To congratulate oneself on one's warm commitment to the environment, or to peace, or to the oppressed, and think no more is a profound moral fault.
Robert ConquestRead
Everyone is a reactionary about subjects he understands.
Interpretation
People often resist or oppose ideas they do not fully grasp, but are fervent in their beliefs regarding topics they do understand.
This quote by Robert Conquest suggests that individuals tend to hold reactionary or conservative views primarily on subjects with which they are familiar. It highlights the tendency of people to strongly defend or critique ideas based on their understanding, which can lead to rigid perspectives that may not allow for growth or exploration of new thoughts.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about political ideologies to illustrate how people's knowledge affects their viewpoints.
To congratulate oneself on one's warm commitment to the environment, or to peace, or to the oppressed, and think no more is a profound moral fault.
Down through the ages, there has always been the spiritual path. It's been passed on - it always will be - and if anybody ever wants it in any age, it's always there.
There is in most passions a shrinking away from ourselves. The passionate pursuer has all the earmarks of a fugitive.
If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
It's not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.
My loathings are simple. stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music. My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting.
Life in itself is neither good nor evil, it is the place of good and evil, according to what you make it.
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