrain independent from both the drama and the heroic couplet.

Lack of rhyme was sometimes taken as Milton’s defining innovation. He himself considered the rhymeless quality of Paradise Lost to be an extension of his own personal liberty:

This neglect then of Rhime … is to be esteem’d an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recover’d to heroic Poem from the troublesom and modern bondage of Rimeing.[98]

This pursuit of freedom was largely a reaction against conservative values entrenched within the rigid heroic couplet.[99] Within a dominant culture that stressed elegance and finish, he granted primacy to freedom, breadth and imaginative suggestiveness, eventually developed into the romantic vision of sublime terror. Reaction to Milton’s poetic worldview included, grudgingly, acknowledgement that of poet’s resemblance to classical writers (Greek and Roman poetry being unrhymed). Blank verse came to be a recognised medium for religious works and for translations of the classics. Unrhymed lyrics like Collins‘ Ode to Evening (in the meter of Milton’s translation of Horace‘s Ode to Pyrrha) were not uncommon after 1740.[100]

Statue of Milton in Temple of British Worthies, Stowe

A second aspect of Milton’s blank verse was the use of unconventional rhythm:

His blank-verse paragraph, and his audacious and victorious attempt to combine blank and rhymed verse with paragraphic effect in Lycidas, lay down indestructible models and patterns of English verse-rhythm, as distinguished from the narrower and more strait-laced forms of English metre.[101]

Before Milton, “the sense of regular rhythm … had been knocked into the English head so securely that it was part of their nature”.[102] The “Heroick measure”, according to Samuel Johnson, “is pure … when the accent rests upon every second syllable through the whole line  The repetition of this sound or percussion at equal times, is the most complete harmony of which a single verse is capable”,[103] Caesural pauses, most agreed, were best placed at the middle and the end of the line. In order to support this symmetry, lines were most often octo- or deca-syllabic, with no enjambed endings. To this schema Milton introduced modifications, which included hypermetrical syllables (trisyllabic feet), inversion or slighting of stresses, and the shifting of pauses to all parts of the line.[104] Milton deemed these features to be reflective of “the transcendental union of order and freedom”.[105] Admirers remained hesitant to adopt such departures from traditional metrical schemes: “The English … had been writing separate lines for so long that they could not rid themselves of the habit”.[106] Isaac Watts preferred his lines distinct from each other, as did Oliver Goldsmith, Henry Pemberton, and Scott of Amwell, whose general opinion it was that Milton’s frequent omission of the initial unaccented foot was “displeasing to a nice ear”.[107] It was not until the late 18th century that poets (beginning with Gray) began to appreciate “the composition of Milton’s harmony … how he loved to vary his pauses, his measures, and his feet, which gives that enchanting air of freedom and wilderness to his versification”.[108]

While neo-classical diction was as restrictive as its prosody, and narrow imagery paired with uniformity of sentence structure resulted in a small set of 800 nouns circumscribing the vocabulary of 90% of heroic couplets ever written up to the eighteenth century,[109] and tradition required that the same adjectives attach to the same nouns, followed by the same verbs, Milton’s pursuit of liberty extended into his vocabulary as well. It included many Latinate neologisms, as well as obsolete words already dropped from popular usage so completely that their meanings were no longer understood. In 1740, Francis Peck identified some examples of Milton’s “old” words (now popular).[110] The “Miltonian dialect” as it was called, was emulated by later poets; Pope used the diction of Paradise Lost in his Homer translation, while the lyric poetry of Gray and Collins was frequently criticised for their use of “obsolete words out of Spenser and Milton”.[111] The language of Thomson‘s finest poems (e.g. The Seasons, Castle of Indolence) was self-consciously modelled after the Miltonian dialect, with the same tone and sensibilities as Paradise Lost. Following to Milton, English poetry from Pope to John Keats exhibited a steadily increasing attention to the connotative, the imaginative and poetic, value of words.[112]

Works

Poetry and drama

Prose

Albert Schweitzer, Man of Service

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Albert Schweitzer
Born 14 January 1875
Kaysersberg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany (now Haut-Rhin, France)
Died 4 September 1965 (aged 90)
Lambaréné, Gabon
Citizenship German (1875–1919)
French (1919–1965)
Fields Medicine, music, philosophy, theology
Doctoral advisor Karl Ferdinand Braun
Known for Music, philanthropy, theology
Influences H. S. Reimarus
Notable awards
Spouse Helene Bresslau, daughter of Harry Bresslau

WikiQuotes

The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach.

What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.

  • Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now—always.
  • Every start upon an untrodden path is a venture which only in unusual circumstances looks sensible and likely to be successful.
  • The great fault of all ethics hitherto has been that they believed themselves to have to deal only with the relations of man to man. In reality, however, the question is what is his attitude to the world and all life that comes within his reach. A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, and that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. Only the universal ethic of the feeling of responsibility in an ever-widening sphere for all that lives — only that ethic can be founded in thought. … The ethic of Reverence for Life, therefore, comprehends within itself everything that can be described as love, devotion, and sympathy whether in suffering, joy, or effort.
    • Out of My Life and Thought, An Autobiography (1933) translated by C. T. Campion, Ch. 13, p. 188
  • The ethic of Reverence for Life is the ethic of Love widened into universality.
    • Out of My Life and Thought, An Autobiography (1933) translated by C. T. Campion, Epilogue, p. 235
  • What has been presented as Christianity during these nineteen centuries is only a beginning, full of mistakes, not full blown Christianity springing from the spirit of Jesus.
    • Out of My Life and Thought, An Autobiography (1933) translated by C. T. Campion, Epilogue, p. 241
  • To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
    • Out of My Life and Thought, An Autobiography (1933) translated by C. T. Campion, Epilogue, p. 242
  • Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life — it is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion.
    • As quoted in Albert Schweitzer : The Man and His Mind (1947) by George Seaver, p. 366
  • The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.
    • Radio appeal for peace, Oslo, Norway (1958-04-30)

The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.

  • Any religion or philosophy which is not based on a respect for life is not a true religion or philosophy.
    • Letter to a Japanese Animal Welfare Society (1961)

Kulturphilosophie (1923)

Translated by C. T. Campion as Philosophy of Civilisation (1949)
  • Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
    • Variant translation: Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
    • Variant translation: Until we extend the circle of compassion to all living things, we will not ourselves find peace.
  • The good conscience is an invention of the devil.
    • Variant translation: The quiet conscience is an invention of the devil.

Vol. 1 : The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization

  • The ethical ideas on which civilization rests have been wandering about the world, poverty-stricken and homeless. No theory of the universe has been advanced which can give them solid foundation; in fact not one has made its appearance which can claim for itself solidity and inner consistency. The age of philosophical dogmatism had come to an end, and after that nothing was recognized as truth except the science which described reality. Complete theories of the universe no longer appeared as fixed stars; they were regarded as resting on hypothesis, and ranked no higher than comets.
    • Ch. 1 How Philosophy is Responsible for the Collapse of Civilization

Vol. 2 : Civilization and Ethics

The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.

I live my life in God, in the mysterious divine personality which I do not know as such in the world, but only experience as mysterious Will within myself.

Preface:

  • Awakening of Western thought will not be complete until that thought steps outside itself and comes to an understanding with the search for a world-view as this manifests itself in the thought of mankind as a whole. We have too long been occupied with the developing series of our own philosophical systems, and have taken no notice of the fact that there is a world-philosophy of which our Western philosophy is only a part. If, however, one conceives philosophy as being a struggle to reach a view of the world as a whole, and seeks out the elementary convictions which are to deepen it and give it a sure foundation, one cannot avoid setting our own thought face to face with that of the Hindus, and of the Chinese in the Far East. … Our Western philosophy, if judged by its own latest pronouncements, is much naiver than we admit to ourselves, and we fail to perceive this only because we have acquired the art of expressing what is simple in a pedantic way.
  • The last fact which knowledge can discover is that the world is a manifestation, and in every way a puzzling manifestation, of the universal will to live.
  • Resignation as to knowledge of the world is for me not an irretrievable plunge into a scepticism which leaves us to drift about in life like a derelict vessel. I see in it that effort of honesty which we must venture to make in order to arrive at the serviceable world-view which hovers within sight. Every world-view which fails to start from resignation in regard to knowledge is artificial and a mere fabrication, for it rests upon an inadmissible interpretation of the universe.
  • World-view is a product of life-view, not vice versa.
  • Reverence for life, veneratio vitæ, is the most direct and at the same time the profoundest achievement of my will-to-live.
    In reverence for life my knowledge passes into experience. The simple world- and life-affirmation which is within me just because I am will-to-live has, therefore, no need to enter into controversy with itself, if my will-to-live learns to think and yet does not understand the meaning of the world. In spite of the negative results of knowledge, I have to hold fast to world- and life-affirmation and deepen it. My life carries its own meaning in itself. This meaning lies in my living out the highest idea which shows itself in my will-to-live, the idea of reverence for life. With that for a starting-point I give value to my own life and to all the will-to-live which surrounds me, I persevere in activity, and I produce values.
  • Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.
  • Affirmation of the world, which means affirmation of the will-to-live that manifests itself around me, is only possible if I devote myself to other life. From an inner necessity, I exert myself in producing values and practising ethics in the world and on the world even though I do not understand the meaning of the world. For in world- and life-affirmation and in ethics I carry out the will of the universal will-to-live which reveals itself in me. I live my life in God, in the mysterious divine personality which I do not know as such in the world, but only experience as mysterious Will within myself.
    Rational thinking which is free from assumptions ends therefore in mysticism.     To relate oneself in the spirit of reverence for life to the multiform manifestations of the will-to-live which together constitute the world is ethical mysticism. All profound world-view is mysticism, the essence of which is just this: that out of my unsophisticated and naïve existence in the world there comes, as a result of thought about self and the world, spiritual self-devotion to the mysterious infinite Will which is continuously manifested in the universe.
  • From my youth onwards, I have felt sure that all thought which thinks itself out to an issue ends in mysticism. In the stillness of the African jungle I have been able to work out this thought and give it expression.
  • The restoration of our world-view can come only as a result of inexorably truth-loving and recklessly courageous thought. Such thinking alone is mature enough to learn by experience how the rational, when it thinks itself out to a conclusion, passes necessarily over into the non-rational. World- and life-affirmation and ethics are non-rational. They are not justified by any corresponding knowledge of the nature of the world, but are the disposition in which, through the inner compulsion of our will-to-live, we determine our relation to the world.
    What the activity of this disposition of ours means in the evolution of the world, we do not know. Nor can we regulate this activity from outside; we must leave entirely to each individual its shaping and its extension. From every point of view, then, world- and life-affirmation and ethics are non-rational, and we must have the courage to admit it.
  • If rational thought thinks itself out to a conclusion, it arrives at something non-rational which, nevertheless, is a necessity of thought. This is the paradox which dominates our spiritual life. If we try to get on without this non-rational element, there result views of the world and of life which have neither vitality nor value.
  • The way to true mysticism leads up through rational thought to deep experience of the world and of our will-to-live. We must all venture once more to be “thinkers,” so as to reach mysticism, which is the only direct and the only profound world-view. We must all wander in the field of knowledge to the point where knowledge passes over into experience of the world. We must all, through thought, become religious.
    This rational thought must become the prevailing force among us, for all the valuable ideas that we need develop out of it. In no other fire than that of the mysticism of reverence for life can the broken sword of idealism be forged anew.

True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: “I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.”

  • True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: “I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.”
    • Chapter 26 “The Civilizing Power of the Ethics of Reverence for Life”
  • Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. … humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings.
    • Chapter 26
  • Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me. It is an uncomfortable doctrine which the true ethics whisper into my ear. You are happy, they say; therefore you are called upon to give much.
    • Chapter 26
  • The disastrous feature of our civilization is that it is far more developed materially than spiritually. Its balance is disturbed … Now come the facts to summon us to reflect. They tell us in terribly harsh language that a civilization which develops only on its material side, and not in the sphere of the spirit … heads for disaster.

Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life.

  • The ethic of Reverence for Life prompts us to keep each other alert to what troubles us and to speak and act dauntlessly together in discharging the responsibility that we feel. It keeps us watching together for opportunities to bring some sort of help to animals in recompense for the great misery that men inflict upon them, and thus for a moment we escape from the incomprehensible horror of existence.
  • I must interpret the life about me as I interpret the life that is my own. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be full of significance to itself. If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see, however strange it may be to mine. And not only other human life, but all kinds of life: life above mine, if there be such life; life below mine, as I know it to exist. Ethics in our Western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relations of man to man. But that is a limited ethics. We need a boundless ethics which will include the animals also.
  • A man is really ethical only when he obeys the constraint laid on him to help all life which he is able to succor, and when he goes out of his way to avoid injuring anything living. He does not ask how far this or that life deserves sympathy as valuable in itself, nor how far it is capable of feeling. To him life as such is sacred. He shatters no ice crystal that sparkles in the sun, tears no leaf from its tree, breaks off no flower, and is careful not to crush any insect as he walks. If he works by lamplight on a summer evening, he prefers to keep the window shut and to breathe stifling air, rather than to see insect after insect fall on his table with singed and sinking wings.
    If he goes out in to the street after a rainstorm and sees a worm which has strayed there, he reflects that it will certainly dry up in the sunshine, if it does not quickly regain the damp soil into which it can creep, and so he helps it back from the deadly paving stones into the lush grass. Should he pass by an insect which has fallen into a pool, he spares the time to reach it a leaf or stalk on which it may clamber and save itself.
  • The man who has become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own. He experiences that other life in his own.
  • The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies.
  • It is the fate of every truth to be an object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed. It was once considered foolish to suppose that black men were really human beings and ought to be treated as such. What was once foolish has now become a recognized truth. Today it is considered as exaggeration to proclaim constant respect for every form of life as being the serious demand of a rational ethic. But the time is coming when people will be amazed that the human race existed so long before it recognized that thoughtless injury to life is incompatible with real ethics. Ethics is in its unqualified form extended responsibility to everything that has life.

Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1925)

  • As long as I can remember, I have suffered because of the great misery I saw in the world. I never really knew the artless, youthful joy of living, and I believe that many children feel this way, even when outwardly they seem to be wholly happy and without a single care.
  • I used to suffer particularly because the poor animals must endure so much pain and want. The sight of an old, limping horse being dragged along by one man while another man struck him with a stick he was being driven to the Colmar slaughterhouse — haunted me for weeks.
  • We came to a tree which was still bare, and on which the birds were singing out gaily in the morning, without any fear of us. Then stooping over like an Indian on the hunt, my companion placed a pebble in the leather of his sling and stretched it. Obeying his peremptory glance I did the same, with frightful twinges of conscience, vowing firmly that I would shoot when he did. At that very moment the church bells began to sound, mingling with the song of the birds in the sunshine. It was the warning bell that came a half-hour before the main bell. For me it was a voice from heaven. I threw the sling down, scaring the birds away, so that they were safe from my companion’s sling, and fled home. And ever afterwards when the bells of Holy Week ring out amidst the leafless trees in the sunshine I remember with moving gratitude how they rang into my heart at that time the commandment: Thou shalt not kill.

Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit.

  • Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.
  • The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up. That is possible for him who never argues and strives with men and facts, but in all experience retires upon himself, and looks for the ultimate cause of things in himself.
  • I was convinced — and I am so still — that the fundamental principles of Christianity have to be proved true by reasoning, and by no other method. Reason, I said to myself, is given us that we may bring everything within the range of its action, even the most exalted ideas of religion. And this certainty filled me with joy.

The Spiritual Life (1947)

The Spiritual Life :Selected Writings Of Albert Schweitzer, originally published as Albert Schweitzer: An Anthology

We cannot understand what happens in the universe. What is glorious in it is united with what is full of horror. What is full of meaning is united to what is senseless…

The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it.

Man can no longer live for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life.

Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.

  • We cannot understand what happens in the universe. What is glorious in it is united with what is full of horror. What is full of meaning is united to what is senseless. The spirit of the universe is at once creative and destructive — it creates while it destroys and destroys while it creates, and therefore it remains to us a riddle. And we must inevitably resign ourselves to this.
  • When in the spring the withered gray of the pastures gives place to green, this is due to the millions of young shoots which sprout up freshly from the old roots. In like manner the revival of thought which is essential for our time can only come through a transformation of the opinions and ideals of the many brought about by individual and universal reflection about the meaning of life and of the world.
  • It is the fate of ‘little faiths’ of truth that they, true followers of Peter, whether they be Roman or the Protestant observance, cry out and sink in the sea of ideas, where the followers of Paul, believing in the Spirit, walk secure and undismayed.
  • Christianity has had to give up one piece after another of what it still imagined it possessed in the way of explanations of the universe. In this development it grows more and more into an expression of what constitutes its real nature. In a remarkable process of spiritualization it advances further and further from naive naiveté into the region of profound naiveté. The greater the number of explanations that slip from its hands, the more is the first of the Beatitudes, which may indeed be regarded as prophetic word concerning Christianity, fulfilled: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
  • When Christianity becomes conscious of its innermost nature, it realizes that it is godliness rising our of inward constraint. The highest knowledge is to know that we are surrounded by mystery. Neither knowledge nor hope for the future can be the pivot of our life or determine its direction. It is intended to be solely determined by our allowing ourselves to be gripped by the ethical God, who reveals Himself in us, and by our yielding our will to His.
  • Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it. A strength which becomes clearer and stronger through its experience of such obstacles is the only strength that can conquer them. Resistance is only a waste of strength.
  • Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage.
  • The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable, and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.
  • Most men are scantily nourished on a modicum of happiness and a number of empty thoughts which life lays on their plates. They are kept in the road of life through stern necessity by elemental duties which they cannot avoid.
    Again and again their will-to-live becomes, as it were, intoxicated: spring sunshine, opening flowers moving clouds, waving fields of grain — all affect it. The manifold will-to-live, which is known to us in the splendid phenomena in which it clothes itself, grasps at their personal wills. They would fain join their shouts to the mighty symphony which is proceeding all around them. The world seem beauteous…but the intoxication passes. Dreadful discords only allow them to hear a confused noise, as before, where they had thought to catch the strains of glorious music. The beauty of nature is obscured by the suffering which they discover in every direction. And now they see again that they are driven about like shipwrecked persons on the waste of ocean, only that the boat is at one moment lifted high on the crest of the waves and a moment later sinks deep into the trough; and that now sunshine and now darkening clouds lie on the surface of the water.
    And now they would fain persuade themselves that land lies on the horizon toward which they are driven. Their will-to-live befools their intellect so that it makes efforts to see the world as it would like to see it. It forces this intellect to show them a map which lends support to their hope of land. Once again they essay to reach the shore, until finally their arms sink exhausted for the last time and their eyes rove desperately from wave to wave. …
    Thus it is with the will-to-live when it is unreflective.
    But is there no way out of this dilemma? Must we either drift aimlessly through lack of reflection or sink in pessimism as the result of reflection? No. We must indeed attempt the limitless ocean, but we may set our sails and steer a determined course.
  • The mistake made by all previous systems of ethics has been the failure to recognize that life as such is the mysterious value with which they have to deal. All spiritual life meets us within natural life. Reverence for life, therefore, is applied to natural life and spiritual life alike. In the parable of Jesus, the shepherd saves not merely the soul of the lost sheep but the whole animal. The stronger the reverence for natural life, the stronger grows also that for spiritual life.
  • The ethic of reverence of life constrains all, in whatever walk of life they may find themselves, to busy themselves intimately with all the human and vital processes which are being played out around them, and to give themselves as men to the man who needs human help and sympathy. It does not allow the scholar to live for his science alone, even if he is very useful to the community in so doing. It does not permit the artist to exist only for his art, even if he gives inspiration to many by its means. It refuses to let the business man imagine that he fulfills all legitimate demands in the course of his business activities. It demands from all that they should sacrifice a portion of their own lives for others. In what way and in what measure this is his duty, this everyone must decide on the basis of the thoughts which arise in himself, and the circumstances which attend the course of his own life. The self-sacrifice of one may not be particularly in evidence. He carries it out simply by continuing his normal life. Another is called to some striking self-surrender which obliges him to set on one side all regard for his own progress. Let no one measure himself by his conclusions respecting someone else. The destiny of men has to fulfill itself in a thousand ways, so that goodness may be actualized. What every individual has to contribute remains his own secret. But we must all mutually share in the knowledge that our existence only attains its true value when we have experienced in ourselves the truth of the declaration: ‘He who loses his life shall find it.’
  • To the man who is truly ethical all life is sacred, including that which from the human point of view seems lower in the scale. He makes distinctions only as each case comes before him, and under the pressure of necessity, as, for example, when it falls to him to decide which of two lives he must sacrifice in order to preserve the other. But all through this series of decisions he is conscious of acting on subjective grounds and arbitrarily, and knows that he bears the responsibility for the life which is sacrificed.
  • There slowly grew up in me an unshakable conviction that we have no right to inflict suffering and death on another living creature unless there is some unavoidable necessity for it, and that we ought all of us to feel what a horrible thing it is to cause suffering and death out of mere thoughtlessness. And this conviction has influenced me only more and more strongly with time. I have grown more and more certain that at the bottom of our heart we all think this, and that we fail to acknowledge it because we are afraid of being laughed at by other people as sentimentalists, though partly also because we allow our best feelings to get blunted. But I vowed that I would never let my feelings get blunted, and that I would never be afraid of the reproach of sentimentalism.
  • Faith which refuses to face indisputable facts is but little faith. Truth is always gain, however hard it is to accommodate ourselves to it. To linger in any kind of untruth proves to be a departure from the straight way of faith.
  • We cannot abdicate our conscience to an organization, nor to a government. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Most certainly I am! I cannot escape my responsibility by saying the State will do all that is necessary. It is a tragedy that nowadays so many think and feel otherwise.

The Problem of Peace (1954)

Nobel Lecture: The Problem of Peace (4 November 1954)

 

Many a truth has lain unnoticed for a long time, ignored simply because no one perceived its potential for becoming reality.

  • We have learned to tolerate the facts of war: that men are killed en masse — some twenty million in the Second World War — that whole cities and their inhabitants are annihilated by the atomic bomb, that men are turned into living torches by incendiary bombs. We learn of these things from the radio or newspapers and we judge them according to whether they signify success for the group of peoples to which we belong, or for our enemies. When we do admit to ourselves that such acts are the results of inhuman conduct, our admission is accompanied by the thought that the very fact of war itself leaves us no option but to accept them. In resigning ourselves to our fate without a struggle, we are guilty of inhumanity.
  • What really matters is that we should all of us realize that we are guilty of inhumanity. The horror of this realization should shake us out of our lethargy so that we can direct our hopes and our intentions to the coming of an era in which war will have no place.
  • The only originality I claim is that for me this truth goes hand in hand with the intellectual certainty that the human spirit is capable of creating in our time a new mentality, an ethical mentality. Inspired by this certainty, I too proclaim this truth in the hope that my testimony may help to prevent its rejection as an admirable sentiment but a practical impossibility. Many a truth has lain unnoticed for a long time, ignored simply because no one perceived its potential for becoming reality.
  • Only when an ideal of peace is born in the minds of the peoples will the institutions set up to maintain this peace effectively fulfill the function expected of them.
  • May the men who hold the destiny of peoples in their hands, studiously avoid anything that might cause the present situation to deteriorate and become even more dangerous. May they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” These words are valid not only for individuals, but for nations as well. May these nations, in their efforts to maintain peace, do their utmost to give the spirit time to grow and to act.

Reverence for Life (1969)

A man believes in eternal life because it is already his, it is a present experience, and he already benefits from its peace and joy. He cannot describe this experience in words. He may not be able to conform his view with the traditional picture of it. But one thing he knows for certain: Something within us does not pass away, something goes on living and working wherever the kingdom of the spirit is present.

  • At sunset of the third day, near the village of Igendja, we moved along an island set in the middle of the wide river. On a sandback to our left, four hippopotamuses and their young plodded along in our same direction. Just then, in my great tiredness and discouragement, the phrase “Reverence for Life” struck me like a flash. As far as I knew, it was a phrase I had never heard nor ever read. I realized at once that it carried within itself the solution to the problem that had been torturing me. Now I knew that a system of values which concerns itself only with our relationship to other people is incomplete and therefore lacking in power for good. Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need us.
  • I am life which wants to live admidst of lives that want to live.
  • Those who thank God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience.
  • Whoever has looked into the eyes of Jesus as he appears to us in his words knows that true happiness consists of service to this great One and his Spirit — and a life offerred to his work. Those who accept this mode of life, who know how to live it, become brothers and sisters.
  • The man who dares to live his life with death before his eyes, the man who receives life back bit by bit and lives as though it did not belong to him by right but has been bestowed on him as a gift, the man who has such freedom and peace of mind that he has overcome death in his thoughts — such a man believes in eternal life because it is already his, it is a present experience, and he already benefits from its peace and joy. He cannot describe this experience in words. He may not be able to conform his view with the traditional picture of it. But one thing he knows for certain: Something within us does not pass away, something goes on living and working wherever the kingdom of the spirit is present. It is already working and living within us, because in our hearts we have been able to reach life by overcoming death.
  • I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. But there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of which you won’t realize until it will be too late.
  • Don’t let your hearts grow numb. Stay alert. It is your soul which matters.
  • Not less strong than the will to truth must be the will to sincerity. Only an age, which can show the courage of sincerity, can possess truth, which works as a spiritual force within it.
  • Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men but that of the whole creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to withdraw myself. It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world.
  • Profound love demands a deep conception and out of this develops reverence for the mystery of life. It brings us close to all beings, to the poorest and smallest as well as all others.
  • The only way out of today’s misery is for people to become worthy of each other’s trust.

Misattributed

  • I have given my life to try to alleviate the sufferings of Africa. There is something that all white men who have lived here like I must learn and know: that these individuals are a sub-race. They have neither the intellectual, mental, or emotional abilities to equate or to share equally with white men in any function of our civilization. I have given my life to try to bring them the advantages which our civilization must offer, but I have become well aware that we must retain this status: the superior and they the inferior. For whenever a white man seeks to live among them as their equals they will either destroy him or devour him. And they will destroy all of his work. Let white men from anywhere in the world, who would come to Africa, remember that you must continually retain this status; you the master and they the inferior like children that you would help or teach. Never fraternize with them as equals. Never accept them as your social equals or they will devour you. They will destroy you.
    • This has usually been presented as something “said shortly before his death” without any definite source, but appears to be entirely spurious. The “FAQ about the life and thoughts of Albert Schweitzer” asserts “This quote is utterly false and is an outrageously inaccurate picture of Dr. Schweitzer’s view of Africans. Dr. Schweitzer never said or wrote anything remotely like this. It does NOT appear in the book African Notebook.” This refers to some citations of it being from Afrikanische Geschichten (1938), which was translated as From My African Notebook (1939) by Mrs. C. E. B Russell.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albert Schweitzer, OM (14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German—and later French—theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary in Africa, also known for his interpretive life of Jesus. He was born in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire, considered himself French and wrote in French. Schweitzer, a Lutheran, challenged both the secular view of Jesus as depicted by historical-critical methodology current at his time in certain academic circles, as well as the traditional Christian view.

He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life“,[1] expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, now in Gabon, west central Africa (then French Equatorial Africa). As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ reform movement (Orgelbewegung).

Education

Albert Schweitzer’s birthplace, Kaysersberg.

Born in Kaysersberg, Schweitzer spent his childhood in the village of Gunsbach, Alsace (German: Günsbach), where his father, the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor of the EPCAAL, taught him how to play music.[2] Long disputed, the predominantly German-speaking region of Alsace or Elsaß was annexed by Germany in 1871; after World War I, it was reintegrated into France. The tiny village is home to the Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer (AIAS).[3] The medieval parish church of Gunsbach was shared by the Protestant and Catholic congregations, which held their prayers in different areas at different times on Sundays. This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War. Schweitzer, the pastor’s son, grew up in this exceptional environment of religious tolerance, and developed the belief that true Christianity should always work towards a unity of faith and purpose.[4]

Schweitzer’s home language was an Alsatian dialect of German. At Mulhouse high school he got his “Abitur” (the certificate at the end of secondary education), in 1893. He studied organ there from 1885 to 1893 with Eugène Munch, organist of the Protestant Temple, who inspired Schweitzer with his profound enthusiasm for the music of German composer Richard Wagner.[5] In 1893 he played for the French organist Charles-Marie Widor (at Saint-Sulpice, Paris), for whom Johann Sebastian Bach‘s organ-music contained a mystic sense of the eternal. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship was begun.[6]

From 1893 he studied Protestant theology at the Kaiser Wilhelm Universität of Straßburg. There he also received instruction in piano and counterpoint from professor Gustav Jacobsthal, and associated closely with Ernest Munch (the brother of his former teacher), organist of St William church, who was also a passionate admirer of J.S. Bach’s music.[7] Schweitzer served his one year compulsory military service in 1894. Schweitzer saw many operas of Richard Wagner at Straßburg (under Otto Lohse), and in 1896 he pulled together the funds to visit Bayreuth to see Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal, and was deeply affected. In 1898 he went back to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, and to study in earnest with Widor. Here he often met with the elderly Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He also studied piano at that time with Marie Jaëll.[8] He completed his theology degree in 1899 and published his PhD thesis at the University of Tübingen in 1899.[9]

Music

Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic pipe organs. With theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation in J. S. Bach‘s religious music. In 1899 he astonished Widor by explaining figures and motifs in Bach’s Chorale Preludes as painter-like tonal and rhythmic imagery illustrating themes from the words of the hymns on which they were based. They were works of devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas, conceived visually. (Widor had not grown up with knowledge of the old Lutheran hymns.)[10]

The exposition of these ideas, encouraged by Widor and Munch, became Schweitzer’s next task, and appeared in the masterly study J. S. Bach: Le Musicien-Poète, written in French and published in 1905. There was great demand for a German edition, but, instead of translating it, he decided to rewrite it.[11] The result was two volumes (J. S. Bach), which were published in 1908 and translated in English by Ernest Newman in 1911.[12] During its preparation he became a friend of Cosima Wagner (then in Strasbourg), with whom he had many theological and musical conversations, exploring his view of Bach’s descriptive music, and playing the major Chorale Preludes for her at the Temple Neuf.[13] Schweitzer’s interpretative approach greatly influenced the modern understanding of Bach’s music. He became a welcome guest at the Wagners’ home, Wahnfried.[14] He also corresponded with composer Clara Faisst and the two became good friends.[15]

The Choir Organ at St. Thomas, Strasbourg, designed in 1905 on principles defined by Albert Schweitzer.

His pamphlet “The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France” (1906,[16] republished with an appendix on the state of the organ-building industry in 1927) effectively launched the 20th century Orgelbewegung, which turned away from romantic extremes and rediscovered baroque principles—although this sweeping reform movement in organ building eventually went further than Schweitzer himself had intended. In 1909 he addressed the Third Congress of the International Society of Music at Vienna on the subject. Having circulated a questionnaire among players and organ-builders in several European countries, he produced a very considered report.[17] This provided the basis for the International Regulations for Organ Building. He envisaged instruments in which the French late-romantic full-organ sound should work integrally with the English and German romantic reed pipes, and with the classical Alsace Silbermann organ resources and baroque flue pipes, all in registers regulated (by stops) to access distinct voices in fugue or counterpoint capable of combination without loss of distinctness: different voices singing together in the same music.

Schweitzer also studied piano under Isidor Philipp, head of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory.

In 1905 Widor and Schweitzer were among the six musicians who founded the Paris Bach Society, a choir dedicated to performing J.S. Bach’s music, for whose concerts Schweitzer took the organ part regularly until 1913. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orféo Català at Barcelona and often travelled there for that purpose.[10] He and Widor collaborated on a new edition of Bach’s organ works, with detailed analysis of each work in three languages (English, French, German). Schweitzer, who insisted that the score should show Bach’s notation with no additional markings, wrote the commentaries for the Preludes and Fugues, and Widor those for the Sonatas and Concertos: six volumes were published in 1912–14. Three more, to contain the Chorale Preludes with Schweitzer’s analyses, were to be worked on in Africa: but these were never completed, perhaps because for him they were inseparable from his evolving theological thought.[18]

On departure for Lambaréné in 1913 he was presented with a pedal piano, a piano with pedal attachments (to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard).[19] Built especially for the tropics, it was delivered by river in a huge dug-out canoe to Lambaréné, packed in a zinc-lined case. At first he regarded his new life as a renunciation of his art, and fell out of practise: but after some time he resolved to study and learn by heart the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor, César Franck, and Max Reger systematically.[20] It became his custom to play during the lunch hour and on Sunday afternoons. Schweitzer’s pedal piano was still in use at Lambaréné in 1946.[21] And according to a visitor, Dr. Gaine Cannon, of Balsam Grove, N.C., the old, dilapidated piano-organ was still being played by Dr. Schweitzer in 1962 and stories told of “his fingers were still lively” on the old instrument at 88 years of age.

Sir Donald Tovey dedicated his conjectural completion of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (Art of the Fugue) to Schweitzer.

Dr Schweitzer’s recordings of organ-music, and his innovative recording technique, are described separately below.

One of his notable pupils was conductor and composer Hans Münch.

Theology

Saint-Nicolas, Strasbourg

In 1899 Schweitzer became a deacon at the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasburg. In 1900, with the completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as curate, and that year he witnessed the Oberammergau Passion Play. In the following year he became provisional Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas (from which he had just graduated), and in 1903 his appointment was made permanent.[22]

Since the mid-1890s Schweitzer had formed the inner resolve that it was needful for him as a Christian to repay to the world something for the happiness which it had given to him, and he determined that he would pursue his younger interests until the age of thirty and then give himself to serving humanity, with Jesus serving as his example.[citation needed]

In 1906 he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung (“History of Life-of-Jesus research”). This book, which established his reputation, was first translated into English by William Montgomery and published in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Under this title the book became famous in the English-speaking world. A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: but this revised edition did not appear in English until 2001.[23]

In The Quest, Schweitzer reviewed all former work on the “historical Jesus” back to the late 18th century. He showed that the image of Jesus had changed with the times and outlooks of the various authors, and gave his own synopsis and interpretation of the previous century’s findings. He maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus’ own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology. Schweitzer, however, writes:

The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the kingdom of God, who founded the kingdom of heaven upon earth and died to give his work its final consecration never existed. He is a figure designed by rationalism, endowed with life by liberalism, and clothed by modern theology in a historical garb. This image has not been destroyed from outside; it has fallen to pieces …[24]

Sources

Schweitzer found many New Testament references to apparently show that 1st-century Christians believed literally in the imminent fulfillment of the promise of the World’s ending, within the lifetime of Jesus’s original followers,.[25] He noted that in the gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks of a “tribulation”, with his coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (St Mark), and states when it will happen: “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (St Matthew, 24:34) (or, “have taken place” (Luke 21:32)): “All these things shall come upon this generation” (Matthew 23:36). “There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28) (or, “until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power” (Mark 9:1); or, “till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27).)

Schweitzer notes that St. Paul apparently believed in the immediacy of the “Second Coming of Jesus”: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4.17). St Paul spoke of the ‘last times’: “Brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none” (1 Corinthians 7:29); “God … Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2). Similarly in St Peter: “Christ .. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20), and “But the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). “Surely I come quickly” (Revelation 22:20). (Again, note N.T. Wright, ibid.)

Schweitzer writes that modern Christians of many kinds deliberately ignore the urgent message (so powerfully proclaimed by Jesus during the 1st century) of an imminent end of the world. Each new generation hopes to be the one to see the world destroyed, another world coming, and the saints governing a new earth. Schweitzer concludes that the 1st century theology, originating in the lifetimes of those who first followed Jesus, is both incompatible with, and far removed from, those beliefs later made official by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 CE.[citation needed]

Aftermath

The publication of The Quest of the Historical Jesus, effectively put a stop to decades of work on the Historical Jesus as a sub-discipline of New Testament studies, what was later called the “First Quest.” This work resumed however with the development of the so-called “Second Quest”, among whose notable exponents was Rudolf Bultmann‘s student Ernst Käsemann.[citation needed]

Schweitzer established his reputation further as a New Testament scholar with other theological studies including The Psychiatric Study of Jesus (1911); and his two studies of the apostle Paul, Paul and his Interpreters, and the more complete The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1930). This examined the eschatological beliefs of Paul and (through this) the message of the New Testament.[citation needed]

Medicine

At the age of 30, in 1905, Schweitzer answered the call of “The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris” which was looking for a medical doctor. However, the committee of this French Missionary Society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be “incorrect”.[26] He could easily have obtained a place in a German Evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned his post and re-entered the University as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of a Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labor of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching, and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.

Even in his study of medicine, and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. In June 1912, he married Helene Bresslau, daughter of the Jewish pan-Germanist historian Harry Bresslau.

In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a medical doctor to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society’s mission at Lambaréné on the Ogooué river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa (then a French colony). He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted. Through concerts and other fund-raising, he was ready to equip a small hospital.[27] In Spring 1913, he and his wife and son Peter, set off to establish a hospital (Albert Schweitzer Hospital) near an already existing mission post. The site was nearly 200 miles (14 days by raft[28]) upstream from the mouth of the Ogooué at Port Gentil (Cape Lopez) (and so accessible to external communications), but downstream of most tributaries, so that internal communications within Gabon converged towards Lambaréné.

The watershed of the Ogooé occupies most of Gabon. Lambaréné is marked.

In the first nine months, he and his wife had about 2,000 patients to examine, some travelling many days and hundreds of kilometers to reach him. In addition to injuries, he was often treating severe sandflea and crawcraw sores, framboesia (yaws), tropical eating sores, heart disease, tropical dysentery, tropical malaria, sleeping sickness, leprosy, fevers, strangulated hernias, necrosis, abdominal tumours and chronic constipation and nicotine poisoning, while also attempting to deal with deliberate poisonings, fetishism and fear of cannibalism among the Mbahouin.

Schweitzer’s wife, Helene Schweitzer, was an anaesthetist for surgical operations. After briefly occupying a shed formerly used as a chicken hut, in autumn 1913 they built their first hospital of corrugated iron, with two 13-foot rooms (consulting room and operating theatre) and with a dispensary and sterilising room in spaces below the broad eaves. The waiting room and dormitory (42 by 20 feet) were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a 30-yard path leading from the hospital to the landing-place. The Schweitzers had their own bungalow and employed as their assistant Joseph, a French-speaking Galoa (Mpongwe) who first came as a patient.[29]

When World War I broke out in summer of 1914, Schweitzer and his wife, Germans in a French colony, were put under supervision at Lambaréné by the French military, where Schweitzer continued his work.[30] In 1917, exhausted by over four years’ work and by tropical anaemia, they were taken to Bordeaux and interned first in Garaison and then from March 1918 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. In July 1918, after being transferred to his home in Alsace, he was a free man again. At this time Schweitzer, born a German citizen, had his parents’ former (pre-1871) French citizenship reinstated and became a French citizen. Then, working as medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strasbourg, he advanced his project on The Philosophy of Civilization, which had occupied his mind since 1900. By 1920, his health recovering, he was giving organ recitals and doing other fund-raising work to repay borrowings and raise funds for returning to Gabon. In 1922, he delivered the Dale Memorial Lectures in Oxford University, and from these in the following year appeared Volumes I and II of his great work, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics. The two remaining volumes, on The World-View of Reverence for Life and a fourth on the Civilized State, were never completed.

In 1924, he returned without his wife but with an Oxford undergraduate, Noel Gillespie, as assistant. Everything was heavily decayed, and building and doctoring progressed together for months. He now had salvarsan for treating syphilitic ulcers and framboesia. Additional medical staff, nurse (Miss) Kottmann and Dr. Victor Nessmann,[31] joined him in 1924, and Dr. Mark Lauterberg in 1925; the growing hospital was manned by native orderlies. Later Dr. Trensz replaced Nessmann, and Martha Lauterberg and Hans Muggenstorm joined them. Joseph also returned. In 1925-6, new hospital buildings were constructed, and also a ward for white patients, so that the site became like a village. The onset of famine and a dysentery epidemic created fresh problems. Much of the building work was carried out with the help of local people and patients. Drug advances for sleeping sickness included Germanin and tryparsamide. Trensz conducted experiments showing that the non-amoebic strain of dysentery was caused by a paracholera vibrion (facultative anaerobic bacteria). With the new hospital built and the medical team established, Schweitzer returned to Europe in 1927, this time leaving a functioning hospital at work.

He was there again from 1929 to 1932. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. There was a further period of work in 1935. In January 1937, he returned again to Lambaréné and continued working there throughout World War II.

Controversy and criticism

Schweitzer’s views

Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus’ call to become “fishers of men” but also as a small recompense for the historic guilt of European colonizers:[32]

“Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that in the course of centuries they [the coloured peoples] have suffered at the hands of Europeans? … If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible.”

Schweitzer was one of colonialism’s harshest critics. In a sermon that he preached on 6 January 1905, before he had told anyone of his plans to dedicate the rest of his life to work as a doctor in Africa, he said:[33]

“Our culture divides people into two classes: civilized men, a title bestowed on the persons who do the classifying; and others, who have only the human form, who may perish or go to the dogs for all the ‘civilized men’ care.

“Oh, this ‘noble’ culture of ours! It speaks so piously of human dignity and human rights and then disregards this dignity and these rights of countless millions and treads them underfoot, only because they live overseas or because their skins are of different color or because they cannot help themselves. This culture does not know how hollow and miserable and full of glib talk it is, how common it looks to those who follow it across the seas and see what it has done there, and this culture has no right to speak of personal dignity and human rights …

“I will not enumerate all the crimes that have been committed under the pretext of justice. People robbed native inhabitants of their land, made slaves of them, let loose the scum of mankind upon them. Think of the atrocities that were perpetrated upon people made subservient to us, how systematically we have ruined them with our alcoholic ‘gifts’, and everything else we have done … We decimate them, and then, by the stroke of a pen, we take their land so they have nothing left at all …

“If all this oppression and all this sin and shame are perpetrated under the eye of the German God, or the American God, or the British God, and if our states do not feel obliged first to lay aside their claim to be ‘Christian’—then the name of Jesus is blasphemed and made a mockery. And the Christianity of our states is blasphemed and made a mockery before those poor people. The name of Jesus has become a curse, and our Christianity—yours and mine—has become a falsehood and a disgrace, if the crimes are not atoned for in the very place where they were instigated. For every person who committed an atrocity in Jesus’ name, someone must step in to help in Jesus’ name; for every person who robbed, someone must bring a replacement; for everyone who cursed, someone must bless.

“And now, when you speak about missions, let this be your message: We must make atonement for all the terrible crimes we read of in the newspapers. We must make atonement for the still worse ones, which we do not read about in the papers, crimes that are shrouded in the silence of the jungle night …”

Criticism of Schweitzer

Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being paternalistic, colonialist and racist in his attitude towards Africans, and in some ways his views did differ from that of many liberals and other critics of colonialism. For instance, he thought Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer as having said in 1960:[34]

“No society can go from the primeval directly to an industrial state without losing the leavening that time and an agricultural period allow.”

Chinua Achebe has quoted Schweitzer as saying: “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother,”[35] which Achebe criticized him for, though Achebe seems to acknowledge that Schweitzer’s use of the word “brother” at all was, for a European of the early 20th century, an unusual expression of human solidarity between whites and blacks. Schweitzer was more likely speaking in terms of modern civilization than of class relationship of man; this would be consistent with his later statement that “The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed.”,[36] and his discussion of the modernization of “primeval” societies. Later in life he became more convinced that “modern civilization” was actually inferior to or the same as previous cultures in terms of morality.

The journalist James Cameron visited Lambaréné in 1953 (when Schweitzer was 78) and found significant flaws in the practices and attitudes of Schweitzer and his staff. The hospital suffered from squalor and was without modern amenities, and Schweitzer had little contact with the local people.[37] Cameron did not make public what he had seen at the time: according to a recent BBC dramatisation,[38] he made the unusual journalistic decision to withhold the story, and resisted the expressed wish of his employers to publish an exposé.

American journalist John Gunther also visited Lambaréné in the 1950s and reported Schweitzer’s patronizing attitude towards Africans. He also noted the lack of Africans trained to be skilled workers.[39] After three decades in Africa Schweitzer still depended on Europe for nurses. By comparison, his contemporary Sir Albert Cook in Uganda had been training nurses and midwives since the 1910s and had published a manual of midwifery in the local language of Luganda.[40]

Reverence for life

Main article: Reverence for Life

Schweitzer in 1955

The keynote of Schweitzer’s personal philosophy (which he considered to be his greatest contribution to mankind) was the idea of Reverence for Life (“Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben“). He thought that Western civilization was decaying because it had abandoned affirmation of life as its ethical foundation.

In the Preface to Civilization and Ethics (1923) he argued that Western philosophy from Descartes to Kant had set out to explain the objective world expecting that humanity would be found to have a special meaning within it. But no such meaning was found, and the rational, life-affirming optimism of the Age of Enlightenment began to evaporate. A rift opened between this world-view, as material knowledge, and the life-view, understood as Will, expressed in the pessimist philosophies from Schopenhauer onward. Scientific materialism (advanced by Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin) portrayed an objective world process devoid of ethics, entirely an expression of the will-to-live.

Schweitzer wrote, “True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness, and this may be formulated as follows: ‘I am life which wills to live, and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live.'”[41] In nature one form of life must always prey upon another. However, human consciousness holds an awareness of, and sympathy for, the will of other beings to live. An ethical human strives to escape from this contradiction so far as possible.

Though we cannot perfect the endeavour we should strive for it: the will-to-live constantly renews itself, for it is both an evolutionary necessity and a spiritual phenomenon. Life and love are rooted in this same principle, in a personal spiritual relationship to the universe. Ethics themselves proceed from the need to respect the wish of other beings to exist as one does towards oneself. Even so, Schweitzer found many instances in world religions and philosophies in which the principle was denied, not least in the European Middle Ages, and in the Indian Brahminic philosophy.

For Schweitzer, mankind had to accept that objective reality is ethically neutral. It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to volition or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. Mankind had to choose to create the moral structures of civilization: the world-view must derive from the life-view, not vice-versa. Respect for life, overcoming coarser impulses and hollow doctrines, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity.[42]

Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. According to some authors, Schweitzer’s thought, and specifically his development of reverence for life, was influenced by Indian religious thought and in particular the Jain principle of ahimsa, or non-violence[43] Albert Schweitzer has noted the contribution of Indian influence in his book Indian Thought and Its Development:[44]

The laying down of the commandment to not kill and to not damage is one of the greatest events in the spiritual history of mankind. Starting from its principle, founded on world and life denial, of abstention from action, ancient Indian thought – and this is a period when in other respects ethics have not progressed very far – reaches the tremendous discovery that ethics know no bounds. So far as we know, this is for the first time clearly expressed by Jainism.

Later life

The Schweitzer house and Museum at Königsfeld in the Black Forest.

After the birth of their daughter (Rhena Schweitzer Miller), Albert’s wife, Helene Schweitzer was no longer able to live in Lambaréné owing to her health. In 1923 the family moved to Königsfeld im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, where he was building a house for the family. This house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum.[45]

Albert Schweitzer’s house at Gunsbach, now a museum and archive.

Albert Schweitzer Memorial and Museum in Weimar (1984)

From 1939–48 he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to go back to Europe because of the war. Three years after the end of World War II, in 1948, he returned for the first time to Europe and kept traveling back and forth (and once to the USA) as long as he was able. During his return visits to his home village of Gunsbach, Schweitzer continued to make use of the family house, which after his death became an Archive and Museum to his life and work. His life was portrayed in the 1952 movie Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer, starring Pierre Fresnay as Albert Schweitzer and Jeanne Moreau as his nurse Marie. Schweitzer inspired actor Hugh O’Brian when O’Brian visited in Africa. O’Brian returned to the United States and founded the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY).

Albert Schweitzer Monument in Wagga Wagga, Australia

The Nobel Peace Prize of 1952 was awarded to Dr Albert Schweitzer. His “The Problem of Peace” lecture is considered one of the best speeches ever given. From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. In 1957 and 1958 he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo which were published in Peace or Atomic War. In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his “Declaration of Conscience” speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons. He ended his speech, saying:[46]

“The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for.”

Weeks prior to his death, an American film crew was allowed to visit Schweitzer and Drs. Muntz and Friedman, both Holocaust survivors, to record his work and daily life at the hospital. The film The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer, narrated by Henry Fonda, was produced by Warner Brothers and aired once. It resides in their vault today in deteriorating condition. Although several attempts have been made to restore and re-air the film, all access has been denied.[citation needed]

In 1955 he was made an honorary member of the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II.[47] He was also a chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon. His grave, on the banks of the Ogooué River, is marked by a cross he made himself.

His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre. Her father, Charles Schweitzer, was the older brother of Albert Schweitzer’s father, Louis Théophile.[48]

Schweitzer was a vegetarian.[49][50]

The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 by Schweitzer to unite U.S. supporters in filling the gap in support for his Hospital when his European supply lines was cut off by war, and continues to support the Lambaréné Hospital today. Schweitzer, however, considered his ethic of Reverence for Life, not his Hospital, his most important legacy, saying that his Lambaréné Hospital was just “my own improvisation on the theme of Reverence for Life. Everyone can have their own Lambaréné.” Today ASF helps large numbers of young Americans in health-related professional fields find or create “their own Lambaréné” in the U.S. or internationally. ASF selects and supports nearly 250 new U.S. and Africa Schweitzer Fellows each year from over 100 of the leading U.S. schools of medicine, nursing, public health, and every other health-related field (including music, law, and divinity), helping launch them on lives of Schweitzer-spirited service. The peer-supporting lifelong network of “Schweitzer Fellows for Life” numbered over 2,000 members in 2008, and is growing by nearly 1,000 every four years. Nearly 150 of these Schweitzer Fellows have served at the Hospital in Lambaréné, for three-month periods during their last year of medical school.[51]

International Albert Schweitzer Prize

The prize was first awarded on 29 May 2011 to Eugen Drewermann and the physician couple Rolf and Raphaela Maibach in Königsfeld im Schwarzwald, where Schweitzer’s former residence now houses the Albert-Schweitzer Museum.[52]

Sound recordings

Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. During 1934 and 1935 he resided in Britain, delivering the Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh University, and those on Religion in Modern Civilization at Oxford and London. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for HMV on the organ of the old Queen’s Hall in London. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh. In mid-December 1935 he began to record for Columbia Records on the organ of All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower (London).[53] Then at his suggestion the sessions were transferred to the church of Ste Aurélie in Strasbourg, on a mid-18th century organ by Johann Andreas Silbermann (brother of Gottfried), an organ-builder greatly revered by Bach, which had been restored by the Lorraine organ-builder Frédéric Härpfer shortly before the First World War. These recordings were made in the course of a fortnight in October 1936.[54]

The Schweitzer Technique

Schweitzer developed a technique for recording the performances of Bach’s music. Known as “The Schweitzer Technique”, it is a slight improvement on what is commonly known as mid-side. The mid-side sees a figure-8 microphone pointed off-axis, perpendicular to the sound source. Then a single cardioid microphone is placed on axis, bisecting the figure-8 pattern. The signal from the figure-8 is mult-ed, panned hard left and right, one of the signals being flipped out of polarity. In the Schweitzer method, the figure-8 is replaced by two small diaphragm condenser microphones pointed directly away from each other. The information that each capsule collects is unique, unlike the identical out-of-polarity information generated from the figure-8 in a regular mid-side. The on-axis microphone is often a large diaphragm condenser. The technique has since been used to record many modern instruments.[citation needed]

Columbia recordings

Altogether his early Columbia discs included 25 records of Bach and eight of César Franck. The Bach titles were mainly distributed as follows:

  • Queen’s Hall: Organ Prelude and Fugue in E minor (Edition Peters[55] Vol 3, 10); Herzlich thut mich verlangen (BWV 727); Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (Vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)).[56]
  • All Hallows: Prelude and Fugue in C major; Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (the Great); Prelude and Fugue in G major; Prelude and Fugue in F minor; Little Fugue in G minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor.[57]
  • Ste Aurélie: Prelude and Fugue in C minor; Prelude and Fugue in E minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Chorale Preludes: Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele (Peters Vol 7, 49 (Leipzig 4)); O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß (Vol 5, 45); O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig (Vol 7, 48 (Leipzig 6)); Christus, der uns selig macht (Vol 5, 8); Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stand (Vol 5, 9); An Waßerflüßen Babylon (Vol 6, 12b); Christum wir wollen loben schon (Vol 5, 6); Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (Vol 5, app 5); Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin (Vol 5, 4); Sei gegrüßet, Jesu gütig (Var 11, Vol 5, app. 3); Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (Vol 6, 31 (Leipzig 15)); Christ lag in Todesbanden (Vol 5, 5); Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag (Vol 5, 15).[58][59]

Gunsbach parish church, where the later recordings were made

Later recordings were made at Parish church, Günsbach:

  • Fugue in A minor (Peters, Vol 2, 8); Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (Great) (Vol 2, 4); Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major (Vol 3, 8).[60]
  • Prelude in C major (Vol 4, 1); Prelude in D major (Vol 4, 3); Canzona in D minor (Vol 4, 10) (with Mendelssohn, Sonata in D minor op 65.6).[61]
  • Chorale-Preludes: O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß (1st and 2nd vsns, Peters Vol 5, 45); Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit) (vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)); Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Vol 5, 30); Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Vol 5, 17); Herzlich tut mich verlangen (Vol 5, 27); Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (vol 7, 45 (BWV 659a)).[62]

The above were released in the United States of America as Columbia Masterworks boxed set SL-175.

Philips recordings

  • J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536; Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 534; Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538.[63]
  • J. S. Bach: Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582; Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533; Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543; Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.[64]
  • César Franck: Organ Chorales, no. 1 in E Major; no. 2 in B minor; no. 3 in A minor.[65]

Bertrand Russell, Made Common Sense

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~~~

Bertrand Russell
Born 18 May 1872
Trellech, Monmouthshire,[1] United Kingdom
Died 2 February 1970 (aged 97)
Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales, United Kingdom
Residence United Kingdom
Nationality British
Awards De Morgan Medal (1932)
Nobel Prize in Literature (1950)
Kalinga Prize (1957)
Era 20th-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Analytic philosophy
Main interests
Notable ideas
Influences
Influenced
Signature Bertrand Russell Signature.jpg

WikiQuotes

Youth

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

Cambridge is one of the few places where one can talk unlimited nonsense and generalities without anyone pulling one up or confronting one with them when one says just the opposite the next day.

Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

  • I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness.
    • Greek Exercises (1888). At the age of fifteen, Russell used to write down his reflections in this book, for fear that his people should find out what he was thinking.
  • I should like to believe my people’s religion, which was just what I could wish, but alas, it is impossible. I have really no religion, for my God, being a spirit shown merely by reason to exist, his properties utterly unknown, is no help to my life. I have nor the parson’s comfortable doctrine that every good action has its reward, and every sin is forgiven. My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.
    • Greek Exercises (1888), written two days after his sixteenth birthday.

1890s

  • I am looking forward very much to getting back to Cambridge, and being able to say what I think and not to mean what I say: two things which at home are impossible. Cambridge is one of the few places where one can talk unlimited nonsense and generalities without anyone pulling one up or confronting one with them when one says just the opposite the next day.
    • Letter to Alys Pearsall Smith (1893); published in The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell, Volume 1: The Private Years (1884–1914), edited by Nicholas Griffin.
  • Thee will find out in time that I have a great love of professing vile sentiments, I don’t know why, unless it springs from long efforts to avoid priggery.
    • Letter to Alys Pearsall Smith (1894). Smith was a Quaker, thus the archaic use of “Thee” in this and other letters to her.
  • Thee might observe incidentally that if the state paid for child-bearing it might and ought to require a medical certificate that the parents were such as to give a reasonable result of a healthy child – this would afford a very good inducement to some sort of care for the race, and gradually as public opinion became educated by the law, it might react on the law and make that more stringent, until one got to some state of things in which there would be a little genuine care for the race, instead of the present haphazard higgledy-piggledy ways.
    • Letter to Alys Pearsall Smith (1894); published in The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell, Volume 1: The Private Years (1884–1914), edited by Nicholas Griffin. It should be noted that in his talk of “the race”, he is referring to “the human race”. Smith married Russell in December 1894; they divorced in 1921.

1900s

  • Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true … If our hypothesis is about anything, and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate.
    • Recent Work on the Principles of Mathematics, published in International Monthly, vol. 4 (1901).
  • [Unlike the] utilitarian… I judge pleasure and pain to be of small importance compared to knowledge, the appreciation and contemplation of beauty, and a certain intrinsic excellence of mind which, apart from its practical effects, appears to me to deserve the name of virtue. [For] many years it seemed to me perfectly self-evident that pleasure is the only good and pain the only evil. Now, however, the opposite seems to me self-evident.
    What first turned me away from utilitarianism was the persuasion that I myself ought to pursue philosophy, although I had (and have still) no doubt that by doing economics and the theory of politics I could add more to human happiness. It appeared to me that the dignity of which human existence is capable is not attainable by devotion to the mechanism of life, and that unless the contemplation of eternal things is preserved, mankind will become no better than well-fed pigs. But I do not believe that such contemplation on the whole tends to happiness. It gives moments of delight, but these are outweighed by years of effort and depression.

    • Letter to Gilbert Murray, April 3, 1902.
  • It seems to me now that mathematics is capable of an artistic excellence as great as that of any music, perhaps greater; not because the pleasure it gives (although very pure) is comparable, either in intensity or in the number of people who feel it, to that of music, but because it gives in absolute perfection that combination, characteristic of great art, of godlike freedom, with the sense of inevitable destiny; because, in fact, it constructs an ideal world where everything is perfect and yet true.
    • Letter to Gilbert Murray, April 3, 1902.
  • Again, in regard to actual human existence, I have found myself giving honour to those who feel its tragedy, who think truly about Death, who are oppressed by ignoble things even when they are inevitable; yet these qualities appear to me to militate against happiness, not only to the possessors, but to all whom they affect. And, generally, the best life seems to me one which thinks truly and feels greatly about human things, and which, in addition, contemplates the world of beauty and of abstract truths. This last is, perhaps, my most anti-utilitarian opinion: I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist – all that is commonly called Science – to be of very slight value compared to the knowledge which, like philosophy and mathematics, is concerned with ideal and eternal objects, and is freed from this miserable world which God has made.
    [Utilitarians] have been strangely anxious to prove that the life of the pig is not happier than that of the philosopher – a most dubious proposition…

    • Letter to Gilbert Murray, April 3, 1902.
  • What a monstrous thing that a University should teach journalism! I thought that was only done at Oxford. This respect for the filthy multitude is ruining civilisation.
    • Letter to Lucy Martin Donnely, July 6, 1902.
  • Only in thought is man a God; in action and desire we are the slaves of circumstance.
    • Letter to Lucy Donnely, November 25, 1902.
  • Philosophy seems to me on the whole a rather hopeless business.
    • Letter to Gilbert Murray, December 28, 1902.
  • Pure Mathematics is the class of all propositions of the form “p implies q,” where p and q are propositions containing one or more variables, the same in the two propositions, and neither p nor q contains any constants except logical constants. And logical constants are all notions definable in terms of the following: Implication, the relation of a term to a class of which it is a member, the notion of such that, the notion of relation, and such further notions as may be involved in the general notion of propositions of the above form. In addition to these, mathematics uses a notion which is not a constituent of the propositions which it considers, namely the notion of truth.
  • The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists in the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.
    • Principles of Mathematics (1903), Ch. I: Definition of Pure Mathematics, p. 5.
  • I may as well say at once that I do not distinguish between inference and deduction. What is called induction appears to me to be either disguised deduction or a mere method of making plausible guesses.
    • Principles of Mathematics (1903), Ch. II: Symbolic Logic, p. 11.
  • What does not exist must be something, or it would be meaningless to deny its existence; and hence we need the concept of being, as that which belongs even to the non-existent.
    • Principles of Mathematics (1903), p. 450.
  • I have been merely oppressed by the weariness and tedium and vanity of things lately: nothing stirs me, nothing seems worth doing or worth having done: the only thing that I strongly feel worth while would be to murder as many people as possible so as to diminish the amount of consciousness in the world. These times have to be lived through: there is nothing to be done with them.
    • Letter to Gilbert Murray, March 21, 1903.
  • It is true that numerous instances are not always necessary to establish a law, provided the essential and relevant circumstances can easily be disentangled. But, in history, so many circumstances of a small and accidental nature are relevant, that no broad and simple uniformities are possible. Where our main endeavour is to discover general laws, we regard these as intrinsically more valuable than any of the facts which they inter-connect. In astronomy, the law of gravitation is plainly better worth knowing than the position of a particular planet on a particular night, or even on every night throughout a year. There are in the law a splendour and simplicity and sense of mastery which illuminate a mass of otherwise uninteresting details… But in history the matter is far otherwise… Historical facts, many of them, have an intrinsic value, a profound interest on their own account, which makes them worthy of study, quite apart from any possibility of linking them together by means of causal laws.
    • On History (1904).
  • The past alone is truly real: the present is but a painful, struggling birth into the immutable being of what is no longer. Only the dead exist fully. The lives of the living are fragmentary, doubtful, and subject to change; but the lives of the dead are complete, free from the sway of Time, the all but omnipotent lord of the world. Their failures and successes, their hopes and fears, their joys and pains, have become eternal—our efforts cannot now abate one jot of them. Sorrows long buried in the grave, tragedies of which only a fading memory remains, loves immortalized by Death’s hallowing touch these have a power, a magic, an untroubled calm, to which no present can attain. …On the banks of the river of Time, the sad procession of human generations is marching slowly to the grave; in the quiet country of the Past, the march is ended, the tired wanderers rest, and the weeping is hushed.
    • On History (1904)
  • A logical theory may be tested by its capacity for dealing with puzzles, and it is a wholesome plan, in thinking about logic, to stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose as is served by experiments in physical science.
    • “On Denoting“, Mind, Vol. 14, No. 56 (October 1905), pp. 479–493; as reprinted in Logic and Knowledge: Essays, 1901–1950, (1956).
  • All’s well that ends well; which is the epitaph I should put on my tombstone if I were the last man left alive.
    • Letter to Lucy Donnely, April 22, 1906.
  • Take the question whether other people exist. …It is plain that it makes for happiness to believe that they exist – for even the greatest misanthropist would not wish to be deprived of the objects of his hate. Hence the belief that other people exist is, pragmatically, a true belief. But if I am troubled by solipsism, the discovery that a belief in the existence of others is ‘true’ in the pragmatist’s sense is not enough to allay my sense of loneliness: the perception that I should profit by rejecting solipsism is not alone sufficient to make me reject it. For what I desire is not that the belief in solipsism should be false in the pragmatic sense, but that other people should in fact exist. And with the pragmatist’s meaning of truth, these two do not necessarily go together. The belief in solipsism might be false even if I were the only person or thing in the universe.
    • “William James’s Conception of Truth” [1908], published in Philosophical Essays (London, 1910).
  • Ironclads and Maxim guns must be the ultimate arbiters of metaphysical truth.
    • Quoted in The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, Vol. 209 (1909), p. 387.

The Study of Mathematics (1902)

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty.

  • To those who inquire as to the purpose of mathematics, the usual answer will be that it facilitates the making of machines, the travelling from place to place, and the victory over foreign nations, whether in war or commerce. … The reasoning faculty itself is generally conceived, by those who urge its cultivation, as merely a means for the avoidance of pitfalls and a help in the discovery of rules for the guidance of practical life.
  • Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as in poetry.
  • Real life is, to most men, a long second-best, a perpetual compromise between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason knows no compromise, no practical limitations, no barrier to the creative activity embodying in splendid edifices the passionate aspiration after the perfect from which all great work springs. Remote from human passions, remote even from the pitiful facts of nature, the generations have gradually created an ordered cosmos, where pure thought can dwell as in its natural home, and where one, at least, of our nobler impulses can escape from the dreary exile of the actual world.
  • The rules of logic are to mathematics what those of structure are to architecture.
  • Mathematics takes us still further from what is human, into the region of absolute necessity, to which not only the world, but every possible world, must conform.

A Free Man’s Worship (1903)

Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.

  • That Man is the product of causes that had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins – all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.
  • In spite of Death, the mark and seal of the parental control, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine, to criticise, to know, and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the resistless forces that control his outward life.
  • In action, in desire, we must submit perpetually to the tyranny of outside forces; but in thought, in aspiration, we are free, free from our fellowmen, free from the petty planet on which our bodies impotently crawl, free even, while we live, from the tyranny of death.
  • Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.
  • Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
  • The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.
  • The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.
  • Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.

1910s

  • The number of syllables in the English names of finite integers tends to increase as the integers grow larger, and must gradually increase indefinitely, since only a finite number of names can be made with a given finite number of syllables. Hence the names of some integers must consist of at least nineteen syllables, and among these there must be a least. Hence “the least integer not nameable in fewer than nineteen syllables” must denote a definite integer; in fact, it denotes 111, 777. But “the least integer not nameable in fewer than nineteen syllables” is itself a name consisting of eighteen syllables; hence the least integer not nameable in fewer than nineteen syllables can be named in eighteen syllables, which is a contradiction. This contradiction was suggested to us by Mr. G. G. Berry of the Bodleian Library.
  • I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe – because, like Spinoza‘s God, it won’t love us in return.
    • Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell, March, 1912,

      The above proposition is occasionally useful.

      as quoted in Gaither’s Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (2012), p. 1318.

  • Life seems to me essentially passion, conflict, rage… It is only intellect that keeps me sane; perhaps this makes me overvalue intellect against feeling.
    • Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1912, as quoted in Clark The life of Bertrand Russell (1976), p. 174.
  • The above proposition is occasionally useful.
    • Comment after the proof that 1+1=2, completed in Principia Mathematica, Volume II, 1st edition (1912), page 86.
  • When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.
    • Theory of Knowledge (1913).
  • People are said to believe in God, or to disbelieve in Adam and Eve. But in such cases what is believed or disbelieved is that there is an entity answering a certain description. This, which can be believed or disbelieved is quite different from the actual entity (if any) which does answer the description. Thus the matter of belief is, in all cases, different in kind from the matter of sensation or presentation, and error is in no way analogous to hallucination. A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.
    • On the Nature of Acquaintance: Neutral Monism (1914).
  • In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word “experience” have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word. It is to be feared, however, that if the word is avoided the confusions of thought with which it has been associated may persist.
    • On the Nature of Acquaintance: Neutral Monism (1914).
  • Of all evils of war the greatest is the purely spiritual evil: the hatred, the injustice, the repudiation of truth, the artificial conflict.
    • Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 27.
  • No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.
    • Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 70.
  • It seems clear to me that marriage ought to be constituted by children, and relations not involving children ought to be ignored by the law and treated as indifferent by public opinion. It is only through children that relations cease to be a purely private matter.
    • Letter to Ottoline Morrell, January 30, 1916.
  • I don’t care for the applause one gets by saying what others are thinking; I want actually to change people’s thoughts. Power over people’s minds is the main personal desire of my life; and this sort of power is not acquired by saying popular things.
    • Letter to Lucy Martin Donnelly, February 10, 1916.
  • I don’t like the spirit of socialism – I think freedom is the basis of everything.
    • Letter to Constance Malleson (Colette), September 29, 1916.
  • [One] must look into hell before one has any right to speak of heaven.
    • Letter to Colette O’Niel, October 23, 1916; published in The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970, p. 87.
  • I hate the world and almost all the people in it. I hate the Labour Congress and the journalists who send men to be slaughtered, and the fathers who feel a smug pride when their sons are killed, and even the pacifists who keep saying human nature is essentially good, in spite of all the daily proofs to the contrary. I hate the planet and the human race – I am ashamed to belong to such a species.
    • Letter to Colette, December 28, 1916.

      It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.

  • How much good it would do if one could exterminate the human race.
    • A characteristic saying of Russell, reported in a letter of 8 October 1917 to Lady Ottoline Morrell, by Huxley (p. 395); Bibliography of Bertrand Russell (Routledge, 2013).
  • It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
    • Principles of Social Reconstruction (1917).
  • That I, a funny little gesticulating animal on two legs, should stand beneath the stars and declaim in a passion about my rights – it seems so laughable, so out of all proportion. Much better, like Archimedes, to be killed because of absorption in eternal things…
    There is a possibility in human minds of something mysterious as the night-wind, deep as the sea, calm as the stars, and strong as Death, a mystic contemplation, the “intellectual love of God.” Those who have known it cannot believe in wars any longer, or in any kind of hot struggle. If I could give to others what has come to me in this way, I could make them too feel the futility of fighting. But I do not know how to communicate it: when I speak, they stare, applaud, or smile, but do not understand.

    • Letter to Miss Rinder, July 30, 1918.
  • What a queer work the Bible is.
    …Some texts are very funny. Deut. XXIV, 5: “When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.” I should never have guessed “cheer up” was a Biblical expression. Here is another really inspiring text: “Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.” St Paul on marriage: “I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” This has remained the doctrine of the Church to this day. It is clear that the Divine purpose in the text “it is better to marry than to burn” is to make us all feel how very dreadful the torments of Hell must be.

    • Letter to Colette, August 10, 1918.
  • In the visible world, the Milky Way is a tiny fragment; within this fragment, the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot. On this dot, tiny lumps of impure carbon and water, of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties, crawl about for a few years, until they are dissolved again into the elements of which they are compounded.
    • Dreams and Facts (1919).
  • No man is liberated from fear who dare not see his place in the world as it is; no man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness.
    • Dreams and Facts (1919).

The Problems of Philosophy (1912)

Main article: The Problems of Philosophy
  • Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?
  • Philosophy, if it cannot answer so many questions as we could wish, has at least the power of asking questions which increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life.
  • Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

Our Knowledge of the External World (1914)

To realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
  • The conception of the necessary unit of all that is resolves itself into the poverty of the imagination, and a freer logic emancipates us from the straitwaistcoated benevolent institution which idealism palms off as the totality of being.
    • p. 9.
  • The true function of logic … as applied to matters of experience … is analytic rather than constructive; taken a priori, it shows the possibility of hitherto unsuspected alternatives more often than the impossibility of alternatives which seemed prima facie possible. Thus, while it liberates imagination as to what the world may be, it refuses to legislate as to what the world is.
    • p. 8.
  • In fact the opposition of instinct and reason is mainly illusory. Instinct, intuition, or insight is what first leads to the beliefs which subsequent reason confirms or confutes; but the confirmation, where it is possible, consists, in the last analysis, of agreement with other beliefs no less instinctive. Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one. Even in the most purely logical realms, it is insight that first arrives at what is new.
    • p. 21.
  • Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.
    • p. 33.
  • We are thus led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call “hard” data and “soft” data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by “hard” data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by ” soft ” data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.
    • p. 70.
  • Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.
    • p. 167.

Why Men Fight (1917)

  • There are three forces on the side of life which require no exceptional mental endowment, which are not very rare at present, and might be very common under better social institutions. They are love, the instinct of constructiveness, and the joy of life. All three are checked and enfeebled at present by the conditions under which men live—not only the less outwardly fortunate, but also the majority of the well-to-do. Our institutions rest upon injustice and authority: it is only by closing our hearts against sympathy and our minds against truth that we can endure the oppressions and unfairnesses by which we profit. The conventional conception of what constitutes success leads most men to live a life in which their most vital impulses are sacrificed, and the joy of life is lost in listless weariness. Our economic system compels almost all men to carry out the purposes of others rather than their own, making them feel impotent in action and only able to secure a certain modicum of passive pleasure. All these things destroy the vigor of the community, the expansive affections of individuals, and the power of viewing the world generously. All these things are unnecessary and can be ended by wisdom and courage. If they were ended, the impulsive life of men would become wholly different, and the human race might travel towards a new happiness and a new vigor.
    • pp. 18-19.
  • The power of the State may be brought to bear, as it often is in England, through public opinion rather than through the laws. By oratory and the influence of the Press, public opinion is largely created by the State, and a tyrannous public opinion is as great an enemy to liberty as tyrannous laws. If the young man who will not fight finds that he is dismissed from his employment, insulted in the streets, cold-shouldered by his friends, and thrown over with scorn by any woman who may formerly have liked him, he will feel the penalty quite as hard to bear as a death sentence. A free community requires not only legal freedom, but a tolerant public opinion, an absence of that instinctive inquisition into our neighbors’ affairs which, under the guise of upholding a high moral standard, enables good people to indulge unconsciously a disposition to cruelty and persecution. Thinking ill of others is not in itself a good reason for thinking well of ourselves. But so long as this is not recognized, and so long as the State can manufacture public opinion, except in the rare cases where it is revolutionary, public opinion must be reckoned as a definite part of the power of the State.
    • pp. 48-50.
  • Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; yet it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were lord of the universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
    • pp. 178-179.

Political Ideals (1917)

Main article: Political Ideals
  • Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual life. The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible.
  • The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest.

The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
  • An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalization would be just as well founded as the generalization which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.
  • The process of philosophizing, to my mind, consists mainly in passing from those obvious, vague, ambiguous things, that we feel quite sure of, to something precise, clear, definite, which by reflection and analysis we find is involved in the vague thing that we start from, and is, so to speak, the real truth of which that vague thing is a sort of shadow.
  • I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.
  • My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
  • The reason that I call my doctrine logical atomism is because the atoms that I wish to arrive at as the sort of last residue in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. Some of them will be what I call “particulars” – such things as little patches of color or sounds, momentary things – and some of them will be predicates or relations and so on.
  • To understand a name you must be acquainted with the particular of which it is a name.
  • In a logically perfect language, there will be one word and no more for every simple object, and everything that is not simple will be expressed by a combination of words, by a combination derived, of course, from the words for the simple things that enter in, one word for each simple component.

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918)

  • Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • The facts of science, as they appeared to him [Heraclitus], fed the flame in his soul, and in its light, he saw into the depths of the world.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • The theoretical understanding of the world, which is the aim of philosophy, is not a matter of great practical importance to animals, or to savages, or even to most civilized men.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • A process which led from the amœba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress – though whether the amœba would agree with this opinion is not known.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
    • Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic.
  • In science men have discovered an activity of the very highest value in which they are no longer, as in art, dependent for progress upon the appearance of continually greater genius, for in science the successors stand upon the shoulders of their predecessors; where one man of supreme genius has invented a method, a thousand lesser men can apply it.
    • Ch. 2: The Place of Science in a Liberal Education.
  • A life devoted to science is therefore a happy life, and its happiness is derived from the very best sources that are open to dwellers on this troubled and passionate planet.
    • Ch. 2: The Place of Science in a Liberal Education.
  • The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interests of the desire to know—it involves suppression of hopes and fears, loves and hates, and the whole subjective emotional life, until we become subdued to the material, able to see it frankly, without preconceptions, without bias, without any wish except to see it as it is, and without any belief that what it is must be determined by some relation, positive or negative, to what we should like it to be, or to what we can easily imagine it to be.
  • The Calculus required continuity, and continuity was supposed to require the infinitely little; but nobody could discover what the infinitely little might be.
    • Ch. 5: Mathematics and the Metaphysicians.
  • If any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.
    • Ch. 5: Mathematics and the Metaphysicians.
  • Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
    • Ch. 5: Mathematics and the Metaphysicians.
  • An extra-terrestrial philosopher, who had watched a single youth up to the age of twenty-one and had never come across any other human being, might conclude that it is the nature of human beings to grow continually taller and wiser in an indefinite progress towards perfection; and this generalisation would be just as well founded as the generalisation which evolutionists base upon the previous history of this planet.
    • Ch. 6: On the Scientific Method in Philosophy.

      Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for co-operation with oneself.
  • Organic life, we are told, has developed gradually from the protozoon to the philosopher, and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately it is the philosopher, not the protozoon, who gives us this assurance.
    • Ch. 6: On the Scientific Method in Philosophy.
  • Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for co-operation with oneself.
    • Ch. 6: On the Scientific Method in Philosophy.
  • The law of causality, I believe, like mud that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.
    • Ch. 9: On the Notion of Cause.

Proposed Roads To Freedom (1918)

  • The great majority of men and women, in ordinary times, pass through life without ever contemplating or criticising, as a whole, either their own conditions or those of the world at large. They find themselves born into a certain place in society, and they accept what each day brings forth, without any effort of thought beyond what the immediate present requires. Almost as instinctively as the beasts of the field, they seek the satisfaction of the needs of the moment, without much forethought, and without considering that by sufficient effort the whole conditions of their lives could be changed.
    • Introduction, p. 4.
  • My own opinion—which I may as well indicate at the outset—is that pure Anarchism, though it should be the ultimate ideal, to which society should continually approximate, is for the present impossible, and would not survive more than a year or two at most if it were adopted. On the other hand, both Marxian Socialism and Syndicalism, in spite of many drawbacks, seem to me calculated to give rise to a happier and better world than that in which we live. I do not, however, regard either of them as the best practicable system. Marxian Socialism, I fear, would give far too much power to the State, while Syndicalism, which aims at abolishing the State, would, I believe, find itself forced to reconstruct a central authority in order to put an end to the rivalries of different groups of producers. The best practicable system, to my mind, is that of Guild Socialism, which concedes what is valid both in the claims of the State Socialists and in the Syndicalist fear of the State, by adopting a system of federalism among trades for reasons similar to those which are recommending federalism among nations.
    • Introduction, p. 6.
  • Whatever bitterness and hate may be found in the movements which we are to examine, it is not bitterness or hate, but love, that is their mainspring. It is difficult not to hate those who torture the objects of our love. Though difficult, it is not impossible; but it requires a breadth of outlook and a comprehensiveness of understanding which are not easy to preserve amid a desperate contest. If ultimate wisdom has not always been preserved by Socialists and Anarchists, they have not differed in this from their opponents; and in the source of their inspiration they have shown themselves superior to those who acquiesce ignorantly or supinely in the injustices and oppressions by which the existing system is preserved.
    • Introduction, p. 10.
  • [Freedom] is the greatest of political goods. I do not say freedom is the greatest of all goods: the best things come from within—they are such things as creative art, and love, and thought. Such things can be helped or hindered by political conditions, but not actually produced by them; and freedom is, both in itself and in its relation to these other goods the best thing that political and economic conditions can secure.
    • Ch. V: Government and Law, p. 75.
  • If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
    • Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97.
  • I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.
    • Ch. VI: International relations, p. 99.
  • A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.
    • Ch. VI: International relations, p. 106.

Often and often, a marriage hardly differs from prostitution except by being harder to escape from.
  • One of the most horrible things about commercialism is the way in which it poisons the relations of men and women. The evils of prostitution are generally recognized, but, great as they are, the effect of economic conditions on marriage seems to me even worse. There is not infrequently, in marriage, a suggestion of purchase, of acquiring a woman on condition of keeping her in a certain standard of material comfort. Often and often, a marriage hardly differs from prostitution except by being harder to escape from. The whole basis of these evils is economic. Economic causes make marriage a matter of bargain and contract, in which affection is quite secondary, and its absence constitutes no recognized reason for liberation. Marriage should be a free, spontaneous meeting of mutual instinct, filled with happiness not unmixed with a feeling akin to awe: it should involve that degree of respect of each for the other that makes even the most trifling interference with liberty an utter impossibility, and a common life enforced by one against the will of the other an unthinkable thing of deep horror.
    • Ch VIII: The World As It Could Be Made, p. 129-130.

Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919)

  • The method of “postulating” what we want has many advantages; they are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil.
    • Ch. 7: Rational, Real and Complex Numbers.
  • The question of “unreality,” which confronts us at this point, is a very important one. Misled by grammar, the great majority of those logicians who have dealt with this question have dealt with it on mistaken lines. They have regarded grammatical form as a surer guide in analysis than, in fact, it is. And they have not known what differences in grammatical form are important.
    • Ch. 16: Descriptions.
  • For want of the apparatus of propositional functions, many logicians have been driven to the conclusion that there are unreal objects. It is argued, e.g., by Meinong, that we can speak about “the golden mountain,” “the round square,” and so on; we can make true propositions of which these are the subjects; hence they must have some kind of logical being, since otherwise the propositions in which they occur would be meaningless. In such theories, it seems to me, there is a failure of that feeling for reality which ought to be preserved even in the most abstract studies. Logic, I should maintain, must no more admit a unicorn than zoology can; for logic is concerned with the real world just as truly as zoology, though with its more abstract and general features.
    • Ch. 16: Descriptions.
  • In obedience to the feeling of reality, we shall insist that, in the analysis of propositions, nothing “unreal” is to be admitted. But, after all, if there is nothing unreal, how, it may be asked, could we admit anything unreal? The reply is that, in dealing with propositions, we are dealing in the first instance with symbols, and if we attribute significance to groups of symbols which have no significance, we shall fall into the error of admitting unrealities, in the only sense in which this is possible, namely, as objects described.
    • Ch. 16: Descriptions.
  • So much of modern mathematical work is obviously on the border-line of logic, so much of modern logic is symbolic and formal, that the very close relationship of logic and mathematics has become obvious to every instructed student. The proof of their identity is, of course, a matter of detail: starting with premisses which would be universally admitted to belong to logic, and arriving by deduction at results which as obviously belong to mathematics, we find that there is no point at which a sharp line can be drawn, with logic to the left and mathematics to the right. If there are still those who do not admit the identity of logic and mathematics, we may challenge them to indicate at what point, in the successive definitions and deductions of Principia Mathematica, they consider that logic ends and mathematics begins. It will then be obvious that any answer must be quite arbitrary.
    • Ch. 18: Mathematics and Logic.

1920s

Mystery is delightful, but unscientific, since it depends upon ignorance.

  • People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
    • Letter to Ottoline Morrell, 17 December, 1920.
  • I must confess that I am unable to appreciate the merits of Confucius. His writings are largely occupied with trivial points of etiquette, and his main concern is to teach people how to behave correctly on various occasions. When one compares him, however, with the traditional religious teachers of some other ages and races, one must admit that he has great merits, even if they are mainly negative. His system, as developed by his followers, is one of pure ethics, without religious dogma; it has not given rise to a powerful priesthood, and it has not led to persecution. It certainly has succeeded in producing a whole nation possessed of exquisite manners and perfect courtesy. Nor is Chinese courtesy merely conventional; it is quite as reliable in situations for which no precedent has been provided. And it is not confined to one class; it exists even in the humblest coolie. It is humiliating to watch the brutal insolence of white men received by the Chinese with a quiet dignity which cannot demean itself to answer rudeness with rudeness. Europeans often regard this as weakness, but it is really strength, the strength by which the Chinese have hitherto conquered all their conquerors.
    • The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XI: Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted.
  • The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.
    • The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XII: The Chinese Character.
  • Nine-tenths of the activities of a modern Government are harmful; therefore the worse they are performed, the better.
    • The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XII: The Chinese Character.
  • The Chinese are a great nation, incapable of permanent suppression by foreigners. They will not consent to adopt our vices in order to acquire military strength; but they are willing to adopt our virtues in order to advance in wisdom. I think they are the only people in the world who quite genuinely believe that wisdom is more precious than rubies. That is why the West regards them as uncivilized.
    • The Problem of China (1922), Ch. XIII: Higher education in China.
  • Mystery is delightful, but unscientific, since it depends upon ignorance.
  • There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that “remembered” a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.
    • The Analysis of Mind (1921), Lecture IX: Memory, p. 159.
  • The supreme maxim in scientific philosophising is this: wherever possible, logical constructions are to be substituted for inferred entities.
    • Quoted in Hawes The Logic of Contemporary English Realism (1923), p. 110;

       Most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so.

      cf. Ockham‘s maxim: entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

  • All traditional logic habitually assumes that precise symbols are being employed. It is therefore not applicable to this terrestial life but only to an imagined celestial existence… logic takes us nearer to heaven than other studies.
    • ‘Vagueness’, first published in The Australasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy, 1 June, 1923.
  • It seems to me that science has a much greater likelihood of being true in the main than any philosophy hitherto advanced (I do not, of course, except my own). In science there are many matters about which people are agreed; in philosophy there are none. Therefore, although each proposition in a science may be false, and it is practically certain that there are some that are false, yet we shall be wise to build our philosophy upon science, because the risk of error in philosophy is pretty sure to be greater than in science. If we could hope for certainty in philosophy, the matter would be otherwise, but so far as I can see such a hope would be chimerical.
    • Logical Atomism (1924).
  • We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think – in fact they do so.
    • The ABC of Relativity (1925), p. 166.
      • Variant: “Most people would rather die than think; many do.”
  • Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult, it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when widespread, produce social disaster.
    • On Education, Especially in Early Childhood (1926), Ch. 2: The Aims of Education, p. 36.

      No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
  • The instinctive foundation of the intellectual life is curiosity, which is found among animals in its elementary forms. Intelligence demands an alert curiosity, but it must be of a certain kind. The sort that leads village neighbours to try to peer through curtains after dark has no very high value. The widespread interest in gossip is inspired, not by a love of knowledge but by malice: no one gossips about other people’s secret virtues, but only about their secret vices. Accordingly most gossip is untrue, but care is taken not to verify it. Our neighbour’s sins, like the consolations of religion, are so agreeable that we do not stop to scrutinise the evidence closely.
    • On Education, Especially in Early Childhood (1926), Ch. 2: The Aims of Education, p. 50.
  • Written words differ from spoken words in being material structures. A spoken word is a process in the physical world, having an essential time-order; a written word is a series of pieces of matter, having an essential space-order.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.4 Language (1927)
  • Our words tend to conceal what is private and particular in our impressions, and to make us believe that different people live in a common world to a greater extent than is in fact the case.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • The tendency of our perceptions is to emphasise increasingly the objective elements in an impression, unless we have some special reason, as artists have, for doing the opposite.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • It must not be supposed that the subjective elements are any less ‘real’ than the objective elements; they are only less important… because they do not point to anything beyond ourselves…
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • The camera is as subjective as we are.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • There is a connected set of events (light-waves) travelling outward from a centre… there are some respects in which all events are alike, and others in which they differ… We must not think of a light-wave as a ‘thing’, but as a connected group of rhythmical events. The mathematical characteristics of such a group can be inferred by physics, but the intrinsic character of the component events cannot be inferred.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • Modern physics… reduces matter to a set of events which proceed outward from a centre. If there is something further in the centre itself, we cannot know about it, and it is irrelevant to physics.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little: it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.
    • An Outline of Philosophy Ch.15 The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics (1927)
  • I went to Salt Lake City and the Mormons tried to convert me, but when I found they forbade tea and tobacco I thought it was no religion for me.
    • Letter to C. P. Sanger, 23 December, 1929.

The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920)

  • I believe that Communism is necessary to the world, and I believe that the heroism of Russia has fired men’s hopes in a way which was essential to the realization of Communism in the future. Regarded as a splendid attempt, without which ultimate success would have been very improbable, Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.
    • Preface
  • A fundamental economic reconstruction, bringing with it very far-reaching changes in ways of thinking and feeling, in philosophy and art and private relations, seems absolutely necessary if industrialism is to become the servant of man instead of his master. In all this, I am at one with the Bolsheviks; politically, I criticize them only when their methods seem to involve a departure from their own ideals.
    • Preface
  • The hopes which inspire communism are, in the main, as admirable as those instilled by the Sermon on the Mount, but they are held as fanatically and are as likely to do as much harm.
    • Part I, The Present Condition of Russia, Ch. 1: What Is Hoped From Bolshevism.
  • Soon after my arrival in Moscow I had an hour’s conversation with Lenin in English, which he speaks fairly well… I have never met a personage so destitute of self-importance. He looks at his visitors very closely, and screws up one eye, which seems to increase alarmingly the penetrating power of the other. He laughs a great deal; at first his laugh seems merely friendly and jolly, but gradually I came to feel it rather grim. He is dictatorial, calm, incapable of fear, extraordinarily devoid of self-seeking, an embodied theory. The materialist conception of history, one feels, is his life-blood. He resembles a professor in his desire to have the theory understood and in his fury with those who misunderstand or disagree, as also in his love of expounding, I got the impression that he despises a great many people and is an intellectual aristocrat.
    …When I suggested that whatever is possible in England can be achieved without bloodshed, he waved aside the suggestion as fantastic… He described the division between rich and poor peasants, and the Government propaganda among the latter against the former, leading to acts of violence which he seemed to find amusing.

    • Part I, Ch. 3: Lenin, Trotsky and Gorky.
  • I think if I had met him [Lenin] without knowing who he was, I should not have guessed that he was a great man; he struck me as too opinionated and narrowly orthodox. His strength comes, I imagine, from his honesty, courage, and unwavering faith—religious faith in the Marxian gospel, which takes the place of the Christian martyr’s hopes of Paradise, except that it is less egotistical… I went to Russia a Communist; but contact with those who have no doubts has intensified a thousandfold my own doubts, not as to Communism in itself, but as to the wisdom of holding a creed so firmly that for its sake men are willing to inflict widespread misery.
    • Part I, Ch. 3: Lenin, Trotsky and Gorky.
  • …it [is] possible to suppose that, if Russia is allowed to have peace, an amazing industrial development may take place, making Russia a rival of the United States.
    • Part I, Ch. 5: Communism and the Soviet Constitution.
  • One who believes, as I do, that the free intellect is the chief engine of human progress, cannot but be fundamentally opposed to Bolshevism, as much as to the Church of Rome.
    • Part I, Ch. 9: International Policy.

The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (1923)

  • The white population of the world will soon cease to increase. The Asiatic races will be longer, and the negroes still longer, before their birth rate falls sufficiently to make their numbers stable without help of war and pestilence…. Until that happens, the benefits aimed at by socialism can only be partially realized, and the less prolific races will have to defend themselves against the more prolific by methods which are disgusting even if they are necessary.
  • To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.
  • The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.

What I Believe (1925)

Boys and girls should be taught respect for each other’s liberty… and that jealousy and possessiveness kill love.

  • The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
  • We are and irrefutable arbiters of value, and in the world of value Nature is only a part. Thus in this world we are greater than Nature. In the world of values, Nature in itself is neutral, neither good nor bad deserving of neither admiration nor censure. It is we who create value and our desires which confer value. In this realm we are kings, and we debase our kingship if we bow down to Nature. It is for us to determine our good life, not for Nature – not even for Nature personified as God.
  • At puberty, the elements of an unsuperstitious sexual morality ought to be taught. Boys and girls should be taught that nothing can justify sexual intercourse unless there is mutual inclination… Boys and girls should be taught respect for each other’s liberty; they should be made to feel that nothing gives one human being rights over another, and that jealousy and possessiveness kill love. They should be taught that to bring another human being into the world is a very serious matter, only to be undertaken when the child will have a reasonable prospect of health, good surroundings, and parental care. But they should also be taught methods of birth control, so as to insure that children shall only come when they are wanted. Finally, they should be taught the dangers of venereal disease, and the methods of prevention and cure. The increase of human happiness to be expected from sex education on these lines is immeasurable.

Moral rules ought not to be such as to make instinctive happiness impossible.

  • Certain forms of sex which do not lead to children are at present punished by the criminal law: this is purely superstitious, since the matter is one which affects no one except the parties directly concerned… The peculiar importance attached, at present, to adultery is quite irrational… Moral rules ought not to be such as to make instinctive happiness impossible.
  • We cannot suppose that an individual’s thinking survives bodily death, since that destroys the organization of the brain and dissipates the energy which utilized the brain tracks. God and immortality, the central dogma of the Christian religion, find no support in science. But we in the West have come to think of them as the irreducible minimum of theology. No doubt people will continue to entertain these beliefs, because they are pleasant, just as it is pleasant to think ourselves virtuous and our enemies wicked. But for my part I cannot see any grounds for either. I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove Satan is a fiction. The Christian God may exist, so might the Gods of Olympus, Ancient Egypt or Babylon; but no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other. They lie outside the region of provable knowledge and there is no reason to consider any of them.
  • I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man’s place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own.
    • Cf. Richard Dawkins (2003), A Devil’s Chaplain: «There is more than just grandeur in this view of life, bleak and cold though it can seem from under the security blanket of ignorance. There is deep refreshment to be had from standing up and facing straight into the strong keen wind of understanding: Yeats’s ‘Winds that blow through the starry ways’.»

Review of The Meaning of Meaning (1926)

Dial (August 1926), Vol. 81, pp. 114-121.
Cf. C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards (1923), The Meaning of Meaning.
  • When, in youth, I learned what was called “philosophy” … no one ever mentioned to me the question of “meaning.” Later, I became acquainted with Lady Welby‘s work on the subject, but failed to take it seriously. I imagined that logic could be pursued by taking it for granted that symbols were always, so to speak, transparent, and in no way distorted the objects they were supposed to “mean.” Purely logical problems have gradually led me further and further from this point of view. Beginning with the question whether the class of all those classes which are not members of themselves is, or is not, a member of itself; continuing with the problem whether the man who says “I am lying” is lying or speaking the truth; passing through the riddle “is the present King of France bald or not bald, or is the law of excluded middle false?” I have now come to believe that the order of words in time or space is an ineradicable part of much of their significance – in fact, that the reason they can express space-time occurrences is that they are space-time occurrences, so that a logic independent of the accidental nature of spacetime becomes an idle dream. These conclusions are unpleasant to my vanity, but pleasant to my love of philosophical activity: until vitality fails, there is no reason to be wedded to one’s past theories. (p. 114).
  • [Messrs Ogden and Richards] will reply that they are considering the meaning of a “thought,” not of a word. A “thought” is not a social phenomenon, like speech, and therefore does not have the two sides, active and passive, which can be distinguished in speech. I should urge, however, that all the reasons which led our authors to avoid introducing images in explaining meaning should have also led them to avoid introducing “thoughts.” If a theory of meaning is to be fitted into natural science as they desire, it is necessary to define the meaning of words without introducing anything “mental” in the sense in which what is “mental” is not subject to the laws of physics. Therefore, for the same reasons for which I now hold that the meaning of words should be explained without introducing images – which I argued to be possible in the above-quoted passage – I also hold that meaning in general should be treated without introducing “thoughts,” and should be regarded as a property of words considered as physical phenomena. Let us therefore amend their theory. They say: “‘I am thinking of A’ is the same thing as ‘My thought is being caused by A.'” Let us substitute: “‘I am speaking of A’ is the same thing as ‘My speech is being caused by A.'” Can this theory be true?

Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.
  • If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu’s view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, “How about the tortoise?” the Indian said, “Suppose we change the subject.” The argument is really no better than that.
    • “The First-cause Argument”
  • If you accept the ordinary laws of science, you have to suppose that human life and life in general on this planet will die out in due course: it is a stage in the decay of the solar system… You see in the moon the sort of thing to which the earth is tending – something dead, cold, and lifeless.
    I am told that that sort of view is depressing, and people will sometimes tell you that if they believed that, they would not be able to go on living. Do not believe it; it is all nonsense. Nobody really worries much about what is going to happen millions of years hence. Even if they think they are worrying much about that, they are really deceiving themselves. They are worried about something much more mundane, or it may merely be a bad digestion; but nobody is really seriously rendered unhappy by the thought of something that is going to happen to this world millions and millions of years hence. Therefore, although it is of course a gloomy view to suppose that life will die out – at least I suppose we may say so, although sometimes when I contemplate the things that people do with their lives I think it is almost a consolation – it is not such as to render life miserable. It merely makes you turn your attention to other things.

    • “The Argument from Design”
  • …You could take up the line that some of the gnostics took up – a line which I often thought was a very plausible one – that as a matter of fact this world that we know was made by the devil at a moment when God was not looking. There is a good deal to be said for that, and I am not concerned to refute it.
    • “The Moral Arguments for Deity”
  • There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.
    • “The Moral Problem”
  • I do not think that the real reason why people accept religion has anything to do with argumentation. They accept religion on emotional grounds. One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
    • “The Emotional Factor”
  • You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress of humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or even mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.
    • “The Emotional Factor”

      Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.

    • Often paraphrased as “The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.”
  • [The church] is in its major part an opponent still of progress and improvement in all the ways that diminish suffering in the world, because it has chosen to label as morality a certain narrow set of rules of conduct which have nothing to do with human happiness; and when you say that this or that ought to be done because it would make for human happiness, they think that has nothing to do with the matter at all. “What has human happiness to do with morals? The object of morals is not to make people happy.”
    • “How The Churches Have Retarded Progress”
  • Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing – fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hears can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.
    • “Fear, the Foundation of Religion”.
  • The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.
    • “What We Must Do”

Sceptical Essays (1928)

  • I wish to propose for the reader’s favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.
    • Ch. 1: The Value of Scepticism.
  • The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
    • Ch. 1: The Value of Scepticism.
  • Man is essentially a dreamer, wakened sometimes for a moment by some peculiarly obtrusive element in the outer world, but lapsing again quickly into the happy somnolence of imagination. Freud has shown how largely our dreams at night are the pictured fulfilment of our wishes; he has, with an equal measure of truth, said the same of day-dreams; and he might have included the day-dreams which we call beliefs.
    • Ch. 2: Dreams and Facts
  • Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
    • Ch. 2: Dreams and Facts.
  • Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.
    • Ch. 6: Machines and the Emotions.
  • A European who goes to New York and Chicago sees the future… when he goes to Asia he sees the past.
    • Ch. 8: Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness.
  • We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side; one which we preach but do not practice, and another which we practice but seldom preach.
    • Ch. 8: Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness.
  • The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
    • Ch. 8: Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness.
  • It is obvious that “obscenity” is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means “anything that shocks the magistrate.”
    • Ch. 10: Recrudescence of Puritanism.
  • Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
    • Ch. 10: Recrudescence of Puritanism.
  • William James used to preach the “will-to-believe.” For my part, I should wish to preach the “will-to-doubt.” None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.
    • Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda.
  • The State is a collection of officials, different for difference purposes, drawing comfortable incomes so long as the status quo is preserved. The only alteration they are likely to desire in the status quo is an increase of bureaucracy and the power of bureaucrats.
  • We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.
    • Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda.
  • Americans need rest, but do not know it. I believe this to be a large part of the explanation of the crime wave in the United States.
    • Ch. 13: Freedom in Society.

The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.

  • Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
    • Ch. 13: Freedom in Society.
  • Children must be under authority, and are themselves aware that they must be, although they like to play a game of rebellion at times. The case of children is unique in the fact that those who have authority over them are sometimes fond of them. Where this is the case, the children do not resent the authority in general, even when they resist it on particular occasions. Education authorities, as opposed to teachers, have not this merit, and do in fact sacrifice the children to what they consider the good of the State by teaching them “patriotism,” i.e., a willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
    • Ch. 13: Freedom in Society.
  • The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
    • Ch. 14: Freedom Versus Authority in Education.

Marriage and Morals (1929)

I believe marriage to be the best and most important relation that can exist between two human beings.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Main article: Marriage and Morals
  • Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.
  • Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.
  • To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

1930s

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one – particularly if he plays golf.
  • The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one – particularly if he plays golf, which he usually does.
  • Apart from autograph hunters, I get… many letters from Hindus, beseeching me to adopt some form of mysticism, from young Americans, asking me where I think the line should be drawn in petting, and from Poles, urging me to admit that while all other nationalism may be bad that of Poland is wholly noble. I get letters from engineers who cannot understand Einstein, and from parsons who think that I cannot understand Genesis, from husbands whose wives have deserted them – not (they say) that that would matter, but the wives have taken the furniture with them, and what in these circumstances should an enlightened male do? …I get letters (concerning whose genuineness I am suspicious) trying to get me to advocate abortion, and I get letters from young mothers asking my opinion of bottle-feeding.
    • Letter to Mr C. L. Aiken, March 19, 1930.
  • It is likely that America will be more important during the next century or two, but after that it may well be the turn of China.
    • Letter to Rachel Gleason Brooks, May 5, 1930.
  • I quite understand the principle of confining employment as far as possible to the British without regard for efficiency. I think, however, that the Ministry is not applying the principle sufficiently widely. I know many Englishmen who have married foreigners, and many English potential wives who are out of a job. Would not a year be long enough to train an English wife to replace the existing foreign one in such cases?
    • Enclosed reply to the Ministry of Labour, in defense of A. S. Neill (who declined to send it), 27 January, 1931.
  • Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.
    • The Scientific Outlook (1931).
  • The most essential characteristic of scientific technique is that it proceeds from experiment, not from tradition. The experimental habit of mind is a difficult one for most people to maintain; indeed, the science of one generation has already become the tradition of the next…
    • The Scientific Outlook (1931).
  • A world without delight and without affection is a world destitute of value.
    • The Scientific Outlook (1931).
  • All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in infering that he is an inexact man.
  • Quoted in World Unity, Vol. IX, 3rd edition (1931), p. 190.
  • I do not believe that science per se is an adequate source of happiness, nor do I think that my own scientific outlook has contributed very greatly to my own happiness, which I attribute to defecating twice a day with unfailing regularity.
    • Letter to W. W. Norton (publisher), 27 January, 1931.
  • I think people who are unhappy are always proud of being so, and therefore do not like to be told that there is nothing grand about their unhappiness. A man who is melancholy because lack of exercise has upset his liver always believes that it is the loss of God, or the menace of Bolshevism, or some such dignified cause that makes him sad. When you tell people that happiness is a simple matter, they get annoyed with you.
    • Letter to W. W. Norton, 17 February, 1931.
  • I shall keep it [the manuscript] by me until the end of May for purposes of revision, and of adding malicious foot-notes.
    • Letter to W. W. Norton, 17 February, 1931.
  • You will have seen that my brother died suddenly in Marseilles. I inherit from him a title, but not a penny of money, as he was bankrupt. A title is a great nuisance to me, and I am at a loss what to do, but at any rate I do not wish it employed in connection with any of my literary work. There is, so far as I know, only one method of getting rid of it, which is to be attainted of high treason, and this would involve my head being cut off on Tower Hill. This method seems to me perhaps somewhat extreme…
    • Letter to W. W. Norton, 11 March, 1931.
  • I am sorry to say that at the moment I am so busy as to be convinced that life has no meaning whatever… I do not see that we can judge what would be the result of the discovery of truth, since none has hitherto been discovered.
    • Letter to Will Durant, 20 June, 1931.
  • A religious creed differs from a scientific theory in claiming to embody eternal and absolutely certain truth, whereas science is always tentative, expecting that modification in its present theories will sooner or later be found necessary, and aware that its method is one which is logically incapable of arriving at a complete and final demonstration.
    • Religion and Science (1935), Ch. I: Ground of Conflict.
  • While it is true that science cannot decide questions of value, that is because they cannot be intellectually decided at all, and lie outside the realm of truth and falsehood. Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.
    • Religion and Science (1935), Ch. IX: Science of Ethics.
    • Variant: “What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know.” (Attributed to Russell in Ted Peters’ Cosmos As Creation: Theology and Science in Consonance [1989], p. 14, with a note that it was “told [to] a BBC audience [earlier this century]”).
  • Why in any case, this glorification of man? How about lions and tigers? They destroy fewer animals or human lives than we do, and they are much more beautiful than we are. How about ants? They manage the Corporate State much better than any Fascist. Would not a world of nightingales and larks and deer be better than our human world of cruelty and injustice and war? The believers in Cosmic Purpose make much of our supposed intelligence, but their writings make one doubt it. If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.
    • Religion and Science (1935).
  • When I say that children should be told about sex, I do not mean that they should be told only the bare physiological facts; they should be told whatever they wish to know. There should be no attempt to represent adults as more virtuous than they are, or sex as occurring only in marriage. There is no excuse for deceiving children. And when, as must happen in conventional families, they find that their parents have lied, they lose confidence in them, and feel justified in lying to them.
  • It is only when we think abstractly that we have such a high opinion of man. Of men in the concrete, most of us think the vast majority very bad. Civilized states spend more than half their revenue on killing each other’s citizens. Consider the long history of the activities inspired by moral fervour: human sacrifices, persecutions of heretics, witch-hunts, pogroms leading up to wholesale extermination by poison gases … Are these abominations, and the ethical doctrines by which they are prompted, really evidence of an intelligent Creator? And can we really wish that the men who practised them should live for ever? The world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of a deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis.
    • Essay Do We Survive Death? (1936).
  • Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.
    • The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine (1938-03-06).

The Conquest of Happiness (1930)

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
Main article: The Conquest of Happiness
  • Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.
  • Drunkenness is temporary suicide.
  • To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
  • There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.
  • One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.
  • The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
  • Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization? (1930)

Online text

I regard religion as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.
  • I regard [religion] as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.
  • It is amusing to hear the modern Christian telling you how mild and rationalistic Christianity really is and ignoring the fact that all its mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians.
    • “Sources of Intolerance”
  • If, when a man writes a poem or commits a murder, the bodily movements involved in his act result solely from physical causes, it would seem absurd to put up a statue to him in the one case and to hang him in the other.
    • “The Doctrine of Free Will”
  • No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behaviour to sin; he does not say, “You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go.” He attempts to find out what is wrong and to set it right. An analogous way of treating human beings is, however, considered to be contrary to the truths of our holy religion.
    • “The Doctrine of Free Will”
  • Now, what is ‘unrighteousness’ in practice? It is in practice behavior of a kind disliked by the herd. By calling it unrighteousness, and by arranging an elaborate system of ethics around this conception, the herd justifies itself in wreaking punishment upon the objects of its own dislike, while at the same time, since the herd is righteous by definition, it enhances its own self-esteem at the very moment when it lets loose its impulse to cruelty. This is the psychology of lynching, and of the other ways in which criminals are punished. The essence of the conception of righteousness, therefore, is to afford an outlet for sadism by cloaking cruelty as justice.
    • “The Idea of Righteousness”
  • With our present industrial technique we can, if we choose, provide a tolerable subsistence for everybody. We could also secure that the world’s population should be stationary if we were not prevented by the political influence of churches which prefer war, pestilence, and famine to contraception. The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific co-operation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will be necessary first to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.
    • “The Idea of Righteousness”

Education and the Social Order (1932)

  • I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
    • p. 31.
  • Belief in God and a future life makes it possible to go through life with less of stoic courage than is needed by skeptics. A great many young people lose faith in these dogmas at an age at which despair is easy, and thus have to face a much more intense unhappiness than that which falls to the lot of those who have never had a religious upbringing. Christianity offers reasons for not fearing death or the universe, and in so doing it fails to teach adequately the virtue of courage. The craving for religious faith being largely an outcome of fear, the advocates of faith tend to think that certain kinds of fear are not to be deprecated. In this, to my mind, they are gravely mistaken. To allow oneself to entertain pleasant beliefs as a means of avoiding fear is not to live in the best way. In so far as religion makes its appeal to fear, it is lowering to human dignity.
    • p. 107.
  • Owing to the identification of religion with virtue, together with the fact that the most religious men are not the most intelligent, a religious education gives courage to the stupid to resist the authority of educated men, as has happened, for example, where the teaching of evolution has been made illegal. So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.
    • p. 110.
  • I am sure that university life would be better, both intellectually and morally, if most university students had temporary childless marriages. This would afford a solution to the sexual urge neither restless nor surreptitious, neither mercenary nor casual, and of such a nature that it need not take up time which ought to be given to work.
    • “Sex in Education”, p. 119-120.
  • There are those who blame the Press, but in this I think they are mistaken. The Press is such as the public demands, and the public demands bad newspapers because it has been badly educated.
    • p. 133.

Mortals and Others (1931-35)

Main article: Mortals and Others
  • It is generally admitted that most grown-up people, however regrettably, will try to have a good time.
  • The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
    • Often paraphrased as “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
    • Cf. Russell (1951) New Hopes for a Changing World, “One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”
    • Cf. also W. B. Yeats (1919), The Second Coming, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
  • To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935)

  • First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.
    • Ch. 1: In Praise of Idleness.
  • Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacturing of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way, it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?
    • Ch. 1: In Praise of Idleness.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.
  • The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich.
    • Ch. 1: In Praise of Idleness.
  • Good nature is, of all moral qualities, the one that the world needs most, and good nature is the result of ease and security, not of a life of arduous struggle. Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.
    • Ch. 1: In Praise of Idleness.
  • There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.
    • Ch. 2: ‘Useless’ Knowledge.
  • For my part, while I am as convinced a Socialist as the most ardent Marxian, I do not regard Socialism as a gospel of proletarian revenge, nor even, primarily, as a means of securing economic justice. I regard it primarily as an adjustment to machine production demanded by considerations of common sense, and calculated to increase the happiness, not only of proletarians, but of all except a tiny minority of the human race.
    • Ch. 7: The Case for Socialism.
  • I cannot escape from the conclusion that the great ages of progress have depended upon a small number of individuals of transcendent ability.
    • Ch. 8: Western Civilisation.
  • It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.
    • Ch. 10: Modern Homogeneity.
  • No rules, however wise, are a substitute for affection and tact.
    • Ch. 12: Education and Discipline.
  • I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attach too much importance to the negative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.
    • Ch. 12: Education and Discipline.
  • Two men who differ as to the ends of life cannot hope to agree about education.
    • Ch. 12: Education and Discipline.

Power: A New Social Analysis (1938)

Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.
  • Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.
    • Ch. 1: The Impulse to Power.
  • The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.
    • Ch. 1: The Impulse to Power.
  • Most men do not feel in themselves the competence required for leading their group to victory, and therefore seek out a captain who appears to possess the courage and sagacity necessary for the achievement of supremacy. Even in religion this impulse appears. Nietzsche accused Christianity of inculcating a slave-morality, but ultimate triumph was always the goal. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
    • Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers.
  • I greatly doubt whether the men who become pirate chiefs are those who are filled with retrospective terror of their fathers, or whether Napoleon, at Austerlitz, really felt that he was getting even with Madame Mère. I know nothing of the mother of Attila, but I rather suspect that she spoilt the little darling, who subsequently found the world irritating because it sometimes resisted his whims.
    • Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers.
  • In former days, men sold themselves to the Devil to acquire magical powers. Nowadays they acquire those powers from science, and find themselves compelled to become devils. There is no hope for the world unless power can be tamed, and brought into the service, not of this or that group of fanatical tyrants, but of the whole human race, white and yellow and black, fascist and communist and democrat; for science has made it inevitable that all must live or all must die.
    • Ch. 2: Leaders and Followers.
  • We thus have a kind of see-saw: first, pure persuasion leading to the conversion of a minority; then force exerted to secure that the rest of the community shall be exposed to the right propaganda; and finally a genuine belief on the part of the great majority, which makes the use of force again unnecessary.
    • Ch. 9: Power over opinion.
  • In democratic countries, the most important private organizations are economic. Unlike secret societies, they are able to exercize their terrorism without illegality, since they do not threaten to kill their enemies, but only to starve them.
    • Ch. 12: Powers and forms of governments.
  • The “social contract,” in the only sense in which it is not completely mythical, is a contract among conquerors, which loses its raison d’être if they are deprived of the benefits of conquest.
    • Ch. 12: Powers and forms of governments.
  • Among human beings, the subjection of women is much more complete at a certain level of civilization than it is among savages. And the subjection is always reinforced by morality.
    • Ch. 15: Power and moral codes.
  • An individual may perceive a way of life, or a method of social organisation, by which more of the desires of mankind could be satisfied than under the existing method. If he perceives truly, and can persuade men to adopt his reform, he is justified. Without rebellion, mankind would stagnate, and injustice would be irremediable.
    • Ch. 15: Power and moral codes.
  • The love of power is a part of human nature, but power-philosophies are, in a certain precise sense, insane. The existence of the external world, both that of matter and of other human beings, is a datum, which may be humiliating to a certain kind of pride, but can only be denied by a madman. Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is Governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the King, and yet another will think he is God. Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships in philosophy; and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships. Certified lunatics are shut up because of the proneness to violence when their pretensions are questioned; the uncertified variety are given control of powerful armies, and can inflict death and disaster upon all sane men within their reach.
    • Ch. 16: Power philosophies.
  • It is not altogether true that persuasion is one thing and force is another. Many forms of persuasion – even many of which everybody approves – are really a kind of force. Consider what we do to our children. We do not say to them: “Some people think the earth is round, and others think it is flat; when you grow up, you can, if you like, examine the evidence and form your own conclusion.” Instead of this we say: “The earth is round.” By the time our children are old enough to examine the evidence, our propaganda has closed their minds.
    • Ch. 17: The Ethics of Power.
  • To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
    • Ch. 18: The Taming of Power.
  • Just as we teach children to avoid being destroyed by motor cars if they can, so we should teach them to avoid being destroyed by cruel fanatics, and to this end we should seek to produce independence of mind, somewhat sceptical and wholly scientific, and to preserve, as far as possible, the instinctive joy of life that is natural to healthy children. This is the task of a liberal education: to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help create wise citizens of a free community, and through the combination of citizenship with liberty in individual creativeness to enable men to give to human life that splendour which some few have shown that it can achieve.
    • Ch. 18: The Taming of Power.

1940s

  • The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.
    • An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Introduction, p. 15.
  • Science seems to be at war with itself…. Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.
    • An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Introduction, p. 15.
  • I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.
    • Quoted in Library of Living Philosophers: The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell (1944).
  • It is entirely clear that there is only one way in which great wars can be permanently prevented, and that is the establishment of an international government with a monopoly of serious armed force.
    • “The Atomic Bomb and the Prevention of War” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (1945-10-01).
  • There are a number of purely theoretical questions, of perennial and passionate interest, which science is unable to answer, at any rate at present. Do we survive death in any sense, and if so, do we survive for a time or for ever? Can mind dominate matter, or does matter completely dominate mind, or has each, perhaps, a certain limited independence? Has the universe a purpose? Or is it driven by blind necessity? Or is it a mere chaos and jumble, in which the natural laws that we think we find are only a phantasy generated by our own love of order? If there is a cosmic scheme, has life more importance in it than astronomy would lead us to suppose, or is our emphasis upon life mere parochialism and self-importance? I do not know the answer to these questions, and I do not believe that anybody else does, but I think human life would be impoverished if they were forgotten, or if definite answers were accepted without adequate evidence. To keep alive the interest in such questions, and to scrutinize suggested answers, is one of the functions of philosophy.
  • The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. [S]o long as men are not trained to withhold judgment in the absence of evidence, they will be led astray by cocksure prophets, and it is likely that their leaders will be either ignorant fanatics or dishonest charlatans. To endure uncertainty is difficult, but so are most of the other virtues. For the learning of every virtue there is an appropriate discipline, and for the learning of suspended judgment the best discipline is philosophy.
    • Philosophy for Laymen (1946)
  • I am ashamed of belonging to the species Homo Sapiens…You & I may be thankful to have lived in happier times – you more than I, because you have no children.
    • Letter to Lucy Donnelly, 23 June, 1946.
  • Men tend to have the beliefs that suit their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God, and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case.
  • There is a further advantage [to hydrogen bombs]: the supply of uranium in the planet is very limited, and it might be feared that it would be used up before the human race was exterminated, but now that the practically unlimited supply of hydrogen can be utilized, there is considerable reason to hope that homo sapiens may put an end to himself, to the great advantage of such less ferocious animals as may survive. But it is time to return to less cheerful topics.
    • Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), part I, “The World of Science”, chapter 3, “The World of Physics”, p. 41.
  • A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.
    • Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), part II, chapter 1, p. 74.
  • I do not believe that I am now dreaming, but I cannot prove that I am not. I am, however, quite certain that I am having certain experiences, whether they be those of a dream or those of waking life.
    • Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), p. 172.

The universe is just there, and that is all.
  • Whatever we know without inference is mental.
    • Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), p. 224.
  • Probably in time physiologists will be able to make nerves connecting the bodies of different people; this will have the advantage that we shall be able to feel another man’s tooth aching.
    • Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), p. 493.
  • I should say that the universe is just there, and that is all.
  • A physicist looks for causes; that does not necessarily imply that there are causes everywhere. A man may look for gold without assuming that there is gold everywhere; if he finds gold, well and good, if he doesn’t he’s had bad luck. The same is true when the physicists look for causes.
    • BBC Radio Debate on the Existence of God, Russell vs. Copleston, 1948.
  • The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favor of its truth.
    • BBC Radio Debate on the Existence of God, Russell vs. Copleston, 1948.
  • Too little liberty brings stagnation, and too much brings chaos.
    • Authority and the Individual (1949), p. 37.
  • Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.
    • Authority and the Individual (1949), p. 59.
  • Can a society in which thought and technique are scientific persist for a long period, as, for example, ancient Egypt persisted, or does it necessarily contain within itself forces which must bring either decay or explosion?
    • “Can a Scientific Community Be Stable?,” Lecture, Royal Society of Medicine, London (29 November 1949).

A History of Western Philosophy (1945)

Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.

Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don’t know.

Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told.

“Look at me” is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart.
Main article: A History of Western Philosophy
  • Science may set limits to knowledge, but should not set limits to imagination.
  • A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand.
  • Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.

Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? (1947)

  • Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.
    • “Don’t Be Too Certain!”
  • As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.
    • “Proof of God”
  • When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
    • “Skepticism”

1950s

  • All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can only be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
    • “The Science to Save Us from Science,” The New York Times Magazine (19 March 1950).
  • As geological time goes, it is but a moment since the human race began and only the twinkling of an eye since the arts of civilization were first invented. In spite of some alarmists, it is hardly likely that our species will completely exterminate itself. And so long as man continues to exist, we may be pretty sure that, whatever he may suffer for a time, and whatever brightness may be eclipsed, he will emerge sooner or later, perhaps strengthened and reinvigorated by a period of mental sleep. The universe is vast and men are but tiny specks on an insignificant planet. But the more we realize our minuteness and our impotence in the face of cosmic forces, the more astonishing becomes what human beings have achieved.
    • “If We are to Survive this Dark Time”, The New York Times Magazine (3 September 1950).
  • I feel like that intellectual but plain-looking lady who was warmly complimented on her beauty.
    • In accepting his Nobel Prize, in December 1950; Russell denied that he had contributed anything in particular to literature. Quoted in LIFE, Editorials: “A great mind is still annoying and adorning our age”, 26 May 1952.
  • The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
    1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
    2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
    3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
    4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
    5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
    6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
    7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
    8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
    9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
    10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

    • “A Liberal Decalogue”, from “The Best Answer to Fanaticism: Liberalism”, New York Times Magazine (16/December/1951); later printed in The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1969), vol. 3: 1944-1967, pp. 71-2.
  • We need a science to save us from science.
    • NY Times Magazine, as reported in High Points in the Work of the High Schools of New York City, Vol. 34 (1952), p. 46.
  • I have been accused of a habit of changing my opinions … I am not myself in any degree ashamed of having changed my opinions. What physicist who was already active in 1900 would dream of boasting that his opinions had not changed during the last half century? In science men change their opinions when new knowledge becomes available; but philosophy in the minds of many is assimilated rather to theology than to science. … The kind of philosophy that I value and have endeavoured to pursue is scientific, in the sense that there is some definite knowledge to be obtained and that new discoveries can make the admission of former error inevitable to any candid mind. For what I have said, whether early or late, I do not claim the kind of truth which theologians claim for their creeds. I claim only, at best, that the opinion expressed was a sensible one to hold at the time when it was expressed. I should be much surprised if subsequent research did not show that it needed to be modified. I hope, therefore, that whoever uses this dictionary will not suppose the remarks which it quotes to be intended as pontifical pronouncements, but only as the best I could do at the time towards the promotion of clear and accurate thinking. Clarity, above all, has been my aim.
    • Preface to The Bertrand Russell Dictionary of Mind, Matter and Morals (1952) edited by Lester E. Denonn.
  • Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
    • “Is There a God?” (1952), commissioned by Illustrated Magazine but not published until its appearance in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 11: Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68, ed. John G. Slater and Peter Köllner (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 543-48.
  • It is said (I do not know with what truth) that a certain Hindu thinker believed the earth to rest upon an elephant. When asked what the elephant rested upon, he replied that it rested upon a tortoise. When asked what the tortoise rested upon, he said, “I am tired of this. Suppose we change the subject.” This illustrates the unsatisfactory character of the First-Cause argument.
    • “Is There a God?” (1952).
  • People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be intolerably unhappy. So far as this is true, it is a coward’s argument. Nobody but a coward would consciously choose to live in a fool’s paradise. When a man suspects his wife of infidelity, he is not thought the better of for shutting his eyes to the evidence. And I cannot see why ignoring evidence should be contemptible in one case and admirable in the other.
    • “Is There a God?” (1952).
  • When I come to my own beliefs, I find myself quite unable to discern any purpose in the universe, and still more unable to wish to discern one.
    • “Is There a God?” (1952).
  • An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism. His attitude may be that which a careful philosopher would have towards the gods of ancient Greece. If I were asked to prove that Zeus and Poseidon and Hera and the rest of the Olympians do not exist, I should be at a loss to find conclusive arguments. An Agnostic may think the Christian God as improbable as the Olympians; in that case, he is, for practical purposes, at one with the atheists.
    • What is an Agnostic? (1953).
  • Many agnostics (including myself) are quite as doubtful of the body as they are of the soul, but this is a long story taking one into difficult metaphysics. Mind and matter alike, I should say, are only convenient symbol in discourse, not actually existing things.
    • What is an Agnostic? (1953).
  • There are some simple maxims […] which I think might be commanded to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. Second: if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end.
    • “How I Write”, The Writer, September 1954.
  • Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
    • Quoted in Look (New York, 23 February 1954).
    • Cf. Russell (1928), Sceptical Essays, «It is obvious that “obscenity” is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means “anything that shocks the magistrate”.»
  • Cock-sure certainty is the source of much that is worst in our present world, and it is something of which the contemplation of history ought to cure us, not only or chiefly because there were wise men in the past, but because so much that was thought wisdom turned out to be folly – which suggests that much of our own supposed wisdom is no better. I do not mean to maintain that we should lapse into a lazy scepticism. We should hold our beliefs, and hold them strongly. Nothing great is achieved without passion, but underneath the passion there should always be that large impersonal survey which sets limits to actions that our passions inspire.
    • History as an Art (1954), p. 9
  • What modern apologists call ‘true’ Christianity is something depending upon a very selective process. It ignores much that is to be found in the Gospels: for example, the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the doctrine that the wicked will suffer eternal torment in Hell fire. It picks out certain parts of the Sermon on the Mount, though even these it often rejects in practice. It leaves the doctrine of non-resistance, for example, to be practised only by non-Christians such as Gandhi. The precepts that it particularly favours are held to embody such a lofty morality that they must have had a divine origin. And yet … these precepts were uttered by Jews before the time of Christ.
    • “Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?”, in Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter, part II (11 November 1954)
  • All the time that he can spare from the adornment of his person, he devotes to the neglect of his duties.
  • When I found myself regarded as respectable, I began to wonder what sins I had committed. I must be very wicked, I thought. I began to engage in the most uncomfortable introspection.
    • Interview with Irwin Ross, September 1957;

      If there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.

      Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell (2005), p. 385.

  • Choose your parents wisely.
    • On the recipe for longevity; Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Vol. 29 (2012).
  • The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible.
    • Said in conversation with Mrs. Alan Wood; quoted in Alan Wood’s Bertrand Russell, the Passionate Sceptic (Allen and Unwin, 1957), pp. 236-7.
  • If the Communists conquered the world, it would be very unpleasant for a while, but not forever. But if the human race is wiped out, that is the end.
    • Television interview on March 24, 1958, as quoted in The United States in World Affairs (1959), p. 12.
  • What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.
    • Quoted on Who Said That?, BBC TV (1958-08-08).
  • I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.
    • Bertrand Russell’s Best: Silhouettes in Satire (1958), “On Religion”.
  • I have always thought respectable people scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face every morning for signs of my becoming a scoundrel.
    • Quoted in Alan Wood Bertrand Russell: The Passionate Skeptic: A Biography, Vol. 2 (1958), p. 233.
  • Thank you for your letter and for the enclosure which I return herewith. I have been wondering whether there is any means of preventing the confusion between you and me, and I half-thought that we might write a joint letter to The Times in the following terms: Sir, To prevent the continuation of confusions which frequently occur, we beg to state that neither of us is the other. Do you think this would be a good plan?
    • Letter to Lord Russell of Liverpool, February 18, 1959.
  • There is no need to worry about mere size. We do not necessarily respect a fat man more than a thin man. Sir Isaac Newton was very much smaller than a hippopotamus, but we do not on that account value him less.
    • “The Expanding Mental Universe”, Saturday Evening Post (July 1959).
  • When I was 4 years old … I dreamt that I’d been eaten by a wolf, and to my great surprise I was in the wolf’s stomach and not in heaven.
    • BBC interview on “Face to Face” (1959); The Listener, Vol. 61 (1959), p. 503.
  • I should like to say two things. One intellectual and one moral. The intellectual thing I should want to say to them is this: “When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: What are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.” That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say. The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple; I should say: “Love is wise – Hatred is foolish.” In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact, that some people say things we don’t like. We can only live together in that way. But if we are to live together, and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital, to the continuation of human life on this planet.
    • Response to the question “Suppose Lord Russell, this film were to be looked at by our descendants, like a dead sea scroll in a thousand years time. What would you think it’s worth telling that generation about the life you’ve lived and the lessons you’ve learned from it?” in a BBC interview on “Face to Face” (1959).
  • Since Adam and Eve ate the apple, man has never refrained from any folly of which he was capable. The End.
    • Full text of Russell’s book History of the World in Epitome (For Use in Martian Infant Schools), written in 1959 and published on his ninetieth birthday, as quoted in Slater Bertrand Russell (1994), p. 136.
  • Fanaticism is the danger of the world, and always has been, and has done untold harm. I might almost say that I was fanatical against fanaticism.
    • The Future of Science (1959), p. 79; also in BBC The Listener, Vol. 61 (1959), p. 505.
  • When I was a boy, I had a clock with a pendulum that could be lifted off. I found that the clock went very much faster without the pendulum. If the main purpose of a clock is to go, the clock was the better for losing its pendulum. True, it could no longer tell the time, but that did not matter if one could teach oneself to be indifferent to the passage of time. The linguistic philosophy which cares only about language and not about the world, is like the boy who preferred the clock without the pendulum because, although it no longer told the time, it went more easily than before and at a more exhilarating pace.
    • Foreword to Ernest Gellner Words and Things (1959).

Unpopular Essays (1950)

Main article: Unpopular Essays
  • Change is one thing, progress is another.
  • The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.
  • Science is what we know, and philosophy is what we don’t know.
  • All movements go too far.
  • Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
    • Often paraphrased as “It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.”
  • Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)

Nobel Lecture, Stockholm (11 December 1950)
  • All human activity is prompted by desire. There is a wholly fallacious theory advanced by some earnest moralists to the effect that it is possible to resist desire in the interests of duty and moral principle. I say this is fallacious, not because no man ever acts from a sense of duty, but because duty has no hold on him unless he desires to be dutiful. If you wish to know what men will do, you must know not only, or principally, their material circumstances, but rather the whole system of their desires with their relative strengths.
  • Man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he has had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most part, are not like this.
  • Acquisitiveness – the wish to possess as much as possible of goods, or the title to goods – is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.
  • The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals. Hence the present level of taxation.
    Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying “Look at me.” “Look at me” is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame.
  • One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about. The condemned murderer who is allowed to see the account of his trial in the press is indignant if he finds a newspaper which has reported it inadequately. And the more he finds about himself in other newspapers, the more indignant he will be with the one whose reports are meagre. Politicians and literary men are in the same case… It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety of attributing similar desires to the Deity, whom they imagine avid for continual praise.
    But great as is the influence of the motives we have been considering, there is one which outweighs them all. I mean the love of power. Love of power is closely akin to vanity, but it is not by any means the same thing. What vanity needs for its satisfaction is glory, and it is easy to have glory without power. The people who enjoy the greatest glory in the United States are film stars, but they can be put in their place by the Committee for Un-American Activities, which enjoys no glory whatever.

The pursuit of knowledge is, I think, mainly actuated by love of power.
  • Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely. And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the causal efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is, indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men.
    Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power, and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates.
  • The pursuit of knowledge is, I think, mainly actuated by love of power. And so are all advances in scientific technique. In politics, also, a reformer may have just as strong a love of power as a despot. It would be a complete mistake to decry love of power altogether as a motive. Whether you will be led by this motive to actions which are useful, or to actions which are pernicious, depends upon the social system, and upon your capacities.
  • The politician may change sides so frequently as to find himself always in the majority, but most politicians have a preference for one party to the other, and subordinate their love of power to this preference.
  • A great deal of work is sedentary, and most manual work exercises only a few specialized muscles. When crowds assemble in Trafalgar Square to cheer to the echo an announcement that the government has decided to have them killed, they would not do so if they had all walked twenty-five miles that day. This cure for bellicosity is, however, impracticable, and if the human race is to survive – a thing which is, perhaps, undesirable – other means must be found for securing an innocent outlet for the unused physical energy that produces love of excitement. This is a matter which has been too little considered, both by moralists and by social reformers. The social reformers are of the opinion that they have more serious things to consider. The moralists, on the other hand, are immensely impressed with the seriousness of all the permitted outlets of the love of excitement; the seriousness, however, in their minds, is that of Sin. Dance halls, cinemas, this age of jazz, are all, if we may believe our ears, gateways to Hell, and we should be better employed sitting at home contemplating our sins. I find myself unable to be in entire agreement with the grave men who utter these warnings. The devil has many forms, some designed to deceive the young, some designed to deceive the old and serious. If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves, is it not, perhaps, the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age? And is it not, perhaps, a drug which – like opium – has to be taken in continually stronger doses to produce the desired effect? Is it not to be feared that, beginning with the wickedness of the cinema, we should be led step by step to condemn the opposite political party, dagoes, wops, Asiatics, and, in short, everybody except the fellow members of our club? And it is from just such condemnations, when widespread, that wars proceed. I have never heard of a war that proceeded from dance halls.
  • What is serious about excitement is that so many of its forms are destructive. It is destructive in those who cannot resist excess in alcohol or gambling. It is destructive when it takes the form of mob violence. And above all it is destructive when it leads to war. It is so deep a need that it will find harmful outlets of this kind unless innocent outlets are at hand. There are such innocent outlets at present in sport, and in politics so long as it is kept within constitutional bounds. But these are not sufficient, especially as the kind of politics that is most exciting is also the kind that does most harm. Civilized life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied in hunting.
  • It is normal to hate what we fear, and it happens frequently, though not always, that we fear what we hate. I think it may be taken as the rule among primitive men, that they both fear and hate whatever is unfamiliar. They have their own herd, originally a very small one. And within one herd, all are friends, unless there is some special ground of enmity. Other herds are potential or actual enemies; a single member of one of them who strays by accident will be killed. An alien herd as a whole will be avoided or fought according to circumstances. It is this primitive mechanism which still controls our instinctive reaction to foreign nations. The completely untravelled person will view all foreigners as the savage regards a member of another herd. But the man who has travelled, or who has studied international politics, will have discovered that, if his herd is to prosper, it must, to some degree, become amalgamated with other herds.
  • We love those who hate our enemies, and if we had no enemies there would be very few people whom we should love.
    All this, however, is only true so long as we are concerned solely with attitudes towards other human beings. You might regard the soil as your enemy because it yields reluctantly a niggardly subsistence. You might regard Mother Nature in general as your enemy, and envisage human life as a struggle to get the better of Mother Nature. If men viewed life in this way, cooperation of the whole human race would become easy. And men could easily be brought to view life in this way if schools, newspapers, and politicians devoted themselves to this end. But schools are out to teach patriotism; newspapers are out to stir up excitement; and politicians are out to get re-elected. None of the three, therefore, can do anything towards saving the human race from reciprocal suicide.
  • There are two ways of coping with fear: one is to diminish the external danger, and the other is to cultivate Stoic endurance. The latter can be reinforced, except where immediate action is necessary, by turning our thoughts away from the cause of fear. The conquest of fear is of very great importance. Fear is in itself degrading; it easily becomes an obsession; it produces hate of that which is feared, and it leads headlong to excesses of cruelty. Nothing has so beneficent an effect on human beings as security. If an international system could be established which would remove the fear of war, the improvement in everyday mentality of everyday people would be enormous and very rapid. Fear, at present, overshadows the world. The atom bomb and the bacterial bomb, wielded by the wicked communist or the wicked capitalist as the case may be, make Washington and the Kremlin tremble, and drive men further along the road toward the abyss. If matters are to improve, the first and essential step is to find a way of diminishing fear.
  • The world at present is obsessed by the conflict of rival ideologies, and one of the apparent causes of conflict is the desire for the victory of our own ideology and the defeat of the other. I do not think that the fundamental motive here has much to do with ideologies. I think the ideologies are merely a way of grouping people, and that the passions involved are merely those which always arise between rival groups. Ideologies, in fact, are one of the methods by which herds are created, and the psychology is much the same however the herd may have been generated.
  • I do not think it can be questioned that sympathy is a genuine motive, and that some people at some times are made somewhat uncomfortable by the sufferings of some other people. It is sympathy that has produced the many humanitarian advances of the last hundred years. We are shocked when we hear stories ofthe ill-treatment of lunatics, and there are now quite a number of asylums in which they are not ill-treated. Prisoners in Western countries are not supposed to be tortured, and when they are, there is an outcry if the facts are discovered. We do not approve of treating orphans as they are treated in Oliver Twist.
  • Perhaps the best hope for the future of mankind is that ways will be found of increasing the scope and intensity of sympathy.
  • Politics is concerned with herds rather than with individuals, and the passions which are important in politics are, therefore, those in which the various members of a given herd can feel alike.

The main thing needed to make the world happy is intelligence.

  • Killing an enemy in a modern war is a very expensive operation… It is obvious that modern war is not good business from a financial point of view. Although we won both the world wars, we should now be much richer if they had not occured. If men were actuated by self-interest, which they are not – except in the case of a few saints – the whole human race would cooperate. There would be no more wars, no more armies, no more navies, no more atom bombs. There would not be armies of propagandists employed in poisoning the minds of Nation A against Nation B, and reciprocally of Nation B against Nation A. There would not be armies of officials at frontiers to prevent the entry of foreign books and foreign ideas, however excellent in themselves. There would not be customs barriers to ensure the existence of many small enterprises where one big enterprise would be more economic. All this would happen very quickly if men desired their own happiness as ardently as they desired the misery of their neighbors. But, you will tell me, what is the use of these utopian dreams? Moralists will see to it that we do not become wholly selfish, and until we do the millennium will be impossible.
  • I do not wish to seem to end upon a note of cynicism. I do not deny that there are better things than selfishness, and that some people achieve these things. I maintain, however, on the one hand, that there are few occasions upon which large bodies of men, such as politics is concerned with, can rise above selfishness, while, on the other hand, there are a very great many circumstances in which populations will fall below selfishness, if selfishness is interpreted as enlightened self-interest.
    And among those occasions on which people fall below self-interest are most of the occasions on which they are convinced that they are acting from idealistic motives. Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power. When you see large masses of men swayed by what appear to be noble motives, it is as well to look below the surface and ask yourself what it is that makes these motives effective. It is partly because it is so easy to be taken in by a facade of nobility that a psychological inquiry, such as I have been attempting, is worth making. I would say, in conclusion, that if what I have said is right, the main thing needed to make the world happy is intelligence. And this, after all, is an optimistic conclusion, because intelligence is a thing that can be fostered by known methods of education.

New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)

  • Consider MacArthur and his Republican supporters. So limited is his intelligence and his imagination that he is never puzzled for one moment. All we have to do is to go back to the days of the Opium War. After we have killed a sufficient number of millions of Chinese, the survivors among them will perceive our moral superiority and hail MacArthur as a saviour. But let us not be one-sided. Stalin, I should say, is equally simple- minded and equally out of date. He, too, believes that if his armies could occupy Britain and reduce us all to the economic level of Soviet peasants and the political level of convicts, we should hail him as a great deliverer and bless the day when we were freed from the shackles of democracy. One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.
    • Part I: Man and Nature, Ch. 1: Current Perplexities, pp. 4–5.
  • The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy; I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
    • Part I: Man and Nature, Ch. 1: Current Perplexities, p. 10.
  • It is sometimes maintained that racial mixture is biologically undesirable. There is no evidence whatever for this view. Nor is there, apparently, any reason to think that Negroes are congenitally less intelligent than white people, but as to that it will be difficult to judge until they have equal scope and equally good social conditions.
  • Dread of disaster makes everybody act in the very way that increases the disaster. Psychologically the situation is analogous to that of people trampled to death when there is a panic in a theatre caused by a cry of ‘Fire!’ In the situation that existed in the great depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again. But everybody felt that to do so was to risk almost certain loss. Within the framework of classical economics there was no solution. Roosevelt saved the situation by bold and heretical action. He spent billions of public money and created a huge public debt, but by so doing he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen, who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked, and although Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as ‘the madman in the White House.’ Except for Fabre’s investigation of the behavior of insects, I do not know any equally striking example of inability to learn from experience.
    • Part II: Man and Man, Ch. 14: Economic Co-operation and Competition, pp. 132–3.
  • Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.
    • Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158.
  • The criminal law has, from the point of view of thwarted virtue, the merit of allowing an outlet for those impulses of aggression which cowardice, disguised as morality, restrains in their more spontaneous forms. War has the same merit. You must not kill you neighbor, whom perhaps you genuinely hate, but by a little propaganda this hate can be transferred to some foreign nation, against whom all your murderous impulses become patriotic heroism.
    • Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 17: Fear, p. 175.

Shakespeare did not write with a view to boring school-children; he wrote with a view to delighting his audiences. If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him.

  • Children are made to learn bits of Shakespeare by heart, with the result that ever after they associate him with pedantic boredom. If they could meet him in the flesh, full of jollity and ale, they would be astonished, and if they had never heard of him before they might be led by his jollity to see what he had written. But if at school they had been inoculated against him, they will never be able to enjoy him. The same sort of thing applies to music lessons. Human beings have certain capacities for spontaneous enjoyment, but moralists and pedants possess themselves of the apparatus of these enjoyments, and having extracted what they consider the poison of pleasure they leave them dreary and dismal and devoid of everything that gives them value. Shakespeare did not write with a view to boring school-children; he wrote with a view to delighting his audiences. If he does not give you delight, you had better ignore him.
    • Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 20: The Happy Man, p. 201.
  • Man, in the long ages since he descended from the trees, has passed arduously and perilously through a vast dusty desert, surrounded by the whitening bones of those who have perished by the way, maddened by hunger and thirst, by fear of wild beasts, by dread of enemies, not only living enemies, but spectres of dead rivals projected on to the dangerous world by the intensity of his own fears. At last he has emerged from the desert into a smiling land, but in the long night he has forgotten how to smile. We cannot believe in the brightness of the morning. We think it trivial and deceptive; we cling to old myths that allow us to go on living with fear and hate – above all, hate of ourselves, miserable sinners. This is folly. Man now needs for his salvation only one thing: to open his heart to joy, and leave fear to gibber through the glimmering darkness of a forgotten past. He must lift up his eyes and say: “No, I am not a miserable sinner; I am a being who, by a long and arduous road, has discovered how to make intelligence master natural obstacles, how to live in freedom and joy, at peace with myself and therefore with all mankind.” This will happen if men choose joy rather than sorrow. If not, eternal death will bury man in deserved oblivion.
    • Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 21: The Happy World, pp. 212–3.

The Impact of Science on Society (1952)

Main article: The Impact of Science on Society
  • It is not by prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.
  • Science, ever since the time of the Arabs, has had two functions: (1) to enable us to know things, and (2) to enable us to do things.
  • Some part of life – perhaps the most important part – must be left to the spontaneous action of individual impulse, for where all is system there will be mental and spiritual death.

Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954)

Human Society in Ethics and Politics. London: G. Allen & Unwin. 1954.

The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation.

  • If throughout your life you abstain from murder, theft, fornication, perjury, blasphemy, and disrespect toward your parents, your church, and your king, you are conventionally held to deserve moral admiration even if you have never done a single kind or generous or useful action. This very inadequate notion of virtue is an outcome of taboo morality, and has done untold harm.
    • p. 32.
  • Suppose atomic bombs had reduced the population of the world to one brother and one sister, should they let the human race die out? I do not know the answer, but I do not think it can be in the affirmative merely on the ground that incest is wicked.
    • p. 47.
  • The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals.
    • p. 212.
  • We may define “faith” as a firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of “faith”. We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups substitute different emotions.
    • p. 215.
  • There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.
    • p. 219-220.
  • If you think that your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument, rather then by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based on faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting and distorting the minds of the young in what is called “education”. This last is particularly dastardly, since it takes advantage of the defencelessness of immature minds. Unfortunately it is practiced in greater or less degree in the schools of every civilised country.
    • p. 220.

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto (1955)

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued in London on 9 July 1955 by Bertrand Russell and signed by 11 prominent intellectuals and scientists, most notably Albert Einstein.

We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt.

  • We are speaking on this occasion, not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt.
  • The world is full of conflicts; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle between Communism and anti-Communism.
    Almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but we want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings and consider yourselves only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire.
    We shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it.
  • We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties?

People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. They can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly.

  • The best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.
    Many warnings have been uttered by eminent men of science and by authorities in military strategy. None of them will say that the worst results are certain. What they do say is that these results are possible, and no one can be sure that they will not be realized. We have not yet found that the views of experts on this question depend in any degree upon their politics or prejudices. They depend only, so far as our researches have revealed, upon the extent of the particular expert’s knowledge. We have found that the men who know most are the most gloomy.
  • Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war.
    The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term “mankind” feels vague and abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. They can scarcely bring themselves to grasp that they, individually, and those whom they love are in imminent danger of perishing agonizingly. And so they hope that perhaps war may be allowed to continue provided modern weapons are prohibited.
    This hope is illusory. Whatever agreements not to use H-bombs had been reached in time of peace, they would no longer be considered binding in time of war, and both sides would set to work to manufacture H-bombs as soon as war broke out, for, if one side manufactured the bombs and the other did not, the side that manufactured them would inevitably be victorious.

We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.

  • Most of us are not neutral in feeling, but, as human beings, we have to remember that, if the issues between East and West are to be decided in any manner that can give any possible satisfaction to anybody, whether Communist or anti-Communist, whether Asian or European or American, whether White or Black, then these issues must not be decided by war. We should wish this to be understood, both in the East and in the West.
  • There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death.
  • We invite this Congress, and through it the scientists of the world and the general public, to subscribe to the following resolution:
    “In view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them”.

Portraits from Memory and Other Essays (1956)

  • When I was a child the atmosphere in the house was one of puritan piety and austerity. There were family prayers at eight o’clock every morning. Although there were eight servants, food was always of Spartan simplicity, and even what there was, if it was at all nice, was considered too good for children. For instance, if there was apple tart and rice pudding, I was only allowed the rice pudding. Cold baths all the year round were insisted upon, and I had to practice the piano from seven-thirty to eight every morning although the fires were not yet lit. My grandmother never allowed herself to sit in an armchair until the evening. Alcohol and tobacco were viewed with disfavor although stern convention compelled them to serve a little wine to guests. Only virtue was prized, virtue at the expense of intellect, health, happiness, and every mundane good.
    • p. 9.
  • I was a solitary, shy, priggish youth. I had no experience of the social pleasures of boyhood and did not miss them. But I liked mathematics, and mathematics was suspect because it has no ethical content. I came also to disagree with the theological opinions of my family, and as I grew up I became increasingly interested in philosophy, of which they profoundly disapproved. Every time the subject came up they repeated with unfailing regularity, ‘What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.’ After some fifty or sixty repetitions, this remark ceased to amuse me.
    • p. 9.
  • I think the first thing that led me toward philosophy (though at that time the word ‘philosophy’ was still unknown to me) occurred at the age of eleven. My childhood was mainly solitary as my only brother was seven years older than I was. No doubt as a result of much solitude I became rather solemn, with a great deal of time for thinking but not much knowledge for my thoughtfulness to exercise itself upon. I had, though I was not yet aware of it, the pleasure in demonstrations which is typical of the mathematical mind. After I grew up I found others who felt as I did on this matter. My friend G. H. Hardy, who was professor of pure mathematics, enjoyed this pleasure in a very high degree. He told me once that if he could find a proof that I was going to die in five minutes he would of course be sorry to lose me, but this sorrow would be quite outweighed by pleasure in the proof. I entirely sympathized with him and was not at all offended. Before I began the study of geometry somebody had told me that it proved things and this caused me to feel delight when my brother said he would teach it to me. Geometry in those days was still ‘Euclid.’ My brother began at the beginning with the definitions. These I accepted readily enough. But he came next to the axioms. ‘These,’ he said, ‘can’t be proved, but they have to be assumed before the rest can be proved.’ At these words my hopes crumbled. I had thought it would be wonderful to find something that one could prove, and then it turned out that this could only be done by means of assumptions of which there was no proof. I looked at my brother with a sort of indignation and said: ‘But why should I admit these things if they can’t be proved?’ He replied, ‘Well, if you won’t, we can’t go on.’
    • p. 19.
  • My first advice (on how not to grow old) would be to choose you ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth, at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off.
    • p. 50.
  • I wanted certainty in the kind of way in which people want religious faith. I thought that certainty is more likely to be found in mathematics than elsewhere. But I discovered that many mathematical demonstrations, which my teachers expected me to accept, were full of fallacies, and that, if certainty were indeed discoverable in mathematics, it would be in a new field of mathematics, with more solid foundations than those that had hitherto been thought secure. But as the work proceeded, I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was no more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of very arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.
    • p. 53.
  • Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the ‘common man.’ They may admit that in organic chemistry there is need of long words, and that quantum physics requires formulas that are difficult to translate into ordinary English, but philosophy (they think) is different. It is not the function of philosophy – so they maintain – to teach something that uneducated people do not know; on the contrary, its function is to teach superior persons that they are not as superior as they thought they were, and that those who are really superior can show their skill by making sense of common sense. No one wants to alter the language of common sense, any more than we wish to give up talking of the sun rising and setting. But astronomers find a different language better, and I contend that a different language is better in philosophy. Let us take an example, that of perception. There is here an admixture of philosophical and scientific questions, but this admixture is inevitable in many questions, or, if not inevitable, can only be avoided by confining ourselves to comparatively unimportant aspects of the matter in hand. Here is a series of questions and answers.
    Q. When I see a table, will what I see be still there if I shut my eyes?
    A. That depends upon the sense in which you use the word ‘see.’
    Q. What is still there when I shut my eyes?
    A. This is an empirical question. Don’t bother me with it, but ask the physicists.
    Q. What exists when my eyes are open, but not when they are shut?
    A. This again is empirical, but in deference to previous philosophers I will answer you: colored surfaces.
    Q. May I infer that there are two senses of ‘see’? In the first, when I ‘see’ a table, I ‘see’ something conjectural about which physics has vague notions that are probably wrong. In the second, I ‘see’ colored surfaces which cease to exist when I shut my eyes.
    A. That is correct if you want to think clearly, but our philosophy makes clear thinking unnecessary. By oscillating between the two meanings, we avoid paradox and shock, which is more than most philosophers do.

    • p. 159.
  • In fact, contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people’s happiness, and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.
    • p. 198.
  • My objections to Marx are of two sorts: one, that he was muddle-headed; and the other, that his thinking was almost entirely inspired by hatred. The doctrine of surplus value, which is supposed to demonstrate the exploitation of wage-earners under capitalism, is arrived at: (a) by surreptitiously accepting Malthus‘s doctrine of population, which Marx and all his disciples explicitly repudiate; (b) by applying Ricardo‘s theory of value to wages, but not to the prices of manufactured articles. He is entirely satisfied with the result, not because it is in accordance with the facts or because it is logically coherent, but because it is calculated to rouse fury in wage-earners. Marx’s doctrine that all historical events have been motivated by class conflicts is a rash and untrue extension to world history of certain features prominent in England and France a hundred years ago. His belief that there is a cosmic force called Dialectical Materialism which governs human history independently of human volitions, is mere mythology. His theoretical errors, however, would not have mattered so much but for the fact that, like Tertullian and Carlyle, his chief desire was to see his enemies punished, and he cared little what happened to his friends in the process.
    • p. 211.

My Philosophical Development (1959)

  • Some modern philosophers have gone so far as to say that words should never be confronted with facts but should live in a pure, autonomous world where they are compared only with other words. When you say, ‘the cat is a carnivorous animal,’ you do not mean that actual cats eat actual meat, but only that in zoology books the cat is classified among carnivora. These authors tell us that the attempt to confront language with fact is ‘metaphysics’ and is on this ground to be condemned. This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them.
    • p. 110.
  • I do not think it possible to get anywhere if we start from scepticism. We must start from a broad acceptance of whatever seems to be knowledge and is not rejected for some specific reason.
    • p. 200.
  • My abandonment of former beliefs was, however, never complete. Some things remained with me, and still remain: I still think that truth depends upon a relation to fact, and that facts in general are nonhuman; I still think that man is cosmically unimportant, and that a Being, if there were one, who could view the universe impartially, without the bias of here and now, would hardly mention man, except perhaps in a footnote near the end of the volume; but I no longer have the wish to thrust out human elements from regions where they belong; I have no longer the feeling that intellect is superior to sense, and that only Plato’s world of ideas gives access to the ‘real’ world. I used to think of sense, and of thought which is built on sense, as a prison from which we can be freed by thought which is emancipated from sense. I now have no such feelings. I think of sense, and of thoughts built on sense, as windows, not as prison bars. I think that we can, however imperfectly, mirror the world, like Leibniz’s monads; and I think it is the duty of the philosopher to make himself as undistorting a mirror as he can. But it is also his duty to recognize such distortions as are inevitable from our very nature. Of these, the most fundamental is that we view the world from the point of view of the here and now, not with that large impartiality which theists attribute to the Deity. To achieve such impartiality is impossible for us, but we can travel a certain distance towards it. To show the road to this end is the supreme duty of the philosopher.
    • p. 213
  • I must before I die, find some way to say the essential thing that is in me, that I have never said yet – a thing that is not love or hate or pity or scorn, but the very breath of life, fierce and coming from far away, bringing into human life the vastness and fearful passionless force of non-human things…
    • p. 261

1960s

  • You, your families, your friends and your countries are to be exterminated by the common decision of a few brutal but powerful men. To please these men, all the private affections, all the public hopes, all that has been achieved in art, and knowledge and thought and all that might be achieved hereafter is to be wiped out forever.
    Our ruined lifeless planet will continue for countless ages to circle aimlessly round the sun unredeemed by the joys and loves, the occasional wisdom and the power to create beauty which have given value to human life.

    • Leaflet issued while Russell was in Brixton Prison, 1961.
  • We used to think that Hitler was wicked when he wanted to kill all the Jews, but what Kennedy and Macmillan and others both in the East and in the West pursue policies which will probably lead to killing not only all the Jews but all the rest of us too. They are much more wicked than Hitler and this idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly and absolutely horrible and it is a thing which no man with one spark of humanity can tolerate and I will not pretend to obey a government which is organising the massacre of the whole of mankind. I will do anything I can to oppose such Governments in any non-violent way that seems likely to be fruitful, and I should exhort all of you to feel the same way. We cannot obey these murderers. They are wicked and abominable. They are the wickedest people that ever lived in the history of man and it is our duty to do what we can.
    • “On Civil Disobedience”, April 15th, 1961.
  • No, I won’t.
    • Reply to a magistrate’s request that he pledge himself to “good behavior”, after an anti-nuclear demonstration in London, for which Russell was arrested (in September 1961), as quoted in Intercontinental Press, Vol. VIII (1970), p. 132.
  • The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.
    • Introduction to 1961 edition of Sceptical Essays (1961).
  • This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate. I will not pretend to obey a government which is organising a mass massacre of mankind.
    • Speech in Birmingham, England encouraging civil disobedience in support of nuclear disarmament (1961-04-15).
  • Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.
    • Fact and Fiction, “University Education”, 1961.
  • I resolved from the beginning of my quest that I would not be misled by sentiment and desire into beliefs for which there was no good evidence.
    • Fact and Fiction, “The Pursuit of Truth”, 1961.
  • Friends,

    I have a very simple creed: that life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death.

    This is an occasion that I hardly know how to find words for. I am more touched than I can say, and more deeply than I can ever hope to express. I have to give my very warmest possible thanks to those who have worked to produce this occasion: to the performers, whose exquisite music, exquisitely performed, was so full of delight; to those who worked in less conspicuous ways, like my friend Mr Schoenman; and to all those who have given me gifts – gifts which are valuable in themselves, and also as expressions of an undying hope for this dangerous world.
    I have a very simple creed: that life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death, and I think when we listen to such music as we heard today we must all of us feel that the capacity to produce such music, and the capacity to hear such music, is a thing worth preserving and should not be thrown away in foolish squabbles. You may say it’s a simple creed, but I think everything important is very simple indeed. I’ve found that creed sufficient, and I should think that a great many of you would also find it sufficient, or else you would hardly be here.
    But now I just want to say how it’s difficult, when one has embarked upon a course which invites a greater or less degree of persecution and obloquy and abuse, to find instead that one is welcomed as I have been today. It makes one feel rather humble, and I feel I must try to live up to the feelings that have produced this occasion. I hope I shall; and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    • Ninetieth birthday celebration speech, 18 May 1962.
  • I must confess that I am deeply troubled. I fear that human beings are intent upon acting out a vast deathwish and that it lies with us now to make every effort to promote resistance to the insanity and brutality of policies which encompass the extermination of hundreds of millions of human beings.
  • Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.
    • Has Man a Future? (1962), p. 78.
  • I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.
    • Unarmed Victory (1963), p. 14.
  • I am writing to you to tell you of my decision to return to your Government the Carl von Ossietzsky medal for peace. I do so reluctantly and after two years of private approaches on behalf of Heinz Brandt, whose continued imprisonment is a barrier to coexistence, relaxation of tension and understanding between East and West… I regret not to have heard from you on this subject. I hope that you will yet find it possible to release Brandt through an amnesty which would be a boon to the cause of peace and to your country.
    • Letter to Walter Ulbricht, January 7, 1964. Russell would later write, in his autobiography: “The abduction and imprisonment by the East Germans of Brandt, who had survived Hitler’s concentration camps, seemed to me so inhuman that I was obliged to return to the East German Government the Carl von Ossietzky medal which it had awarded me. I was impressed by the speed with which Brandt was soon released”.
  • In the name of national security, the Commission’s hearings were held in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course of the case. This prompts my second question: If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed, precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?
  • Your comments on the Cuban crisis are, to me, utterly amazing. You say that the way the solution was arrived at was that ‘the Russians discontinued their suicidal policy; and President Kennedy by his resolution and farsightedness saved the world’. This seems to me a complete reversal of the truth. Russia and America had policies leading directly to nuclear war. Khrushchev, when he saw the danger, abandoned his policy. Kennedy did not. It was Khrushchev who allowed the human race to continue, not Kennedy.
    • Letter to Lord Gladwyn, November 14, 1964.

      There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.

  • The degree of one’s emotion varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts – the less you know the hotter you get.
    • Attributed to Russell in Distilled Wisdom (1964) by Alfred Armand Montapert, p. 145.
  • Whatever happens, I cannot be a silent witness to murder or torture. Anyone who is a partner in this is a despicable individual. I am sorry I cannot be moderate about it…
    • Quoted in The New York Times Biographical Service, Vol. I (1970), p. 294 (said by Russell “in the spring of 1967”).
  • There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.
    • Last Essay: “1967”.
  • The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was “given” by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East.
    • “Message from Bertrand Russell to the International Conference of Parlimentarians in Cairo, February 1970,” reprinted in The New York Times (1970-02-23).

The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969)

Main article: The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell
  • Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
  • He asked my religion and I replied ‘agnostic’. He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: ‘Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God. This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.
  • We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in. I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly, ‘If I cannot smoke, I shall die’. Unexpectedly, this turned out to be true.
  • I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken.

Attributed from posthumous publications

Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.
  • I’ve got a one-dimensional mind.
    • Said to Rupert Crawshay-Williams; Russell Remembered (1970), p. 31.
  • Why? Surely they can find other men.
    • Russell’s reply when asked “if it wasn’t unkind of him to love and leave so many women”; as quoted in My Father – Bertrand Russell (1975) by Katharine Tait, p. 106.
  • “I don’t want to! Why should I?”
    “Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don’t.”
    “So what? I don’t care about other people.”
    “You should.”
    “But why?”
    “Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don’t.”

    • Dialogue between Russell and his daugther Katharine, as quoted in My Father – Bertrand Russell (1975).
  • It’s not the experience that happens to you: it’s what you do with the experience that happens to you.
    • Attributed to Russell in Slaby’s Sixty Ways to Make Stress Work for You (1987).
  • Yes, if you happen to be interested in philosophy and good at it, but not otherwise – but so does bricklaying. Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.
    • When asked “Does philosophy contribute to happiness?” (SHM 76), as quoted in The quotable Bertrand Russell (1993), p. 149.
  • Wherever one finds oneself inclined to bitterness, it is a sign of emotional failure: a larger heart, and a greater self-restraint, would put a calm autumnal sadness in the place of the instinctive outcry of pain.
    • The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell: Contemplation and Action, 1902-1914, ed. Richard A. Rempel, Andrew Brink and Margaret Moran (Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-10462-9): Textual Notes, p. 555; also in Laurence J. Peter Quotations for our time (1978), p. 188.
  • I cannot believe – and I say this with all the emphasis of which I am capable – that there can ever be any good excuse for refusing to face the evidence in favour of something unwelcome. It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.
    • “The Pursuit of Truth” in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell (1993).
  • There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, nor vastness anywhere; only triviality for a moment and then nothing.
    • Attributed to Russell in Ken Davis’ Fire Up Your Life! (1995), p. 33.
  • No man who believes that all is for the best in this suffering world can keep his ethical values unimpaired, since he is always having to find excuses for pain and misery.
    • The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell: A fresh look at empiricism, 1927-42 (G. Allen & Unwin, 1996), p. 217.
  • Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.
    • Ibid., p. 281.
  • It seems that sin is geographical. From this conclusion, it is only a small step to the further conclusion that the notion of “sin” is illusory, and that the cruelty habitually practised in punishing it is unnecessary.
    • Ibid., p. 283.
  • Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure…
    • Ibid., p. 443.
  • It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go. The difference is that you can compel your car to go to a garage, but you cannot compel Hitler to go to a psychiatrist.
    • Ibid., p. 544.
  • The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
    • Attributed to Russell in Crainer’s The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations (1997), p. 258.
  • To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.
    • As quoted in Williams‘ Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics (2001), p. 498.
  • Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who’ll get the blame.
    • Attributed to Russell in Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists (2007), p. 346.

Disputed

  • War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
    • This has often been published as a quotation of Russell, when an author is given (e.g. in Quote Unquote – A HandBook of Quotation, 2005, p. 291), but without any sourced citations, and seems to have circulated as an anonymous proverb as early as 1932.
  • In all affairs – love, religion, politics, or business – it’s a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
  • If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.
    • As quoted in Think, Vol. 27 (1961), p. 32.
  • Of course not. After all, I may be wrong.
    • When asked asked if he was willing to die for his beliefs.
    • The Times book of quotations (2000), p. 84
    • Variant: “I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.“
  • Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.
    • Attributed to Russell in Prochnow‘s Speakers Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 132.
  • I believe in using words, not fists… I believe in my outrage knowing people are living in boxes on the street. I believe in honesty. I believe in a good time. I believe in good food. I believe in sex.
  • One must care about a world one will not see.
    • Attributed to Russell in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 450, and in Robertson’s Dictionary of Quotations (1998), p. 362, but no specific source is ever given.

Misattributed

  • None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.
    • Attributed to Russell in M. Kumar Dictionary of Quotations, p. 76, but actually said by Marshal Lannes, according to The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences (1824), p. 664.
  • If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.
    • W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer’s Notebook (1949), entry for 1901
    • Sometimes misquoted as “If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
    • Sometimes misattributed to Anatole France
    • Note that Russell does say something similar in Marriage and Morals (1929): “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”
  • The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
    • From Marthe Troly-Curtin’s Phrynette Married (1912). Misattributed to Bertrand Russell due to an ambiguous entry in Laurence J. Peter‘s Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977). [1]
  • The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
    • Attributed to Reverend Theodore Hesburgh in Sol Gordon Let’s Make Sex a Household Word: A Guide for Parents and Children (John Day Company, 1975), p. 79.
  • Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence.
    • Attributed to Russell in the New York Times article So God’s Really in the Details? (May 11, 2002) by Emily Eakin, where she writes: “Asked what he would say if God appeared to him after his death and demanded to know why he had failed to believe, the British philosopher and staunch evidentialist Bertrand Russell replied that he would say, ‘Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence.’
      Actually, the quote is slightly inaccurate. The original source of this line comes from an article by Leo Rosten published in Saturday Review/World (February 23, 1974) which features an interview with Russell. There, Rosten writes: “Confronted with the Almighty, [Russell] would ask, ‘Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’“
  • If a “religion” is defined to be a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements, then Gödel taught us that mathematics is not only a religion, it is the only religion that can prove itself to be one.

Quotes about Russell

Bertrand Russell would not have wished to be called a saint of any description; but he was a great and good man. ~ A.J. Ayer

It is difficult to overstate the extent to which Russell’s thought dominated twentieth century analytic philosophy: virtually every strand in its development either originated with him or was transformed by being transmitted through him. ~ Nicholas Griffin

He was the most fascinating man I have ever known, the only man I ever loved, the greatest man I shall ever meet, the wittiest, the gayest, the most charming. It was a privilege to know him, and I thank God he was my father. ~ Lady Katherine Tait

It is impossible to describe Bertrand Russell except by saying that he looks like the Mad Hatter. ~ Norbert Wiener

  • Bertrand Russell would not have wished to be called a saint of any description; but he was a great and good man.
  • As we all know, Mr. Russell produces a different system of philosophy every few years…
    • C. D. Broad, ‘Critical and Speculative Philosophy’ (1924), as quoted in Contemporary British Philosophy: Personal Statements, ed. J. H. Muirhead, Volume 20, p. 79.
  • Bertrand Russell is the key defining figure of analytic philosophy.
    • Nicholas Capaldi, in The Enlightenment Project in the Analytic Conversation (1998), p. 28.
  • The great thing about [Russell] is that he will not give in – to prudence, cynicism or simple horse sense. Sometime, somewhere, he agonizes, the rational man will make a decent world of his instincts. Considered as a type, he is a perennial scold. But considered as Bertrand Russell, he is surely one of the glories of our time… For he is at once a man of unyielding honesty, a first-class intellect and the possessor of one of the master styles of the English language. It is the last of these gifts that guarantees the onlooker an unflagging fascination with his life. For it gives charm to many a frailty, makes the world over every day in the light of his intelligence and his irony, and converts every political crusade, exchange of learned correspondence and lovers’ quarrel into an episode as enchanting as a Mozart concerto.
    • Alistair Cooke, ‘Act II of a Prodigious Life’, a LIFE book review of Russell’s Autobiography, 9 August 1968.
  • Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
  • My husband, T. S. Eliot, loved to recount how late one evening he stopped a taxi. As he got in the driver said: ‘You’re T. S. Eliot.’ When asked how he knew, he replied: ‘Ah, I’ve got an eye for a celebrity. Only the other evening I picked up Bertrand Russell, and I said to him, “Well, Lord Russell, what’s it all about,” and, do you know, he couldn’t tell me.’
    • Valerie Eliot (T.S. Eliot‘s widow), in a letter to the London Times.
  • What is it about the study of philosophy that tends to make brilliant minds stupid when it comes down to what are known as actual cases? Consider Martin Heidegger, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, the four great names in twentieth-century philosophy: the first was a Nazi, the second died certain that America was responsible for all the world’s evil, the third was a Stalinist long after any justification for being so could be adduced, and the fourth lived on the borders of madness most of his life. Contemplation of the lives of philosophers is enough to drive one to the study of sociology.
  • It is difficult to overstate the extent to which Russell’s thought dominated twentieth century analytic philosophy: virtually every strand in its development either originated with him or was transformed by being transmitted through him. Analytic philosophy itself owes its existence more to Russell than to any other philosopher.
    • Nicholas Griffin, in The Cambridge Companion to Bertrand Russell (2003).
  • I can remember Bertrand Russell telling me of a horrible dream. He was in the top floor of the University Library, about A.D. 2100. A library assistant was going round the shelves carrying an enormous bucket, taking down books, glancing at them, restoring them to the shelves or dumping them into the bucket. At last he came to three large volumes which Russell could recognize as the last surviving copy of Principia Mathematica. He took down one of the volumes, turned over a few pages, seemed puzzled for a moment by the curious symbolism, closed the volume, balanced it in his hand and hesitated….
  • Russell’s prose has been compared by T.S. Eliot to that of David Hume‘s. I would rank it higher, for it had more color, juice, and humor. But to be lucid, exciting and profound in the main body of one’s work is a combination of virtues given to few philosophers. Bertrand Russell has achieved immortality by his philosophical writings.
    • Sydney Hook, Out of Step, An Unquiet Life in the 20th Century (1988).
  • As an admirer and reader of his, one day I could not contain myself and spoke to him. “Mr. Russell,” I said, “I know why I eat here. It is because I am poor. But why do you eat here?” “Because,” he said, “I am never interrupted.”
    • William Jovanovich (American publisher), in University: A Princeton Magazine (1964), p. 67.
  • The mind of Bertrand Russell is the anthropomorphized apex of supreme intelligence.
    • Ethel Mannin, in Confessions and Impressions (1930), p. 274.
  • I felt the theory [of relativity] was about the greatest intellectual advance and illumination that had ever happened. I explained it to Russell, who at that time knew no physics. He was similarly staggered. Suddenly he burst out (to Dora‘s consternation): ‘To think I have spent my life on absolute muck.’
  • All Bertrand Russell said about [his meeting with Einstein] (apart from how wonderful Einstein looked, and his wonderful eyes) was that Einstein told him a dirty story. I said that Einstein was well known for consummate tact in adapting himself to his company.
  • Russell, when asked to give an example of how any statement whatever, say that Russell (a renowned atheist) is the Pope, might follow from the self-contradictory statement 5=2+2, suggested that 3 be subtracted from both sides of this supposed equality; it follows that 2=1, thus two different persons, viz. Bertrand Russell and the Pope, form one person; hence Russell is the Pope.
    • Witold Marciszewski, in Logic from a Rhetorical Point of View (1994), p. 109.
  • At one time, many philosophers held that faultless “laws of thought” were somehow inherent, a priori, in the very nature of mind. This belief was twice shaken in the past century; first when Russell and his successors showed how the logic men employ can be defective, and later when Freud and Piaget started to reveal the tortuous ways in which our minds actually develop. After Russell observed that the seemingly frivolous “Who shaves the Barber, who shaves everyone who does not shave himself?” was a truly serious obstacle to formalizing common sense logic, he and others tried to develop new formalisms that voided such problems — by preventing the fatal self-references. But the proposed substitutes were much too complicated to serve for everyday use.
  • Its enduring value was simply a deeper understanding of the central concepts of mathematics and their basic laws and interrelationships. Their total translatability into just elementary logic and a simple familiar two-place predicate, membership, is of itself a philosophical sensation.
  • Russell’s is undeniably one of the great minds of our time. It has always been impelled by a passionate and relentless curiosity and a hatred of cruelty and injustice. An aristocratic gadfly, he has never for any reason hesitated to speak out on any issue that engaged him.
    Although born in the Victorian era… he seems more like an 18th Century figure from the Age of Reason like Voltaire, whom he strikingly resembles both in physiognomy and spirit. Philosophy is an abstruse subject, which Russell once defined as an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously; the fame of philosophers seldom spreads beyond the confines of university campuses. But Russell’s has, because for the last 40 years he has striven to think about complex current issues – politics, history, ethics, economics – and to convey his thoughts to those who longed for insight in language they could understand. And whatever Bertrand Russell has done, wherever he has gone there has usually been laughter.

    • LIFE, Editorials, Bertrand Russell is 80, ‘A great mind is still annoying and adorning our age’, 26 May 1952.
  • Russell is the greatest logician since Aristotle, but he is not always quite reasonable or consistent, partly, I think, because he is a socialist who has never discarded an aristocratic outlook.
    • Nancy Mitford, ‘Bertrand Bedazzled by Euclid and Free Love’, a LIFE book review of Russell’s Autobiography, 28 April 1967.
  • Bertrand Russell won immortality with his contributions to our understanding of logic.
    • Marshall H. Stone, in a review of Russell’s Autobiography, featured in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 1968.
  • Christians were mocked for imagining that man is important in the vast scheme of the universe, even the high point of all creation – and yet my father thought man and his preservation the most important thing in the world, and he lived in hopes of a better life to come. He was by temperament a profoundly religious man, a sort of passionate moralist who would have been a saint in a more believing age. I believe myself that his whole life was a search for God… Somewhere at the back of my father’s mind, at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that had once been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put it in.
  • I would have liked to convince my father that I had found what he had been looking for, the ineffable something he had longed for all his life. I would have liked to persuade him that the search for God does not have to be in vain. But it was hopeless. He had known too many blind Christians, bleak moralists who sucked the joy from life and persecuted their opponents; he would never have been able to see the truth they were hiding.
  • He was the most fascinating man I have ever known, the only man I ever loved, the greatest man I shall ever meet, the wittiest, the gayest, the most charming. It was a privilege to know him, and I thank God he was my father.
  • Russell is a Platonic dialogue in himself.
    • Alfred North Whitehead, as quoted in Bertrand Russell’s Theory of Knowledge (Routledge, 2013), ‘Conclusion’, p. 222.
  • A gentle, even shy man, Russell was delightful as a conversationalist, companion and friend. He was capable of a pyrotechnical display of wit, erudition and curiosity, and he bubbled with anecdotes about the world’s greats.
  • It is impossible to describe Bertrand Russell except by saying that he looks like the Mad Hatter.
  • Russell’s books should be bound in two colours, those dealing with mathematical logic in red – and all students of philosophy should read them; those dealing with ethics and politics in blue – and no one should be allowed to read them.
  • This is the great paradox of Russell. All his instincts were on the side of the “rationalists”; his greatest hatred was for those who exalted emotion, or any sort of mystic intuition, at the expense of reason. But because Russell was the greatest rationalist of all, he had to admit that reason cannot prove the mystics wrong. In fact, in some private moods he was a mystic himself.
    • Alan Wood, in Bertrand Russell the Passionate Skeptic: A Biography (1958), Volume 2, p. 62

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS[55] (/ˈrʌsəl/; 18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic and political activist.[56][57] At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these in any profound sense.[58] He was born in Monmouthshire, into one of the most prominent aristocratic families in Britain.[59]

Russell led the British “revolt against idealism” in the early 20th century.[60] He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege, colleague G. E. Moore, and his protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century’s premier logicians.[57] With A. N. Whitehead he wrote Principia Mathematica, an attempt to create a logical basis for mathematics. His philosophical essay “On Denoting” has been considered a “paradigm of philosophy”.[61] His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science (see type theory and type system), and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.

Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed anti-imperialism[62][63] and went to prison for his pacifism during World War I.[64] Later, he campaigned against Adolf Hitler, then criticised Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, and was an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament.[65] In 1950 Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought“.[66][67]

See also:

The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
Political Ideals (1917)
Marriage and Morals (1929)
The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
Mortals and Others (1931-35)
A History of Western Philosophy (1945)
Unpopular Essays (1950)
The Impact of Science on Society (1952)
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969)

Biography

Early life and background

Young Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell was born on 18 May 1872 at Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, into an influential and liberal family of the British aristocracy.[68] His parents, Viscount and Viscountess Amberley, were radical for their times. Lord Amberley consented to his wife’s affair with their children’s tutor, the biologist Douglas Spalding. Both were early advocates of birth control at a time when this was considered scandalous.[69] Lord Amberley was an atheist and his atheism was evident when he asked the philosopher John Stuart Mill to act as Russell’s secular godfather.[70] Mill died the year after Russell’s birth, but his writings had a great effect on Russell’s life.

His paternal grandfather, the Earl Russell, had been asked twice by Queen Victoria to form a government, serving her as Prime Minister in the 1840s and 1860s.[71] The Russells had been prominent in England for several centuries before this, coming to power and the peerage with the rise of the Tudor dynasty (see: Duke of Bedford). They established themselves as one of Britain’s leading Whig families, and participated in every great political event from the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536–40 to the Glorious Revolution in 1688–89 and the Great Reform Act in 1832.[71][72]

Lady Amberley was the daughter of Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley.[65] Russell often feared the ridicule of his maternal grandmother,[73] one of the campaigners for education of women.[74]

Childhood and adolescence

Russell had two siblings: brother Frank (nearly seven years older than Bertrand), and sister Rachel (four years older). In June 1874 Russell’s mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachel’s death. In January 1876, his father died of bronchitis following a long period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian paternal grandparents, who lived at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. His grandfather, former Prime Minister Earl Russell, died in 1878, and was remembered by Russell as a kindly old man in a wheelchair. His grandmother, the Countess Russell (née Lady Frances Elliot), was the dominant family figure for the rest of Russell’s childhood and youth.[65][69]

Pembroke Lodge, Russell’s childhood home

The countess was from a Scottish Presbyterian family, and successfully petitioned the Court of Chancery to set aside a provision in Amberley’s will requiring the children to be raised as agnostics. Despite her religious conservatism, she held progressive views in other areas (accepting Darwinism and supporting Irish Home Rule), and her influence on Bertrand Russell’s outlook on social justice and standing up for principle remained with him throughout his life. (One could challenge the view that Bertrand stood up for his principles, based on his own well-known quotation: “I would never die for my beliefs, I could be wrong”.) Her favourite Bible verse, ‘Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil’ (Exodus 23:2), became his motto. The atmosphere at Pembroke Lodge was one of frequent prayer, emotional repression, and formality; Frank reacted to this with open rebellion, but the young Bertrand learned to hide his feelings.

Russell’s adolescence was very lonely, and he often contemplated suicide. He remarked in his autobiography that his keenest interests were in religion and mathematics, and that only his wish to know more mathematics kept him from suicide.[75] He was educated at home by a series of tutors.[76] At age eleven, his brother Frank introduced him to the work of Euclid, which transformed Russell’s life.[69][77]

During these formative years he also discovered the works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his autobiography, he writes: “I spent all my spare time reading him, and learning him by heart, knowing no one to whom I could speak of what I thought or felt, I used to reflect how wonderful it would have been to know Shelley, and to wonder whether I should meet any live human being with whom I should feel so much sympathy”.[78] Russell claimed that beginning at age 15, he spent considerable time thinking about the validity of Christian religious dogma, which he found very unconvincing. At this age, he came to the conclusion that there is no free will and, two years later, that there is no life after death. Finally, at the age of 18, after reading Mill‘s “Autobiography”, he abandoned the “First Cause” argument and became an atheist.[79][80]

University and first marriage

Russell won a scholarship to read for the Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, and commenced his studies there in 1890,[81] taking as coach Robert Rumsey Webb. He became acquainted with the younger George Edward Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles. He quickly distinguished himself in mathematics and philosophy, graduating as a high Wrangler in 1893 and becoming a Fellow in the latter in 1895.[82][83]

Russell first met the American Quaker Alys Pearsall Smith when he was 17 years old. He became a friend of the Pearsall Smith family—they knew him primarily as ‘Lord John’s grandson’ and enjoyed showing him off—and travelled with them to the continent; it was in their company that Russell visited the Paris Exhibition of 1889 and was able to climb the Eiffel Tower soon after it was completed.[84]

He soon fell in love with the puritanical, high-minded Alys, who was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, and, contrary to his grandmother’s wishes, married her on 13 December 1894. Their marriage began to fall apart in 1901 when it occurred to Russell, while he was cycling, that he no longer loved her.[85] She asked him if he loved her and he replied that he didn’t. Russell also disliked Alys’s mother, finding her controlling and cruel. It was to be a hollow shell of a marriage and they finally divorced in 1921, after a lengthy period of separation.[86] During this period, Russell had passionate (and often simultaneous) affairs with a number of women, including Lady Ottoline Morrell[87] and the actress Lady Constance Malleson.[88]

Early career

Russell in 1907

Russell began his published work in 1896 with German Social Democracy, a study in politics that was an early indication of a lifelong interest in political and social theory. In 1896 he taught German social democracy at the London School of Economics, where he also lectured on the science of power in the autumn of 1937.[89] He was a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb.[90]

He now started an intensive study of the foundations of mathematics at Trinity. In 1898 he wrote An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry which discussed the Cayley-Klein metrics used for non-Euclidean geometry.[91] He attended the International Congress of Philosophy in Paris in 1900 where he met Giuseppe Peano and Alessandro Padoa. The Italians had responded to Georg Cantor, making a science of set theory; they gave Russell their literature including the Formulario mathematico. Russell was impressed by the precision of Peano’s arguments at the Congress, read the literature upon returning to England, and came upon Russell’s paradox. In 1903 he published The Principles of Mathematics, a work on foundations of mathematics. It advanced a thesis of logicism, that mathematics and logic are one and the same.[92]

At the age of 29, in February 1901, Russell underwent what he called a “sort of mystic illumination”, after witnessing Whitehead‘s wife’s acute suffering in an angina attack. “I found myself filled with semi-mystical feelings about beauty… and with a desire almost as profound as that of the Buddha to find some philosophy which should make human life endurable”, Russell would later recall. “At the end of those five minutes, I had become a completely different person.”[93]

In 1905 he wrote the essay “On Denoting“, which was published in the philosophical journal Mind. Russell became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908.[55][65] The three-volume Principia Mathematica, written with Whitehead, was published between 1910 and 1913. This, along with the earlier The Principles of Mathematics, soon made Russell world-famous in his field.

In 1910 he became a lecturer in the University of Cambridge, where he was approached by the Austrian engineering student Ludwig Wittgenstein, who became his PhD student. Russell viewed Wittgenstein as a genius and a successor who would continue his work on logic. He spent hours dealing with Wittgenstein’s various phobias and his frequent bouts of despair. This was often a drain on Russell’s energy, but Russell continued to be fascinated by him and encouraged his academic development, including the publication of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1922.[94] Russell delivered his lectures on Logical Atomism, his version of these ideas, in 1918, before the end of the First World War. Wittgenstein was, at that time, serving in the Austrian Army and subsequently spent nine months in an Italian prisoner of war camp at the end of the conflict.

First World War

During the First World War, Russell was one of the very few people to engage in active pacifist activities,[95] and in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm Act.

Russell played a significant part in the Leeds Convention in June 1917 — a historic event which saw well over a thousand “anti-war socialists” gather; many being delegates from the Independent Labour Party and the Socialist Party, united in their pacifist beliefs and advocating a peace settlement.[96] The international press reported that Russell appeared alongside a number of Labour MPs, including both the future Prime Minister, Ramsey McDonald, and the future Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden and that former Liberal MP, and anti-conscription campaigner, Professor Arnold Lupton, was also a guest. After the event, Russell told Lady Ottoline that, “to my surprise, when I got up to speak, I was given the greatest ovation that was possible to give anybody”.[97][98]

The Trinity incident resulted in Russell being charged a fine of £100, which he refused to pay, hoping that he would be sent to prison. However, his books were sold at auction to raise the money. The books were bought by friends; he later treasured his copy of the King James Bible that was stamped “Confiscated by Cambridge Police”.

A later conviction for publicly lecturing against inviting the US to enter the war on Britain’s side resulted in six months’ imprisonment in Brixton prison (see Bertrand Russell’s views on society) in 1918.[99] While in prison, Russell read enormously, and wrote the book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy.[100] He was reinstated in 1919, resigned in 1920, was Tarner Lecturer 1926, and became a Fellow again in 1944 and remained as such until 1949.[101]

In 1924, Bertrand again gained press attention when attending a “banquet” in the House of Commons with well-known campaigners, including Arnold Lupton, who had been both a Member of Parliament and had also endured imprisonment for “passive resistance to military or naval service”.[102]

Between the wars

In August 1920 Russell travelled to Russia as part of an official delegation sent by the British government to investigate the effects of the Russian Revolution.[103] He met Vladimir Lenin and had an hour-long conversation with him. In his autobiography, he mentions that he found Lenin rather disappointing, sensing an “impish cruelty” in him and comparing him to “an opinionated professor”. He cruised down the Volga on a steamship. His experiences destroyed his previous tentative support for the revolution. He wrote a book The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism[104] about his experiences on this trip, taken with a group of 24 others from Britain, all of whom came home thinking well of the régime, despite Russell’s attempts to change their minds. For example, he told them that he heard shots fired in the middle of the night and was sure these were clandestine executions, but the others maintained that it was only cars backfiring.[citation needed]

Russell’s lover Dora Black, a British author, feminist and socialist campaigner, visited Russia independently at the same time; in contrast to his reaction, she was enthusiastic about the revolution.[104]

The next fall Russell went, accompanied by Dora, to Beijing to lecture on philosophy for one year.[76] He went with optimism and hope, seeing China as then being on a new path.[citation needed] Other scholars present in China at the time included John Dewey[105] and Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian Nobel-laureate poet.[76] Before leaving China, Russell became gravely ill with pneumonia, and incorrect reports of his death were published in the Japanese press.[105] When the couple visited Japan on their return journey, Dora took on the role of spurning the local press by handing out notices reading “Mr. Bertrand Russell, having died according to the Japanese press, is unable to give interviews to Japanese journalists”.[106][107] Apparently they found this harsh and reacted resentfully.[citation needed]

Dora was six months pregnant when the couple returned to England on 26 August 1921. Russell arranged a hasty divorce from Alys, marrying Dora six days after the divorce was finalised, on 27 September 1921. Their children were John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell, born on 16 November 1921, and Katharine Jane Russell (now Lady Katharine Tait), born on 29 December 1923. Russell supported his family during this time by writing popular books explaining matters of physics, ethics, and education to the layman. Some have suggested that at this point he had an affair with Vivienne Haigh-Wood, the English governess and writer, and first wife (the Eliots did not formally separate until 1933) of T. S. Eliot.[108]

Together with Dora, he founded the experimental Beacon Hill School in 1927. The school was run from a succession of different locations, including its original premises at the Russells’ residence, Telegraph House, near Harting, West Sussex. On 8 July 1930 Dora gave birth to her third child Harriet Ruth. After he left the school in 1932, Dora continued it until 1943.[109][110]

Upon the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl Russell. He once said that his title was primarily useful for securing hotel rooms.[citation needed]

Russell’s marriage to Dora grew increasingly tenuous, and it reached a breaking point over her having two children with an American journalist, Griffin Barry.[110] They separated in 1932 and finally divorced. On 18 January 1936, Russell married his third wife, an Oxford undergraduate named Patricia (“Peter”) Spence, who had been his children’s governess since 1930. Russell and Peter had one son, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl Russell, who became a prominent historian and one of the leading figures in the Liberal Democratic party.[65]

During the 1930s, Russell became a close friend and collaborator of V. K. Krishna Menon, then secretary of the India League, the foremost lobby for Indian independence in Great Britain.[vague]

Second World War

Russell opposed rearmament against Nazi Germany, but in 1940 changed his view that avoiding a full-scale world war was more important than defeating Hitler. He concluded that Adolf Hitler taking over all of Europe would be a permanent threat to democracy. In 1943, he adopted a stance toward large-scale warfare, “Relative Political Pacifism”: War was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils.[111][112]

Before World War II, Russell taught at the University of Chicago, later moving on to Los Angeles to lecture at the UCLA Department of Philosophy. He was appointed professor at the City College of New York (CCNY) in 1940, but after a public outcry the appointment was annulled by a court judgment that pronounced him “morally unfit” to teach at the college due to his opinions—notably those relating to sexual morality, detailed in Marriage and Morals (1929). The protest was started by the mother of a student who would not have been eligible for his graduate-level course in mathematical logic; many intellectuals, led by John Dewey, protested his treatment.[113] Albert Einstein‘s oft-quoted aphorism that “great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” originated in his open letter supporting Russell’s appointment dated 19 March 1940, to Morris Raphael Cohen, a professor emeritus at CCNY.[114] Dewey and Horace M. Kallen edited a collection of articles on the CCNY affair in The Bertrand Russell Case. He soon joined the Barnes Foundation, lecturing to a varied audience on the history of philosophy; these lectures formed the basis of A History of Western Philosophy. His relationship with the eccentric Albert C. Barnes soon soured, and he returned to Britain in 1944 to rejoin the faculty of Trinity College.[115]

Later life

During the 1940s and 1950s, Russell participated in many broadcasts over the BBC, particularly The Brains Trust and the Third Programme, on various topical and philosophical subjects. By this time Russell was world-famous outside of academic circles, frequently the subject or author of magazine and newspaper articles, and was called upon to offer opinions on a wide variety of subjects, even mundane ones. En route to one of his lectures in Trondheim, Russell was one of 24 survivors (among a total of 43 passengers) in an aeroplane crash in Hommelvik in October 1948. He said he owed his life to smoking since the people who drowned were in the non-smoking part of the plane.[116][117] A History of Western Philosophy (1945) became a best-seller and provided Russell with a steady income for the remainder of his life.

In 1943, Russell expressed support for Zionism: “I have come gradually to see that, in a dangerous and largely hostile world, it is essential to Jews to have some country which is theirs, some region where they are not suspected aliens, some state which embodies what is distinctive in their culture”.[118]

In a speech in 1948, Russell said that if the USSR’s aggression continued, it would be morally worse to go to war after the USSR possessed an atomic bomb than before it possessed one, because if the USSR had no bomb the West’s victory would come more swiftly and with fewer casualties than if there were atom bombs on both sides.[119] At that time, only the United States possessed an atomic bomb, and the USSR was pursuing an extremely aggressive policy towards the countries in Eastern Europe which it was absorbing into its sphere of influence. Many understood Russell’s comments to mean that Russell approved of a first strike in a war with the USSR, including Nigel Lawson, who was present when Russell spoke. Others, including Griffin, who obtained a transcript of the speech, have argued that he was merely explaining the usefulness of America’s atomic arsenal in deterring the USSR from continuing its domination of Eastern Europe.[116] However, just after the atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Russel wrote letters, and pubished articles in newspapers from 1945-1948, stating clearly that it was morally justified and better to go to war against the USSR using atomic bombs while the USA possessed them and before the USSR did. After the USSR exploded the atomic bomb, Russel changed his position 180 degrees and advocated now the total abolishment of atomic weapons.[120]

In 1948, Russell was invited by the BBC to deliver the inaugural Reith Lectures[121]—what was to become an annual series of lectures, still broadcast by the BBC. His series of six broadcasts, titled Authority and the Individual,[122] explored themes such as the role of individual initiative in the development of a community and the role of state control in a progressive society. Russell continued to write about philosophy. He wrote a foreword to Words and Things by Ernest Gellner, which was highly critical of the later thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and of ordinary language philosophy. Gilbert Ryle refused to have the book reviewed in the philosophical journal Mind, which caused Russell to respond via The Times. The result was a month-long correspondence in The Times between the supporters and detractors of ordinary language philosophy, which was only ended when the paper published an editorial critical of both sides but agreeing with the opponents of ordinary language philosophy.[123]

In the King’s Birthday Honours of 9 June 1949, Russell was awarded the Order of Merit,[124] and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[65][76] When he was given the Order of Merit, George VI was affable but slightly embarrassed at decorating a former jailbird, saying, “You have sometimes behaved in a manner that would not do if generally adopted”.[125] Russell merely smiled, but afterwards claimed that the reply “That’s right, just like your brother” immediately came to mind. In 1952 Russell was divorced by Spence, with whom he had been very unhappy. Conrad, Russell’s son by Spence, did not see his father between the time of the divorce and 1968 (at which time his decision to meet his father caused a permanent breach with his mother).

Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, soon after the divorce, on 15 December 1952. They had known each other since 1925, and Edith had taught English at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, sharing a house for 20 years with Russell’s old friend Lucy Donnelly. Edith remained with him until his death, and, by all accounts, their marriage was a happy, close, and loving one. Russell’s eldest son John suffered from serious mental illness, which was the source of ongoing disputes between Russell and his former wife Dora. John’s wife Susan was also mentally ill, and eventually Russell and Edith became the legal guardians of their three daughters, two of whom were later diagnosed with schizophrenia.[citation needed]

In September 1961, at the age of 89, Russell was jailed for seven days in Brixton Prison after taking part in an anti-nuclear demonstration in London, for “breach of peace”. The magistrate offered to exempt him from jail if he pledged himself to “good behaviour”, to which Russell replied: “No, I won’t.”[126][127]

In 1962 Russell played a public role in the Cuban Missile Crisis: in an exchange of telegrams with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev assured him that the Soviet government would not be reckless.[128] Russell sent this telegram to President Kennedy:

YOUR ACTION DESPERATE. THREAT TO HUMAN SURVIVAL. NO CONCEIVABLE JUSTIFICATION. CIVILIZED MAN CONDEMNS IT. WE WILL NOT HAVE MASS MURDER. ULTIMATUM MEANS WAR… END THIS MADNESS.[129]

According to historian Peter Knight, after JFK’s assassination, Russell, “prompted by the emerging work of the lawyer Mark Lane in the US … rallied support from other noteworthy and left-leaning compatriots to form a Who Killed Kennedy Committee in June 1964, members of which included Michael Foot MP, Caroline Benn, the publisher Victor Gollancz, the writers John Arden and J. B. Priestley, and the Oxford history professor Hugh Trevor-Roper. Russell published a highly critical article weeks before the Warren Commission Report was published, setting forth 16 Questions on the Assassination and equating the Oswald case with the Dreyfus affair of late 19th-century France, in which the state wrongly convicted an innocent man. Russell also criticised the American press for failing to heed any voices critical of the official version.[130]

Political causes

Russell (centre) alongside his wife Edith, leading a CND anti-nuclear march in London, 18 February 1961

Russell spent the 1950s and 1960s engaged in political causes primarily related to nuclear disarmament and opposing the Vietnam War. The 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto was a document calling for nuclear disarmament and was signed by eleven of the most prominent nuclear physicists and intellectuals of the time.[131] In 1966–67, Russell worked with Jean-Paul Sartre and many other intellectual figures to form the Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal to investigate the conduct of the United States in Vietnam. He wrote a great many letters to world leaders during this period.

In 1956, immediately before and during the Suez Crisis, Russell expressed his opposition to what he viewed as European imperialism in the Middle East. He viewed the crisis as another reminder of what he saw as a pressing need for a more effective mechanism for international governance, and to restrict national sovereignty to places such as the Suez Canal area “where general interest is involved”. At the same time the Suez Crisis was taking place, the world was also captivated by the Hungarian Revolution and the subsequent crushing of the revolt by intervening Soviet forces. Russell attracted criticism for speaking out fervently against the Suez war while ignoring Soviet repression in Hungary, to which he responded that he did not criticise the Soviets “because there was no need. Most of the so-called Western World was fulminating”. Although he later feigned a lack of concern, at the time he was disgusted by the brutal Soviet response, and on 16 November 1956, he expressed approval for a declaration of support for Hungarian scholars which Michael Polanyi had cabled to the Soviet embassy in London twelve days previously, shortly after Soviet troops had already entered Budapest.[132]

In November 1957 Russell wrote an article addressing US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, urging a summit to consider “the conditions of co-existence”. Khrushchev responded that peace could indeed be served by such a meeting. In January 1958 Russell elaborated his views in The Observer, proposing a cessation of all nuclear-weapons production, with Britain taking the first step by unilaterally suspending its own nuclear-weapons program if necessary, and with Germany “freed from all alien armed forces and pledged to neutrality in any conflict between East and West”. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles replied for Eisenhower. The exchange of letters was published as The Vital Letters of Russell, Khrushchev, and Dulles.[133]

Russell was asked by The New Republic, a liberal American magazine, to elaborate his views on world peace. He suggested that all nuclear-weapons testing and constant flights by planes armed with nuclear weapons be halted immediately, and negotiations be opened for the destruction of all Hydrogen bombs, with the number of conventional nuclear devices limited to ensure a balance of power. He proposed that Germany be reunified and accept the Oder-Neisse line as its border, and that a neutral zone be established in Central Europe, consisting at the minimum of Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, with each of these countries being free of foreign troops and influence, and prohibited from forming alliances with countries outside the zone. In the Middle East, Russell suggested that the West avoid opposing Arab nationalism, and proposed a United Nations peacekeeping force to guard Israel‘s frontiers to ensure that Israel was protected from aggression and prevented from committing it. He also suggested Western recognition of the People’s Republic of China, and that it be admitted to the UN with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.[133]

He was in contact with Lionel Rogosin while the latter was filming his anti-war film Good Times, Wonderful Times in the 1960s. He became a hero to many of the youthful members of the New Left. In early 1963, in particular, Russell became increasingly vocal in his disapproval of the Vietnam War, and felt that the US government’s policies there were near-genocidal. In 1963 he became the inaugural recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, an award for writers concerned with the freedom of the individual in society.[134] In 1964 he was one of eleven world figures who issued an appeal to Israel and the Arab countries to accept an arms embargo and international supervision of nuclear plants and rocket weaponry.[135] In October 1965 he tore up his Labour Party card because he suspected Harold Wilson‘s Labour government was going to send troops to support the United States in Vietnam.[65]

Final years and death

Bust of Russell in Red Lion Square

Russell published his three-volume autobiography in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Russell made a cameo appearance playing himself in the anti-war Hindi film Aman which was released in India in 1967. This was Russell’s only appearance in a feature film.[136]

On 23 November 1969 he wrote to The Times newspaper saying that the preparation for show trials in Czechoslovakia was “highly alarming”. The same month, he appealed to Secretary General U Thant of the United Nations to support an international war crimes commission to investigate alleged torture and genocide by the United States in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The following month, he protested to Alexei Kosygin over the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Writers Union.

On 31 January 1970 Russell issued a statement condemning Israel‘s aggression in the Middle East, and in particular, Israeli bombing raids being carried out deep in Egyptian territory as part of the War of Attrition. He called for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-Six-Day War borders. This was Russell’s final political statement or act. It was read out at the International Conference of Parliamentarians in Cairo on 3 February 1970, the day after his death.[137]

Russell died of influenza on 2 February 1970 at his home, Plas Penrhyn, in Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire, Wales. His body was cremated in Colwyn Bay on 5 February 1970. In accordance with his will, there was no religious ceremony; his ashes were scattered over the Welsh mountains later that year.

In 1980 a memorial to Russell was commissioned by a committee including the philosopher A. J. Ayer. It consists of a bust of Russell in Red Lion Square in London sculpted by Marcelle Quinton.[138]

Titles and honours from birth

Russell held throughout his life the following styles and honours:

  • from birth until 1908: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell
  • from 1908 until 1931: The Honourable Bertrand Arthur William Russell, FRS
  • from 1931 until 1949: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, FRS
  • from 1949 until death: The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS

Views

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Bertrand Russell
Honourable Bertrand Russell.jpg

Russell in 1916

Views on philosophy

Main article: Bertrand Russell’s views on philosophy

Russell is generally credited with being one of the founders of analytic philosophy. He was deeply impressed by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716), and wrote on every major area of philosophy except aesthetics. He was particularly prolific in the field of metaphysics, the logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, ethics and epistemology. When Brand Blanshard asked Russell why he didn’t write on aesthetics, Russell replied that he didn’t know anything about it, “but that is not a very good excuse, for my friends tell me it has not deterred me from writing on other subjects”.[139]

Views on religion

Russell described himself as an agnostic, “speaking to a purely philosophical audience”, but as an atheist “speaking popularly”, on the basis that he could not disprove the Christian God similar to the way that he could not disprove the Olympic Gods either.[140] For most of his adult life Russell maintained that religion is little more than superstition and, despite any positive effects that religion might have, it is largely harmful to people. He believed that religion and the religious outlook serve to impede knowledge and foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of our world’s wars, oppression, and misery. He was a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association and President of Cardiff Humanists until his death.[141]

Views on society

Main article: Bertrand Russell’s views on society

Political and social activism occupied much of Russell’s time for most of his life. Russell remained politically active almost to the end of his life, writing to and exhorting world leaders and lending his name to various causes.

Russell argued for a “scientific society”, where war would be abolished, population growth limited, and prosperity shared.[142] He suggested the establishment of a “single supreme world government” able to enforce peace,[143] claiming that “the only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation”.[144]

Russell was an active supporter of the Homosexual Law Reform Society, being one of the signatories of A.E. Dyson‘s 1958 letter to The Times calling for a change in the law regarding male homosexual practices, which were partly legalised in 1967, when Russell was still alive.[145]

In “Reflections on My Eightieth Birthday” (“Postscript” in his Autobiography), Russell wrote: “I have lived in the pursuit of a vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe, and the world, for all its horrors, has left me unshaken”.[146]

Selected bibliography

A selected bibliography of Russell’s books in English, sorted by year of first publication:

  • 1896. German Social Democracy. London: Longmans, Green.
  • 1897. An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • 1900. A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • 1903. The Principles of Mathematics. Cambridge University Press.
  • 1905. On Denoting, Mind, Vol. 14. ISSN: 00264425. Basil Blackwell.
  • 1910. Philosophical Essays. London: Longmans, Green.
  • 1910–1913. Principia Mathematica (with Alfred North Whitehead). 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • 1912. The Problems of Philosophy. London: Williams and Norgate.
  • 1914. Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy. Chicago and London: Open Court Publishing.
  • 1916. Principles of Social Reconstruction. London, George Allen and Unwin.
  • 1916. Why Men Fight. New York: The Century Co.
  • 1916. Justice in War-time. Chicago: Open Court.
  • 1917. Political Ideals. New York: The Century Co.
  • 1918. Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1918. Proposed Roads to Freedom: Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1919. Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy. London: George Allen & Unwin. (ISBN 0-415-09604-9 for Routledge paperback) (Copy at Archive.org).
  • 1920. The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1921. The Analysis of Mind. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1922. The Problem of China. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1923. The Prospects of Industrial Civilization, in collaboration with Dora Russell. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1923. The ABC of Atoms, London: Kegan Paul. Trench, Trubner.
  • 1924. Icarus; or, The Future of Science. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1925. The ABC of Relativity. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1925. What I Believe. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1926. On Education, Especially in Early Childhood. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1927. The Analysis of Matter. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
  • 1927. An Outline of Philosophy. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1927. Why I Am Not a Christian. London: Watts.
  • 1927. Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell. New York: Modern Library.
  • 1928. Sceptical Essays. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1929. Marriage and Morals. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1930. The Conquest of Happiness. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1931. The Scientific Outlook. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1932. Education and the Social Order, London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1934. Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1935. In Praise of Idleness. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1935. Religion and Science. London: Thornton Butterworth.
  • 1936. Which Way to Peace?. London: Jonathan Cape.
  • 1937. The Amberley Papers: The Letters and Diaries of Lord and Lady Amberley, with Patricia Russell, 2 vols., London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press.
  • 1938. Power: A New Social Analysis. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1940. An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • 1945. A History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New York: Simon and Schuster.
  • 1948. Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1949. Authority and the Individual. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1950. Unpopular Essays. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1951. New Hopes for a Changing World. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1952. The Impact of Science on Society. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1953. Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1954. Human Society in Ethics and Politics. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1954. Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1956. Portraits from Memory and Other Essays. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1956. Logic and Knowledge: Essays 1901–1950, edited by Robert C. Marsh. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1957. Why I Am Not A Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, edited by Paul Edwards. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1958. Understanding History and Other Essays. New York: Philosophical Library.
  • 1959. Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1959. My Philosophical Development. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1959. Wisdom of the West, edited by Paul Foulkes. London: Macdonald.
  • 1960. Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind, Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Company.
  • 1961. The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, edited by R. E. Egner and L. E. Denonn. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1961. Fact and Fiction. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1961. Has Man a Future? London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1963. Essays in Skepticism. New York: Philosophical Library.
  • 1963. Unarmed Victory. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1965. Legitimacy Versus Industrialism, 1814–1848. London: George Allen & Unwin (first published as Parts I and II of Freedom and Organization, 1814–1914, 1934).
  • 1965. On the Philosophy of Science, edited by Charles A. Fritz, Jr. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
  • 1966. The ABC of Relativity. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1967. Russell’s Peace Appeals, edited by Tsutomu Makino and Kazuteru Hitaka. Japan: Eichosha’s New Current Books.
  • 1967. War Crimes in Vietnam. London: George Allen & Unwin.
  • 1951–1969. The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 3 vols., London: George Allen & Unwin. Vol. 2, 1956
  • 1969. Dear Bertrand Russell… A Selection of his Correspondence with the General Public 1950–1968, edited by Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Russell also wrote many pamphlets, introductions, articles, and letters to the editor. One pamphlet titled, I Appeal unto Caesar: The Case of the Conscientious Objectors, ghostwritten for Margaret Hobhouse, the mother of imprisoned peace activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse allegedly helped secure the release of hundreds of conscientious objectors from prison.[147]

His works can be found in anthologies and collections, perhaps most notably The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, which McMaster University began publishing in 1983. This collection of his shorter and previously unpublished works is now up to 16 volumes, and many more are forthcoming. An additional three volumes catalogue just his bibliography. The Russell Archives at McMaster University possess over 30,000 of his letters.

See also

Thích Nhất Hạnh

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Thích Nhất Hạnh

Thich Nhat Hanh in Paris in 2006.
Religion Zen (Thiền) Buddhist
School Lâm Tế Dhyana (Línjì chán)
Founder of the Order of Interbeing
Lineage 42nd generation (Lâm Tế)
8th generation (Liễu Quán)
Other names Thầy (teacher)
Personal
Nationality Vietnamese
Born October 11, 1926 (age 87)
Thừa Thiên Huế province, Vietnam
Senior posting
Based in Plum Village (Lang Mai)
Title Thiền Sư
(Zen master)
Religious career
Teacher Thích Chân Thật

Thích Nhất Hạnh (/ˈtɪk ˈnjʌt ˈhʌn/; Vietnamese: [tʰǐk ɲɜ̌t hɐ̂ʔɲ] ( listen); born October 11, 1926) is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He lives in the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France,[1] travelling internationally to give retreats and talks. He coined the term Engaged Buddhism in his book Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.[2] A long-term exile, he was given permission to make his first return trip to Vietnam in 2005.[3]

Nhất Hạnh has published more than 100 books, including more than 40 in English. Nhat Hanh is active in the peace movement, promoting non-violent solutions to conflict[4] and he is also refraining from animal product consumption as means of non-violence towards non-human animals.[5][6]

Buddha hall of the Từ Hiếu Temple
Part of a series on
Zen Buddhism
禪 Zen

Nhat Hanh WikiQuotes

  • When you understand the roots of anger in yourself and in the other, your mind will enjoy true peace, joy and lightness
  • When you feel anger arising, remember to return to your breathing and follow it. The other person may see that you are practicing, and she may even apologize.
  • Your first love has no beginning or end. Your first love is not your first love, and it is not your last. It is just love. It is one with everything.
  • The quality of our life
    depends on the quality
    of the seeds
    that lie deep in our consciousness.

  • The present moment
    contains past and future.
    The secret of transformation,
    is in the way we handle this very moment.

  • Seeds can produce seeds
    Seeds can produce formations.
    Formations can produce seeds.
    Formations can produce formations.

  • One included all, and all were contained in one.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • Contemplating the bowl, it is possible to see the interdependent elements which give rise to the bowl.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • Freedom from suffering is a great happiness.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • The Buddha also counseled the monks and nuns to avoid wasting any precious time by engaging in idle conversation, oversleeping, pursuing fame and recognition, chasing after desires, spending time with people of poor character, and being satisfied with only a shallow understanding of the teaching.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • The same clouds that Buddha had seen were in the sky. Each serene step brought to life the old path and white clouds of the Buddha. The path of Buddha was beneath his very feet.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • Venerable Svasti and the young buffalo boys were rivers that flowed from that source. Wherever the rivers flowed, the Buddha would be there.
    • Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
  • If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.
    • Peace Is Every Step : The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (1992) Bantam reissue ISBN 0553351397
  • The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
  • In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.
    • Quoted in Engaged Buddhist Reader: Ten Years of Engaged Buddhist Publishing (1996) by Arnold Kotler, p. 106
  • To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way.
  • Reality is reality. It transcends every concept. There is no concept which can adequately describe it, not even the concept of interdependence.
    • The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
  • Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.
    • The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
  • It’s wonderful to be alive and to walk on earth.
    • Talk at Stonehill College (2002)
  • You are a miracle, and everything you touch could be a miracle.
    • Episode of the National Public Radio program Speaking of Faith : “Brother Thay: A Radio Pilgrimage with Thich Nhat Hanh” (2003)
  • If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.
    • Quoted in A Lifetime of Peace : Essential Writings by and About Thich Nhat Hanh (2003) edited by Jennifer Schwamm Willis, p. 141
  • We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize. [citation needed]
    • As quoted in Visions from Earth (2004) by James Miller
  • Children understand very well that in each woman, in each man, in each child, there is capacity of waking up, of understanding, and of loving. Many children have told me that they cannot show me anyone who does not have this capacity. Some people allow it to develop, and some do not, but everyone has it. This capacity of waking up, of being aware of what is going on in your feelings, in your body, in your perceptions, in the world, is called Buddha nature, the capacity of understanding and loving. Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.
    • Being Peace (2005) ‎
  • Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea. It is something you can touch and live in every moment. With mindfulness and concentration, the energies of the Buddha, you can find your true home in the full relaxation of your mind and body in the present moment. No one can take it away from you. Other people can occupy your country, they can even put you in prison, but they cannot take away your true home and your freedom.
  • Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to fight global warming. Buddhist practitioners have practiced vegeterianism over the last 2000 years. We are vegetarian with the intention to nourish our compassion towards the animals. Now we also know that we eat vegetarian in order to protect the earth…
  • Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself — if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself — it is very difficult to take care of another person.

Quotes about Nhat Hanh

His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

  • He has immense presence and both personal and Buddhist authority. If there is a candidate for “Living Buddha” on earth today, it is Thich Nhat Hanh.
    • Richard Baker
  • [Thich Nhat Hanh’s practices] do not have any affinity with or any foundation in traditional Vietnamese Buddhist practices.
  • A great spiritual leader whose influence can help us find a living peace in everything we do. Thich Nhat Hanh’s words connect inner peace with the need for peace in the world in a compelling way.
    • Natalie Goldberg, author of Wild Mind
  • [Thich Nhat Hanh] shows us the connection between personal inner peace and peace on earth.
  • Thich Nhat Hanh is a real poet.
    • Robert Lowell
  • Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha.
    • Sogyal Rimpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize

Martin Luther King Jr.‘s letter of nomination of Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize (25 January 1967) at Hartford-HWP Archives
  • This would be a notably auspicious year for you to bestow your Prize on the Venerable Nhat Hanh. Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world.
  • I know Thich Nhat Hanh, and am privileged to call him my friend…
  • Thich Nhat Hanh offers a way out of this nightmare, a solution acceptable to rational leaders. He has traveled the world, counseling statesmen, religious leaders, scholars and writers, and enlisting their support. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.

External links

Wikipedia
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Official websites for Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing

~~~

Biography

Born as Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Nhất Hạnh was born in the city of Thừa Thiên Huế in Central Vietnam in 1926. At the age of 16 he entered the monastery at Từ Hiếu Temple near Huế, Vietnam, where his primary teacher was Dhyana (meditation Zen) Master Thanh Quý Chân Thật.[7][8][9] A graduate of Bao Quoc Buddhist Academy in Central Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh received training in Zen and the Mahayana school of Buddhism and was ordained as a monk in 1949.[2]

In 1956, he was named editor-in-chief of Vietnamese Buddhism, the periodical of the Unified Vietnam Buddhist Association (Giáo Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam Thống Nhất). In the following years he founded Lá Bối Press, the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon, and the School of Youth for Social Service (SYSS), a neutral corps of Buddhist peaceworkers who went into rural areas to establish schools, build healthcare clinics, and help re-build villages.[1]

Nhat Hanh is now recognized as a Dharmacharya and as the spiritual head of the Từ Hiếu Temple and associated monasteries.[7][10] On May 1, 1966 at Từ Hiếu Temple, Thich Nhat Hanh received the “lamp transmission”, making him a Dharmacharya or Dharma Teacher, from Master Chân Thật.[7]

During the Vietnam War

In 1960, Nhat Hanh went to the U.S. to study comparative religion at Princeton University, subsequently being appointed lecturer in Buddhism at Columbia University. By then he had gained fluency in French, Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Japanese and English, in addition to his native Vietnamese. In 1963, he returned to Vietnam to aid his fellow monks in their non-violent peace efforts.

Nhat Hanh taught Buddhist psychology and Prajnaparamita literature at the Van Hanh Buddhist University, a private institution that focused on Buddhist studies, Vietnamese culture, and languages. At a meeting in April 1965 Van Hanh Union students issued a Call for Peace statement. It declared: “It is time for North and South Vietnam to find a way to stop the war and help all Vietnamese people live peacefully and with mutual respect.” Nhat Hanh left for the U.S. shortly afterwards, leaving Sister Chan Khong in charge of the SYSS. Van Hanh University was taken over by one of the Chancellors who wished to sever ties with Thich Nhat Hanh and the SYSS, accusing Chan Khong of being a communist. From that point the SYSS struggled to raise funds and faced attacks on its members. The SYSS persisted in their relief efforts without taking sides in the conflict.[2]

Nhat Hanh returned to the US in 1966 to lead a symposium in Vietnamese Buddhism at Cornell University and to continue his work for peace. He had written a letter to Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1965 entitled: “In Search of the Enemy of Man”. It was during his 1966 stay in the U.S. that Thich Nhat Hanh met with Martin Luther King, Jr. and urged him to publicly denounce the Vietnam War.[11] In 1967, Dr. King gave a famous speech at the Riverside Church in New York City, his first to publicly question the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.[12] Later that year Dr. King nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize. In his nomination Dr. King said, “I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of [this prize] than this gentle monk from Vietnam. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity”.[13] The fact that King had revealed the candidate he had chosen to nominate and had made a “strong request” to the prize committee, was in sharp violation of the Nobel traditions and protocol.[14][15] The committee did not make an award that year.

In 1969, Nhat Hanh was the delegate for the Buddhist Peace Delegation at the Paris Peace talks. When the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973, Thich Nhat Hanh was denied permission to return to Vietnam and he went into exile in France. From 1976-1977 he led efforts to help rescue Vietnamese boat people in the Gulf of Siam, eventually stopping under pressure from the governments of Thailand and Singapore.[16]

Establishing the Order of Interbeing

Deer Park Monastery in California

Nhat Hanh created the Order of Inter-Being in 1966. He heads this monastic and lay group, teaching Five Mindfulness Trainings and Fourteen Precepts. In 1969, Nhat Hanh established the Unified Buddhist Church (Église Bouddhique Unifiée) in France (not a part of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam). In 1975, he formed the Sweet Potatoes Meditation Center. The center grew and in 1982 he and his colleague Sister Chân Không founded Plum Village Buddhist Center (Làng Mai), a monastery and Practice Center in the Dordogne in the south of France.[1] The Unified Buddhist Church is the legally recognized governing body for Plum Village (Làng Mai) in France, for Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York, the Community of Mindful Living, Parallax Press, Deer Park Monastery in California, Magnolia Village in Batesville, Mississippi, and the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Waldbröl, Germany.[17][18]

He established two monasteries in Vietnam, at the original Từ Hiếu Temple near Huế and at Prajna Temple in the central highlands. Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing have established monasteries and Dharma centers in the United States at Deer Park Monastery (Tu Viện Lộc Uyển) in Escondido, California, Maple Forest Monastery (Tu Viện Rừng Phong) and Green Mountain Dharma Center (Ðạo Tràng Thanh Sơn) in Vermont both of which closed in 2007 and moved to the Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, New York, and Magnolia Village Practice Center (Đạo Tràng Mộc Lan) in Mississippi. These monasteries are open to the public during much of the year and provide on-going retreats for lay people. The Order of Interbeing also holds retreats for specific groups of lay people, such as families, teenagers, veterans, the entertainment industry, members of Congress, law enforcement officers and people of color.[19][20][21][22][23] He conducted a peace walk in Los Angeles in 2005, and again in 2007.[24]

Notable students of Thich Nhat Hanh include: Skip Ewing founder of the Nashville Mindfulness Center, Natalie Goldberg author and teacher, Joan Halifax founder of the Upaya Institute, Stephanie Kaza environmentalist, Sister Chan Khong Dharma teacher, Noah Levine author, Albert Low Zen teacher and author, Joanna Macy environmentalist and author, John Croft co-creator of Dragon Dreaming, Caitriona Reed Dharma teacher and co-founder of Manzanita Village Retreat Center, Leila Seth author and Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, and Pritam Singh real estate developer and editor of several of Nhat Hanh’s books.

Return to Vietnam

Nhat Hanh during a ceremony in Da Nang on his 2007 trip to Vietnam

In 2005, following lengthy negotiations, Nhat Hanh was given permission from the Vietnamese government to return for a visit. He was also allowed to teach there, publish four of his books in Vietnamese, and travel the country with monastic and lay members of his Order, including a return to his root temple, Tu Hieu Temple in Huế.[3][25] The trip was not without controversy. Thich Vien Dinh, writing on behalf of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (considered illegal by the Vietnamese government), called for Nhat Hanh to make a statement against the Vietnam government’s poor record on religious freedom. Thich Vien Dinh feared that the trip would be used as propaganda by the Vietnamese government, suggesting to the world that religious freedom is improving there, while abuses continue.[26][27][28]

Despite the controversy, Nhat Hanh again returned to Vietnam in 2007, while two senior officials of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) remained under house arrest. The Unified Buddhist Church called Nhat Hanh’s visit a betrayal, symbolizing Nhat Hanh’s willingness to work with his co-religionists’ oppressors. Vo Van Ai, a spokesman for the UBCV said “I believe Thich Nhat Hanh’s trip is manipulated by the Hanoi government to hide its repression of the Unified Buddhist Church and create a false impression of religious freedom in Vietnam.” [29] The Plum Village Website states that the three goals of his 2007 trip back to Vietnam were to support new monastics in his Order; to organize and conduct “Great Chanting Ceremonies” intended to help heal remaining wounds from the Vietnam War; and to lead retreats for monastics and lay people. The chanting ceremonies were originally called “Grand Requiem for Praying Equally for All to Untie the Knots of Unjust Suffering“, but Vietnamese officials objected, saying it was unacceptable for the government to “equally” pray for soldiers in the South Vietnamese army or U.S. soldiers. Nhat Hanh agreed to change the name to “Grand Requiem For Praying”.[29]

Approach

Thich Nhat Hanh in Vught, the Netherlands, 2006

Nhat Hanh’s approach has been to combine a variety of traditional Zen teachings with insights from other Mahayana Buddhist traditions, methods from Theravada Buddhism, and ideas from Western psychology—to offer a modern light on meditation practice. Hanh’s presentation of the Prajñāpāramitā in terms of “interbeing” has doctrinal antecedents in the Huayan school of thought,[30] which “is often said to provide a philosophical foundation” for Zen.[31]

Nhat Hanh has also been a leader in the Engaged Buddhism movement (he coined the term), promoting the individual’s active role in creating change. He cites the 13th-century Vietnamese King Trần Nhân Tông with the origination of the concept. Trần Nhân Tông abdicated his throne to become a monk, and founded the Vietnamese Buddhist school in the Bamboo Forest tradition.

Names applied to him

Nhat Hanh at Hue City airport on his 2007 trip to Vietnam (aged 80)

The Vietnamese name Thích (釋) is from “Thích Ca” or “Thích Già” (釋迦), means “of the Shakya (Shakyamuni Buddha) clan.”[7] All Buddhist monks and nuns within the East Asian tradition of Mahayana and Zen adopt this name as their “family” name or surname implying that their first family is the Buddhist community. In many Buddhist traditions, there is a progression of names that a person can receive. The first, the lineage name, is given when a person takes refuge in the Three Jewels. Thich Nhat Hanh’s lineage name is Trừng Quang. The next is a Dharma name, given when a person, lay or monastic, takes additional vows or when one is ordained as a monastic. Thich Nhat Hanh’s Dharma name is Phung Xuan. Additionally, Dharma titles are sometimes given, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Dharma title is “Nhat Hanh”.[7]

Neither Nhất (一) nor Hạnh (行)—which approximate the roles of middle name or intercalary name and given name, respectively, when referring to him in English—was part of his name at birth. Nhất (一) means “one”, implying “first-class”, or “of best quality”, in English; Hạnh (行) means “move”, implying “right conduct” or “good nature.” Thích Nhất Hạnh has translated his Dharma names as Nhất = One, and Hạnh = Action. Vietnamese names follow this naming convention, placing the family or surname first, then the middle or intercalary name which often refers to the person’s position in the family or generation, followed by the given name.[32]

Thich Nhat Hanh is often referred to as “Thay” (Vietnamese: Thầy, “master; teacher”) or Thay Nhat Hanh by his followers. On the Vietnamese version of the Plum Village website, he is also referred to as Thiền Sư Nhất Hạnh which can be translated as “Zen Master”, or “Dhyana Master”.[33] Any Vietnamese monk or nun in the Mahayana tradition can be addressed as “Thầy” (“teacher”). Vietnamese Buddhist monks are addressed “Thầy tu” (“monk”) and nuns are addressed “Sư Cô” (“Sister”) or “Sư Bà” (“Elder Sister”).

Awards and honors

Nobel laureate Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.[13] Nhat Hanh did not win it (as of 2012, the peace prize was not awarded 19 times including that year).[34] He was awarded the Courage of Conscience award in 1991.[35] He has been featured in many films, including The Power of Forgiveness showcased at the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival.[36]

Nhat Hanh, along with Alfred Hassler and Sister Chan Khong, became the subject of a graphic novel entitled The Secret of the 5 Powers in 2013.[37]

Writings

William Blake

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Blake

Blake in a portrait
by Thomas Phillips (1807)
Born 28 November 1757
Soho, London, Great Britain
Died 12 August 1827 (aged 69)
Charing Cross, London, Great Britain[1]
Occupation Poet, painter, printmaker
Genre Visionary, poetry
Literary movement Romanticism
Notable works Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The Four Zoas, Jerusalem, Milton, And did those feet in ancient time
Spouse Catherine Boucher (1782–1827, his death)
Signature

~~~~

WikiQuotes

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

The archetype of the Creator is a familiar image in his work. Here, Blake depicts his demiurgic figure Urizen stooped in prayer, contemplating the world he has forged. The Song of Los is the third in a series of illuminated books painted by Blake and his wife, collectively known as the Continental Prophecies.

  • Reason, or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.
    • There Is No Natural Religion (1788)
  • The true method of knowledge is experiment.
    • All Religions are One (1788)
  • There can be no Good Will. Will is always Evil; it is persecution to others or selfishness.
    • Annotations to Swedenborg (1788)
  • If a thing loves, it is infinite.
    • Annotations to Swedenborg (1788)
  • Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
    Or wilt thou go ask the Mole?
    Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
    Or Love in a golden bowl?

  • Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose Public RECORDS to be True.
    • Annotations to An Apology for the Bible by R. Watson
  • That the Jews assumed a right Exclusively to the benefits of God. will be a lasting witness against them. & the same will it be against Christians
    • Annotations to An Apology for the Bible by R. Watson
  • Degrade first the arts if you’d mankind degrade,
    Hire idiots to paint with cold light and hot shade.

    • Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, title page (c. 1798–1809)
  • To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
    • Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, pp. xvii–xcviii (c. 1798–1809)
  • The Foundation of Empire is Art & Science Remove them or Degrade them & the Empire is No More — Empire follows Art & Not Vice Versa as Englishmen suppose.
    • Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses
  • When a Man has Married a Wife
    He finds out whether
    Her Knees & elbows are only
    glued together.

    • Poems from Blake’s Notebook (c. 1800–1803)
  • When nations grow old, the Arts grow cold,
    And Commerce settles on every tree.

    • On Art And Artists (1800) ‘On the Foundation of the Royal Academy’
  • Fiery the Angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll’d
    Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc.

    • America, A Prophecy

Blake’s “A Negro Hung Alive by the Ribs to a Gallows”, an illustration to J. G. Stedman’s Narrative, of a Five Years’ Expedition, against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796).

  • Acts themselves alone are history, and these are neither the exclusive property of Hume, Gibbon nor Voltaire, Echard, Rapin, Plutarch, nor Herodotus. Tell me the Acts, O historian, and leave me to reason upon them as I please; away with your reasoning and your rubbish. All that is not action is not worth reading.
    • Blake’s Exhibition and Catalogue of 1809, A Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures: Number V. The Ancient Britons
  • Art can never exist without Naked Beauty displayed.
    • The Laocoön
  • Art is the tree of life.
    SCIENCE is the Tree of DEATH
    ART is the Tree of LIFE GOD is JESUS

    • The Laocoön
  • Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists
    • The Laocoön, p. 271.
  • Commerce is so far from being beneficial to Arts or to Empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their History shows, for the above Reason of Individual Merit being its Great Hatred. Empires flourish till they become Commercial & then they are scattered abroad to the four winds
    • Public Address, Blake’s Notebook c. 1810
  • When I tell any Truth it is not for the sake of Convincing those who do not know it but for the sake of defending those who Do
    • Public Address, Blake’s Notebook c. 1810
  • Every Harlot was a Virgin once
    • For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise: [Epilogue] To The Accuser who is The God of This World
  • It is not because Angels are Holier than Men or Devils that makes them Angels but because they do not Expect Holiness from one another but from God only
    • A Vision of the Last Judgment
  • Thinking as I do that the Creator of this World is a very Cruel Being & being a Worshipper of Christ, I cannot help saying: “the Son, O how unlike the Father!” First God Almighty comes with a Thump on the Head. Then Jesus Christ comes with a balm to heal it.
    • A Vision of the Last Judgment
  • This world of imagination is the world of eternity.
    • A Vision of the Last Judgment
  • You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue & you cannot have Moral Virtue without the Slavery of that half of the Human Race who hate what you call Moral Virtue
    • A Vision of the Last Judgment
  • …some say that Happiness is not Good for Mortals & they ought to be answerd that Sorrow is not fit for Immortals & is utterly useless to any one a blight never does good to a tree & if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.
    • Letter to William Hayley (1803-10-07)
  • The Goddess Fortune is the devils servant ready to Kiss any ones Arse.
    • Inscription on Illustrations to Dante “No. 16: HELL Canto 7”

Poetical Sketches (1783)

Blake’s “Newton” is a demonstration of his opposition to the “single-vision” of scientific materialism: The great philosopher-scientist is isolated in the depths of the ocean, his eyes (only one of which is visible) fixed on the compasses with which he draws on a scroll. He seems almost at one with the rocks upon which he sits (1795).

  • How sweet I roamed from field to field,
    And tasted all the summer’s pride,
    Till I the prince of love beheld,
    Who in the sunny beams did glide!

    • Song (How Sweet I Roamed), st. 1
  • He loves to sit and hear me sing,
    Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;
    Then stretches out my golden wing,
    And mocks my loss of liberty.

    • Song (How Sweet I Roamed), st. 4
  • My silks and fine array,
    My smiles and languished air,
    By love are driv’n away;
    And mournful lean Despair
    Brings me yew to deck my grave:
    Such end true lovers have.

    • Song (My Silks and Fine Arrays), st. 1
  • Like a fiend in a cloud,
    With howling woe,
    After night I do crowd,
    And with night will go;
    I turn my back to the east,
    From whence comforts have increased;
    For light doth seize my brain
    With frantic pain.

    • Mad Song, st. 3
  • How have you left the ancient love
    That bards of old enjoyed in you!
    The languid strings do scarcely move!
    The sound is forced, the notes are few!

    • To the Muses, st. 4

Annotations to Lavater (1788)

  • Damn sneerers!
  • True superstition is ignorant honesty & this is beloved of god and man.
  • Forgiveness of enemies can only come upon their repentance.
  • Active Evil is better than Passive Good.
  • They suppose that Woman’s Love is Sin; in consequence all the Loves & Graces with them are Sin.

Songs of Innocence (1789–1790)

On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me:
“Pipe a song about a Lamb.”
So I piped with merry cheer…

  • Piping down the valleys wild,
    Piping songs of pleasant glee,
    On a cloud I saw a child,
    And he laughing said to me:
    “Pipe a song about a Lamb.”
    So I piped with merry cheer;
    “Piper, pipe that song again.”
    So I piped; he wept to hear.

    • Introduction, st. 1–2
  • And I made a rural pen,
    And I stained the water clear,
    And I wrote my happy songs
    Every child may joy to hear.

    • Introduction, st. 5
  • Sing louder around
    To the bells’ cheerful sound,
    While our sports shall be seen
    On the ecchoing green.

    • The Ecchoing Green, st. 1
  • Little Lamb, who made thee?
    Dost thou know who made thee?
    Gave thee life and bid thee feed
    By the stream and o’er the mead;
    Gave thee clothing of delight,
    Softest clothing, woolly bright.

    • The Lamb, st. 1
  • My mother bore me in the southern wild,
    And I am black, but O! my soul is white;
    White as an angel is the English child,
    But I am black as if bereaved of light.

    • The Little Black Boy, st. 1
  • And we are put on earth a little space,
    That we may learn to bear the beams of love,
    And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
    Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

    • The Little Black Boy, st. 4
  • I’ll shade him from the heat till he can bear
    To lean in joy upon our Father’s knee;
    And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,
    And be like him and he will then love me.

    • The Little Black Boy, st. 7
  • When my mother died I was very young,
    And my father sold me while yet my tongue
    Could scarcely cry ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!’weep!
    So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.

    • The Chimney Sweeper, st. 1
  • To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
    All pray in their distress;
    And to these virtues of delight
    Return their thankfulness.

    • The Divine Image, st. 1
  • For Mercy has a human heart,
    Pity, a human face,
    And Love, the human form divine,
    And Peace, the human dress.

    • The Divine Image, st. 3
  • The moon like a flower
    In heaven’s high bower,
    With silent delight,
    Sits and smiles on the night.

    • Night, st. 1
  • And there the lion’s ruddy eyes
    Shall flow with tears of gold,
    And pitying the tender cries,
    And walking round the fold,
    Saying: “Wrath by his meekness,
    And by his health, sickness,
    Is driven away
    From our immortal day.”

    • Night, st. 5
  • “For washed in life’s river,
    My bright mane forever
    Shall shine like the gold
    As Iguard o’er the fold.”

    • Night, st. 6
  • When the voices of children are heard on the green
    And laughing is heard on the hill,
    My heart is at rest within my breast
    And everything else is still.

    • Nurse’s Song, st. 1
  • Can I see another’s woe,
    And not be in sorrow too?
    Can I see another’s grief,
    And not seek for kind relief?

    • On Another’s Sorrow, st. 1

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

  • Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden’d air;
    Hungry clouds swag on the deep.

    • The Argument
  • Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate are necessary to human existence.
    • The Argument
  • The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels and God, and at liberty when of Devils and Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devils’ party without knowing it.
    • Note to The Voice of the Devil
  • Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.
    • The Voice of the Devil
  • If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.
    • A Memorable Fancy
  • The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
    • A Memorable Fancy
  • Opposition is true Friendship.
    • A Memorable Fancy

Proverbs of Hell

  • The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
    • Line 3
  • He who desires but acts not breeds pestilence.
    • Line 5
  • A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
    He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.

    • Lines 8–9
  • Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
    • Line 10
  • The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
    • Line 11
  • The hours of folly are measur’d by the clock, but of wisdom no clock can measure.
    • Line 12
  • No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
    • Line 15
  • If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.
    • Line 18
  • Prisons are built with stones of law; brothels with bricks of religion.
    • Line 21
  • The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
    The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
    The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
    The nakedness of woman is the work of God.

    • Line 22
  • The cistern contains: the fountain overflows.
    • Line 35
  • One thought fills immensity.
    • Line 36
  • Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.
    • Line 37
  • The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow.
    • Line 39
  • Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.
    • Line 41
  • The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.
    • Line 44
  • You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
    • Line 46
  • The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
    • Line 49
  • When thou seest an Eagle, thou seest a portion of Genius; lift up thy head!
    • Line 54
  • Exuberance is Beauty.
    • Line 64
  • Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.
    • Line 66
  • Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believed.
    • Line 69
  • Enough! or too much.
    • Line 70
  • The ancient poets animated all objects with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and whatever their enlarged & numerous senses could perceive. And particularly they studied the genius of each city & country, placing it under its mental deity; Till a system was formed, which some took advantage of, & enslav’d the vulgar by attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus began priesthood; Choosing forms of worship from poetic tales. And at length they pronounc’d that the Gods had order’d such things. Thus men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.
    • Line 71

Poems from Blake’s Notebook (c. 1791-1792)

  • Never seek to tell thy love
    Love that never told can be;
    For the gentle wind does move
    Silently, invisibly.I told my love, I told my love,
    I told her all my heart;
    Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—
    Ah, she doth depart.Soon as she was gone from me
    A traveler came by
    Silently, invisibly—
    Oh, was no deny.

    • Never Seek to Tell
  • I asked a thief to steal me a peach:
    He turned up his eyes.
    I asked a lithe lady to lie her down:
    Holy and meek, she cries.As soon as I went
    An angel came.
    He winked at the thief
    And smiled at the dame—And without one word said
    Had a peach from the tree,
    And still as a maid
    Enjoyed the lady.

    • I Asked a Thief
  • Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
    Dreaming o’er the joys of night.
    Sleep, sleep: in thy sleep
    Little sorrows sit and weep.

    • A Cradle Song, st. 1
  • Why art thou silent and invisible,
    Father of Jealousy?

    • To Nobodaddy, st. 1
  • Love to faults is always blind,
    Always is to joys inclined,
    Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
    And breaks all chains from every mind.

    • Love to Faults
  • The sword sung on the barren heath,
    The sickle in the fruitful field;
    The sword he sung a song of death,
    But could not make the sickle yield.

    • The Sword Sung
  • Abstinence sows sand all over
    The ruddy limbs and flaming hair,
    But desire gratified
    Plants fruits of life and beauty there.

    • Abstinence Sows Sand
  • If you trap the moment before it’s ripe,
    The tears of repentance you’ll certainly wipe;
    But if once you let the ripe moment go
    You can never wipe off the tears of woe.

    • If You Trap the Moment
  • Then old Nobodaddy aloft
    Farted and belched and coughed,
    And said, “I love hanging and drawing and quartering
    Every bit as well as war and slaughtering.”

    • Let the Brothels of Paris, st. 2

Several Questions Answered

  • He who binds to himself a joy
    Does the wingèd life destroy;
    But he who kisses the joy as it flies
    Lives in eternity’s sunrise.

    • No. 1, He Who Binds
  • The look of love alarms
    Because ’tis filled with fire;
    But the look of soft deceit
    Shall win the lover’s hire.

    • No. 2, The Look of Love
  • What is it men in women do require?
    The lineaments of gratified desire.
    What is it women do in men require?
    The lineaments of gratified desire.

    • No. 4, What Is It
  • You’ll quite remove the ancient curse.
    • No. 5, An Ancient Proverb

Songs of Experience (1794)

Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.

  • Hear the voice of the Bard,
    Who present, past, and future, sees;
    Whose ears have heard
    The Holy Word
    That walked among the ancient trees.

    • Introduction, st. 1
  • Turn away no more;
    Why wilt thou turn away?
    The starry floor,
    The watery shore
    Is given thee till the break of day.

    • Introduction, st. 4
  • Love seeketh not itself to please,
    Nor for itself hath any care,
    But for another gives its ease,
    And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.

    • The Clod and the Pebble, st. 1
  • Love seeketh only Self to please,
    To bind another to its delight,
    Joys in another’s loss of ease,
    And builds a hell in heaven’s despite.

    • The Clod and the Pebble, st. 3
  • O rose, thou art sick!
    The invisible worm,
    That flies in the night,
    In the howling storm,    Has found out thy bed
    Of crimson joy,
    And his dark secret love
    Does thy life destroy.

  • Little Fly,
    Thy summer’s play
    My thoughtless hand
    Has brushed away.Am not I
    A fly like thee?
    Or art not thou
    A man like me?For I dance,
    And drink, and sing,
    Till some blind hand
    Shall brush my wing.

    • The Fly, st. 1–3
  • The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
    The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
    While the Lily white shall in love delight,
    Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.

    • The Lily
  • In every cry of every Man,
    In every Infant’s cry of fear,
    In every voice, in every ban,
    The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

    • London, st. 2
  • But most, thro’ midnight streets I hear
    How the youthful Harlot’s curse
    Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
    And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

    • London, st. 4
  • Pity would be no more
    If we did not make somebody Poor;
    And Mercy no more could be
    If all were as happy as we.

    • The Human Abstract, st. 1
  • My mother groan’d! my father wept.
    Into the dangerous world I leapt:
    Helpless, naked, piping loud:
    Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

    • Infant Sorrow, st. 1
  • I was angry with my friend:
    I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
    I was angry with my foe:
    I told it not, my wrath did grow.

    • A Poison Tree, st. 1
  • In the morning glad I see
    My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.

    • Ibid., st. 4
  • Children of the future Age
    Reading this indignant page,
    Know that in a former time
    Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime.

    • A Little Girl Lost, st. 1
  • Cruelty has a human heart,
    And Jealousy a human face;
    Terror the human form divine,
    And Secrecy the human dress.

    • A Divine Image, st. 1

The Tyger

  • Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
    in the forests of the night,
    What immortal hand or eye
    Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

    • St. 1
  • In what distant deeps or skies
    Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
    On what wings dare he aspire?
    What the hand dare seize the fire?

    • St. 2
  • When the stars threw down their spears,
    And water’d heaven with their tears,
    Did he smile his work to see?
    Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

    • St. 5

Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (23 August 1799)
  • What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.
  • But Want of Money & the Distress of A Thief can never be alleged as the Cause of his Thieving, for many honest people endure greater hard ships with Fortitude. We must therefore seek the Cause else where than in want of Money for that is the Misers passion, not the Thiefs.
  • Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.
  • To the Eyes of a Miser a Guinea is more beautiful than the Sun & and a bag worn with the use of Money has more beautiful proportions than a Vine filled with Grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. As a man is, So he Sees. As the Eye is formed, such are its Powers.

Poems from Blake’s Notebook (c. 1804)

Terror in the house does roar,
But Pity stands before the door.

  • My specter around me night and day
    Like a wild beast guards my way,
    My emanation far within
    Weeps incessantly for my sin.

    • My Specter, st. 1
  • And throughout all eternity
    I forgive you, you forgive me.

    • My Specter, st. 14
  • Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau.
    Mock on, mock on — ’tis all in vain!
    You throw the sand against the wind,
    And the wind blows it back again.

    • Mock On, st. 1
  • Terror in the house does roar,
    But Pity stands before the door.

    • Terror in the House

Poems from the Pickering Manuscript (c. 1805)

  • There is a smile of love,
    And there is a smile of deceit,
    And there is a smile of smiles
    In which these two smiles meet.

    • The Smile, st. 1
  • This cabinet is formed of gold
    And pearl and crystal shining bright,
    And within it opens into a world
    And a little lovely moony night.

    • The Crystal Cabinet, st. 2
  • For a tear is an intellectual thing,
    And a sigh is the sword of an Angel King,
    And the bitter groan of the martyr’s woe
    Is an arrow from the Almighty’s bow.

    • The Gray Monk, st. 8

Auguries of Innocence

Auguries of Innocence at Wikisource

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower…

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

God appears and god is light
To those poor souls who dwell in night
But does a human form display
To those who dwell in realms of day.

  • To see a World in a Grain of Sand
    And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
    Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
    And Eternity in an hour.

    • Line 1
  • A robin redbreast in a cage
    Puts all Heaven in a rage.

    • Line 5
  • A dog starved at his master’s gate
    Predicts the ruin of the state.

    • Line 9
  • He who shall hurt the little wren
    Shall never be beloved by men.

    • Line 29
  • A truth that’s told with bad intent
    Beats all the lies you can invent.

    • Line 53
  • Man was made for joy and woe,
    And when this we rightly know
    Through the world we safely go.

    • Line 56
  • Every tear from every eye
    Becomes a babe in eternity.

    • Line 67
  • He who shall teach the child to doubt
    The rotting grave shall ne’er get out.

    • Line 87
  • The strongest poison ever known
    Came from Caesar’s laurel crown.

    • Line 97
  • He who doubts from what he sees
    Will ne’er believe, do what you please.
    If the sun and moon should doubt
    They’d immediately go out.

    • Line 107
  • The harlot’s cry from street to street
    Shall weave old England’s winding sheet.

    • Line 115
  • Every night, and every morn,
    Some to misery are born.
    Every morn, and every night,
    Some are born to sweet delight.
    Some are born to sweet delight.
    Some are born to endless night.

    • Line 123
  • God appears and god is light
    To those poor souls who dwell in night
    But does a human form display
    To those who dwell in realms of day

    • Line 129

Milton (c. 1809)

Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time’s swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.

  • The Stolen and Perverted Writings of Homer & Ovid, of Plato & Cicero, which all men ought to contemn, are set up by artifice against the Sublime of the Bible
    • Preface
  • Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court & the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War.
    • Ibid
  • And did those feet in ancient time,
    Walk upon England’s mountains green?
    And was the holy Lamb of God
    On England’s pleasant pastures seen?And did the Countenance Divine
    Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
    And was Jerusalem builded here
    Among these dark Satanic mills?Bring me my Bow of burning gold,
    Bring me my Arrows of desire,
    Bring me my Spear — O clouds, unfold!
    Bring me my Chariot of fire!

    I will not cease from mental fight,
    Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
    Till we have built Jerusalem
    In England’s green & pleasant land.

    • Prefatory Poem
  • Time is the mercy of Eternity; without Time’s swiftness Which is the swiftest of all things, all were eternal torment.
    • Book the First, 24:72

Poems from Blake’s Notebook (c. 1807-1809)

  • Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
    This is not done by jostling in the street.

    • Great Things Are Done
  • If you have formed a circle to go into,
    Go into it yourself and see how you would do.

    • To God
  • The Angel that presided o’er my birth
    Said, “Little creature, formed of joy and mirth,
    Go love without the help of any thing on earth.”

    • The Angel That Presided
  • Grown old in love from seven till seven times seven,
    I oft have wished for Hell for ease from Heaven.

    • Grown Old in Love

Jerusalem (c. 1803–1820)

I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s;
I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.

  • Poetry fettered fetters the human race. Nations are destroyed, or flourish, in proportion as their poetry, painting, and music are destroyed or flourish!
    • To the Public, plate 1
  • I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s;
    I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.

    • Ch. 1, plate 10, lines 20-21 The Words of Los
  • I see the Four-fold Man.
    The Humanity in deadly sleep,
    And its fallen Emanation. The Spectre & its cruel Shadow.
    I see the Past, Present & Future, existing all at once
    Before me; O Divine Spirit sustain me on thy wings!

    • Ch. 1, plate 15, lines 6-9
  • He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars;
    General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer:
    For art and science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.

    • Ch. 3, plate 55, line 60
  • What is a Wife & what is a Harlot? What is a Church & What
    Is a Theatre? are they Two & not One? can they Exist Separate?
    Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing? Brotherhood is Religion
    O Demonstrations of Reason Dividing Families in Cruelty & Pride!

    • Ch. 3, plate 57
  • England! awake! awake! awake!
    Jerusalem thy sister calls!
    Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death
    And close her from thy ancient walls?

    • Ch. 4, prefatory poem, plate 77, st. 1

The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)

  • The vision of Christ that thou dost see
    Is my vision’s greatest enemy.

    • Sec. 4, line 1
  • Both read the Bible day and night,
    But thou read’st black where I read white.

    • Sec. 4, line 13
  • This life’s dim windows of the soul
    Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
    And leads you to believe a lie
    When you see with, not through, the eye.

    • Sec. 5, line 101
  • I am sure this Jesus will not do
    Either for Englishman or Jew.

    • Sec. 8

Miscellaneous poems and fragments from the Nonesuch edition

  • “I die, I die!” the Mother said,
    “My children die for lack of Bread.”

    • The Grey Monk, stanza 1
  • My Brother starv’d between two Walls,
    His Children’s Cry my Soul appalls;

    • Ibid, stanza 5
  • The iron hand crush’d the Tyrant’s head
    And became a Tyrant in his stead.

    • Ibid, stanza 9

Attributed

  • When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.
  • The Old and New Testaments are the great code of art.
    • Oldest source found: “The Harvard Advocate” (Vol. 102–103), p. 268.

Quotes about Blake

  • It is not at all certain that a merely moral criticism of society may not be just as “revolutionary” — and revolution, after all, means turning things upside down — as the politico-economic criticism which is fashionable at this moment. Blake was not a politician, but there is more understanding of the nature of capitalist society in a poem like “I wander through each charter’d street” than in three-quarters of Socialist literature.
  • There is no century in which Blake would not have seen angels.
  • Most scientists would make very hard work of explaining how the concept of soul fits into the material universe, where there is nothing but “atoms and the void.” Was this what Blake meant when he said that science was a tree of death? The death of religion? Of imagination? Both have been frequently suggested. …Science is certainly our prime weapon against superstition and irrationalism, but in a world in which science flourishes—with of without God—love and fear remain, as do pleasure and regret, poetry and humor, art and music. The arts are not lessened by the sciences. Blake was mistaken: man’s ineradicable gift, his questing curiosity, the divine discontent, is the common source of the arts and sciences.
    • Brian L. Silver, The Ascent of Science (1998)
  • He had a devil, and its name was faith.

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Karl Popper

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Karl Popper

Karl Popper c. 1980s
Born 28 July 1902
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died 17 September 1994 (aged 92)
London, England
Nationality Austro-British
Religion
Era 20th century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School
Main interests
Notable ideas
Influences
Influenced

~~~~~~

WikiQuotes

If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories…
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification — the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.
The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff.
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
  • You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence “democracy“, and the other “tyranny“.
    • As quoted in Freedom: A New Analysis (1954) by Maurice William Cranston, p. 112
  • Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology. (All that technology may say about ends is whether or not they are compatible with each other or realizable.)
    • The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 22 The Unholy Alliance with Utopianism
  • If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.
    • The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method
  • Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
    • Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972)
  • For it was my master who taught me not only how very little I knew but also that any wisdom to which I might ever aspire could consist only in realizing more fully the infinity of my ignorance.[citation needed]
  • Before we as individuals are even conscious of our existence we have been profoundly influenced for a considerable time (since before birth) by our relationship to other individuals who have complicated histories, and are members of a society which has an infinitely more complicated and longer history than they do (and are members of it at a particular time and place in that history); and by the time we are able to make conscious choices we are already making use of categories in a language which has reached a particular degree of development through the lives of countless generations of human beings before us. . . . We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.
    • As quoted in Popper (1973) by Bryan Magee
  • Appealing to his [Einstein’s] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everything into the universe from the beginning, He would have created a universe without change, without organisms and evolution, and without man and man’s experience of change. But he seems to have thought that a live universe with events unexpected even by Himself would be more interesting than a dead one.
    • As quoted in Omnipotence and Other Theological Mistakes by Charles Hartshorne (1984)
  • There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.
    • “The Importance of Critical Discussion” in On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (1989) by Robert Basil
  • Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification — the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.
    • The Open Universe : An Argument for Indeterminism (1992), p. 44
  • I think so badly of philosophy that I don’t like to talk about it. … I do not want to say anything bad about my dear colleagues, but the profession of teacher of philosophy is a ridiculous one. We don’t need a thousand of trained, and badly trained, philosophers — it is very silly. Actually most of them have nothing to say.
    • As quoted in “At 90, and Still Dynamic : Revisiting Sir Karl Popper and Attending His Birthday Party” by Eugene Yue-Ching Ho, in Intellectus 23 (Jul-Sep 1992)
  • I appeal to the philosophers of all countries to unite and never again mention Heidegger or talk to another philosopher who defends Heidegger. This man was a devil. I mean, he behaved like a devil to his beloved teacher, and he has a devilish influence on Germany. … One has to read Heidegger in the original to see what a swindler he was.
    • As quoted in “At 90, and Still Dynamic : Revisiting Sir Karl Popper and Attending His Birthday Party” by Eugene Yue-Ching Ho, in Intellectus 23 (Jul-Sep 1992)
  • When I speak of reason or rationalism, all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism. A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another’s opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others. The emphasis here is on the idea of criticism or, to be more precise, critical discussion. The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff. He is well aware that acceptance or rejection of an idea is never a purely rational matter; but he thinks that only critical discussion can give us the maturity to see an idea from more and more sides and to make a correct judgement of it.
    • “On Freedom” in All Life is Problem Solving (1999)
  • Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
    • As quoted in In Passing: Condolences and Complaints on Death, Dying, and Related Disappointments (2005) by Jon Winokur, p. 144
  • Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle — the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative.
    • As quoted in 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom (2006) by David Ross
  • True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
  • Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.
    • As quoted in My Universe : A Transcendent Reality (2011) by Alex Vary, Part II

The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934)

First translated into English in 1959
…no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
  • …no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
    • Ch. 1 “A Survey of Some Fundamental Problems”, Section I: The Problem of Induction, p. 27
  • A principle of induction would be a statement with the help of which we could put inductive inferences into a logically acceptable form. In the eyes of the upholders of inductive logic, a principle of induction is of supreme importance for scientific method: “… this principle”, says Reichenbach, “determines the truth of scientific theories. To eliminate it from science would mean nothing less than to deprive science of the power to decide the truth or falsity of its theories. Without it, clearly, science would no longer have the right to distinguish its theories from the fanciful and arbitrary creations of the poet’s mind.”
    Now this principle of induction cannot be a purely logical truth like a tautology or an analytic statement. Indeed, if there were such a thing as a purely logical principle of induction, there would be no problem of induction; for in this case, all inductive inferences would have to be regarded as purely logical or tautological transformations, just like inferences in inductive logic. Thus the principle of induction must be a synthetic statement; that is, a statement whose negation is not self-contradictory but logically possible. So the question arises why such a principle should be accepted at all, and how we can justify its acceptance on rational grounds.

    • Ch. 1 “A Survey of Some Fundamental Problems”, Section I: The Problem of Induction
  • The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.
    • Ch. 2 “On the Problem of a Theory of Scientific Method”, Section XI: Methodological Rules as Conventions
  • Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.
    • Ch. 10 “Corroboration, or How a Theory Stands up to Tests”, section 85: The Path of Science, p. 280

The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.
There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.
  • If in this book harsh words are spoken about some of the greatest among the intellectual leaders of mankind, my motive is not, I hope, the wish to belittle them. It springs rather from my conviction that, if our civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of deference to great men. Great men may make great mistakes; and as the book tries to show, some of the greatest leaders of the past supported the perennial attack on freedom and reason. Their influence, too rarely challenged, continues to mislead those on whose defence civilization depends, and to divide them. The responsibility of this tragic and possibly fatal division becomes ours if we hesitate to be outspoken in our criticism of what admittedly is a part of our intellectual heritage. By reluctance to criticize some of it, we may help to destroy it all.
    • Preface to the First Edition
  • I see now more clearly than ever before that even our greatest troubles spring from something that is as admirable and sound as it is dangerous — from our impatience to better the lot of our fellows. For these troubles are the by-products of what is perhaps the greatest of all moral and spiritual revolutions of history, a movement which began three centuries ago. It is the longing of uncounted unknown men to free themselves and their minds from the tutelage of authority and prejudice. It is their attempt to build up an open society which rejects the absolute authority to preserve, to develop, and to establish traditions, old or new, that measure up to their standards of freedom, of humaneness, and of rational criticism. It is their unwillingness to sit back and leave the entire responsibility for ruling the world to human or superhuman authority,and their readiness to share the burden of responsibility for avoidable suffering, and to work for its avoidance. This revolution has created powers of appalling destructiveness; but they may yet be conquered.
    • Preface to the Second Edition.
  • This book raises issues that might not be apparent from the table of contents.
    It sketches some of the difficulties faced by our civilization — a civilization which might be perhaps described as aiming at humanness and reasonableness, at equality and freedom; a civilization which is still in its infancy, as it were, and which continues to grow in spite of the fact that it has been so often betrayed by so many of the intellectual leaders of mankind. It attempts to show that this civilization has not yet fully recovered from the shock of its birth — the transition from the tribal or “enclosed society,” with its submission to magical forces, to the ‘open society’ which sets free the critical powers of man. It attempts to show that the shock of this transition is one of the factors that have made possible the rise of those reactionary movements which have tried, and still try, to overthrow civilization and to return to tribalism.

    • Introduction; part of this has sometimes been paraphrased : Our civilization has not yet fully recovered from the shock of its birth — the transition from the tribal or ‘closed society’, with its submission to magical forces, to the ‘open society’ which sets free the critical powers of man.
  • We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
    • Introduction
  • What a monument of human smallness is this idea of the philosopher king. What a contrast between it and the simplicity of humaneness of Socrates, who warned the statesmen against the danger of being dazzled by his own power, excellence, and wisdom, and who tried to teach him what matters most — that we are all frail human beings. What a decline from this world of irony and reason and truthfulness down to Plato‘s kingdom of the sage whose magical powers raise him high above ordinary men; although not quite high enough to forgo the use of lies, or to neglect the sorry trade of every shaman — the selling of spells, of breeding spells, in exchange for power over his fellow-men.
    • Vol. 1, Ch 8 “The Philosopher King”
  • The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.
    • Vol. 1, Endnotes to the Chapters : Notes to the Introduction.
  • The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato.
    Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

    • Vol. 1, Notes to the Chapters: Ch. 7, Note 4
  • We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.
    • Vol. 2, Ch. 21 “An Evaluation of the Prophecy”
  • No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
    • Vol. 2, Ch. 24 “Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason”
  • I do not overlook the fact that there are irrationalists who love mankind, and that not all forms of irrationalism engender criminality. But I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate. (Socrates, I believe, saw something of this when he suggested that mistrust or hatred of argument is related to mistrust or hatred of man).
    • Vol. 2, Ch. 24 “Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason”
  • … the attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell. It leads to intolerance. It leads to religious wars, and to the saving of souls through the inquisition. And it is, I believe, based on a complete misunderstanding of our moral duties. It is our duty to help those who need help; but it cannot be our duty to make others happy, since this does not depend on us, and since it would only too often mean intruding on the privacy of those towards whom we have such amiable intentions.
    • Vol. 2, Ch. 24 “Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason”
  • There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. But this, I hold, is an offence against every decent conception of mankind. It is hardly better than to treat the history of embezzlement or of robbery or of poisoning as the history of mankind. For the history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder (including it is true, some of the attempts to suppress them). This history is taught in schools, and some of the greatest criminals are extolled as heroes.
    • Vol 2, Ch. 25 “Has History any Meaning?” Variant: There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

Utopia and Violence (1947)

The spirit of Hitlerism won its greatest victory over us when, after its defeat, we used the weapons which the threat of Nazism had induced us to develop.
Address to Institut des Arts in Brussels, Belgium (1947); later published The Hibbert Journal 46 (1948), and in Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963)
  • Not only do I hate violence, but I firmly believe that the fight against it is not hopeless. I realize that the task is difficult. I realize that, only too often in the course of history, it has happened that what appeared at first to be a great success in the fight against violence was followed by a defeat. I do not overlook the fact that the new age of violence which was opened by the two World wars is by no means at an end. Nazism and Fascism are thoroughly beaten, but I must admit that their defeat does not mean that barbarism and brutality have been defeated. On the contrary, it is no use closing our eyes to the fact that these hateful ideas achieved something like a victory in defeat. I have to admit that Hitler succeeded in degrading the moral standards of our Western world, and that in the world of today there is more violence and brutal force than would have been tolerated even in the decade after the first World war. And we must face the possibility that our civilization may ultimately be destroyed by those new weapons which Hitlerism wished upon us, perhaps even within the first decade after the second World war; for no doubt the spirit of Hitlerism won its greatest victory over us when, after its defeat, we used the weapons which the threat of Nazism had induced us to develop.
  • A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.
  • We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell. Only if we give up our authoritarian attitude in the realm of opinion, only if we establish the attitude of give and take, of readiness to learn from other people, can we hope to control acts of violence inspired by piety and duty.
  • There are many difficulties impeding the rapid spread of reasonableness. One of the main difficulties is that it always takes two to make a discussion reasonable. Each of the parties must be ready to learn from the other. You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.
  • Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations, for the sake of an ideal of happiness that may never be realised.

On Freedom (1958)

“On Freedom” (1958; 1967) essay republished in Alles Leben ist Problemlösen (1994); translated as All Life is Problem Solving by Patrick Camiller (1994)
We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves.
  • The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong. Above all, he values the intellectual independence of others too highly to want to convince them in important matters. He would much rather invite contradiction, preferably in the form of rational and disciplined criticism. He seeks not to convince but to arouse — to challenge others to form free opinions.
  • Although I consider our political world to be the best of which we have any historical knowledge, we should beware of attributing this fact to democracy or to freedom. Freedom is not a supplier who delivers goods to our door. Democracy does not ensure that anything is accomplished — certainly not an economic miracle. It is wrong and dangerous to extol freedom by telling people that they will certainly be all right once they are free. How someone fares in life is largely a matter of luck or grace, and to a comparatively small degree perhaps also of competence, diligence, and other virtues. The most we can say of democracy or freedom is that they give our personal abilities a little more influence on our well-being.
  • It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it. Poland fought for freedom as no other country did. The Czech nation was prepared to fight for its freedom in 1938; it was not lack of courage that sealed its fate. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 — the work of young people with nothing to lose but their chains — triumphed and then ended in failure. … Democracy and freedom do not guarantee the millennium. No, we do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.

Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963)

Our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
I believe it is worthwhile trying to discover more about the world, even if this only teaches us how little we know.

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
There are all kinds of sources of our knowledge; but none has authority …
  • The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. For this, indeed, is the main source of our ignorance — the fact that our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
    • Variant translation: The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, clear, and well-defined will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. The main source of our ignorance lies in the fact that our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
  • What we should do, I suggest, is to give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, and our hopes; that all we can do is to grope for truth even though it be beyond our reach. We may admit that our groping is often inspired, but we must be on our guard against the belief, however deeply felt, that our inspiration carries any authority, divine or otherwise. If we thus admit that there is no authority beyond the reach of criticism to be found within the whole province of our knowledge, however far it may have penetrated into the unknown, then we can retain, without danger, the idea that truth is beyond human authority. And we must retain it. For without this idea there can be no objective standards of inquiry; no criticism of our conjectures; no groping for the unknown; no quest for knowledge.
    • Introduction “On The Sources of Knowledge and of Ignorance” Section XVII, p.30 Variant translation: I believe it is worthwhile trying to discover more about the world, even if this only teaches us how little we know. It might do us good to remember from time to time that, while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.
      If we thus admit that there is no authority beyond the reach of criticism to be found within the whole province of our knowledge, however far we may have penetrated into the unknown, then we can retain, without risk of dogmatism, the idea that truth itself is beyond all human authority. Indeed, we are not only able to retain this idea, we must retain it. For without it there can be no objective standards of scientific inquiry, no criticism of our conjectured solutions, no groping for the unknown, and no quest for knowledge.
  • Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
    • Ch. 1 “Science : Conjectures and Refutations”, Section VII
  • The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there.
    • Ch. 1 “Science : Conjectures and Refutations”
  • Put in a nut-shell, my thesis amounts to this. The repeated attempts made by Rudolf Carnap to show that the demarcation between science and metaphysics coincides with that between sense and nonsense have failed. The reason is that the positivistic concept of ‘meaning’ or ‘sense’ (or of verifiability, or of inductive confirmability, etc.) is inappropriate for achieving this demarcation — simply because metaphysics need not be meaningless even though it is not science. In all its variations demarcation by meaninglessness has tended to be at the same time too narrow and too wide: as against all intentions and all claims, it has tended to exclude scientific theories as meaningless, while failing to exclude even that part of metaphysics which is known as ‘rational theology’.
    • Ch 11. “The Demarcation between Science and Metaphysics.” (Summary, p. 253)
  • It is often asserted that discussion is only possible between people who have a common language and accept common basic assumptions. I think that this is a mistake. All that is needed is a readiness to learn from one’s partner in the discussion, which includes a genuine wish to understand what he intends to say. If this readiness is there, the discussion will be the more fruitful the more the partner’s backgrounds differ.
    • p. 352
  • It seems to me certain that more people are killed out of righteous stupidity than out of wickedness.
    • p. 368
  • As for Adler, I was much impressed by a personal experience. Once, in 1919, I reported to him a case which to me did not seem particularly Adlerian, but which he found no difficulty in analyzing in terms of his theory of inferiority feelings, although he had not even seen the child. Slightly shocked, I asked him how he could be so sure. “Because of my thousandfold experience,” he replied; whereupon I could not help saying: “And with this new case, I suppose, your experience has become thousand-and-one-fold.”
  • I may illustrate this by two very different examples of human behaviour: that of a man who pushes a child into the water with the intention of drowning it; and that of a man who sacrifices his life in an attempt to save the child. Each of these two cases can be explained with equal ease in Freudian and in Adlerian terms. According to Freud the first man suffered from repression (say, of some component of his Oedipus complex), while the second man had achieved sublimation. According to Adler the first man suffered from feelings of inferiority (producing perhaps the need to prove to himself that he dared to commit some crime), and so did the second man (whose need was to prove to himself that he dared to rescue the child). I could not think of any human behaviour which could not be interpreted in terms of either theory. It was precisely this fact — that they always fitted, that they were always confirmed — which in the eyes of their admirers constituted the strongest argument in favour of these theories. It began to dawn on me that this apparent strength was in fact their weakness.
  • There are all kinds of sources of our knowledge; but none has authority … The fundamental mistake made by the philosophical theory of the ultimate sources of our knowledge is that it does not distinguish clearly enough between questions of origin and questions of validity.

Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography (1976)

Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.
  • Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.
    • Page 29
  • Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program.
    • Unsourced variant: Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn’t even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program, and it is not really testable science.
Popper later retracted his criticisms:

  • I have changed my mind about the testability and logical status of the theory of natural selection; and I am glad to have an opportunity to make a recantation.
  • “Natural selection and the emergence of mind” dialectica Vol. 32 (1978), p. 339-355; republished in Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, and the Sociology of Knowledge (1987) edited by Gerard Radnitzky and W. W. Bartley, III

In Search of a Better World (1984)

All things living are in search of a better world.
  • The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.
  • Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.
  • There are uncertain truths — even true statements that we may take to be false — but there are no uncertain certainties.
    Since we can never know anything for sure, it is simply not worth searching for certainty; but it is well worth searching for truth; and we do this chiefly by searching for mistakes, so that we have to correct them.
  • Why do I think that we, the intellectuals, are able to help? Simply because we, the intellectuals, have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion — that is all our doing, our invention: the invention of the intellectuals. If only we would stop setting man against man — often with the best intentions — much would be gained. Nobody can say that it is impossible for us to stop doing this.

Misattributed

These are quotations that have been wrongly attributed to Popper
  • To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child.
  • The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.
  • Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
  • When we enter a new situation in life and are confronted by a new person, we bring with us the prejudices of the past and our previous experiences of people. These prejudices we project upon the new person. Indeed, getting to know a person is largely a matter of withdrawing projections; of dispelling the smoke screen of what we imagine he is like and replacing it with the reality of what he is actually like.

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