The only way to eliminate any government choice on what art is worthwhile, what art isn't worthwhile, is to get the government totally out of the business of funding.
Antonin ScaliaRead
Being a good person begins with being a wise person. Then, when you follow your conscience, will you be headed in the right direction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being wise is fundamental to being a good person; following your conscience leads to the right path.
This quote emphasizes the importance of wisdom as the foundation of goodness. It suggests that a true moral compass stems from the ability to think wisely and make informed decisions, implying that ethical behavior is intertwined with one's capacity for discernment and the adherence to one's conscience in order to navigate life's choices correctly.
Themes
WisdomGoodnessConscienceDirectionMoral Compass
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about ethics in leadership, one might reference this quote to highlight the connection between wisdom and morality.
More from Antonin Scalia
All quotes βIf I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.
Antonin ScaliaRead
To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation: no social transformation without representation.
Antonin ScaliaRead
Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best. Individuals on both sides of the issue passionately, but respectfully, attempted to persuade their fellow citizens to accept their views.
Antonin ScaliaRead
If you're going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like them all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.
Antonin ScaliaRead
Burning the flag is a form of expression. Speech doesn't just mean written words or oral words. It could be semaphore. And burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea - I hate the government, the government is unjust, whatever.
Antonin ScaliaRead
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Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.
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As soon as you hear a proposition, the creative brain in humans assumes for the moment that it's true, and starts trying to find evidence. It's what computer scientists in the old days used to call 'Fifo:' first in, first out. The first piece of information that gets in has a privileged position, even if it's misinformation.
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Sit, then, as if you were a mountain, with all the unshakeable, steadfast majesty of a mountain. A mountain is completely natural and at ease with itself, however strong the winds that try to bother it, however thick the dark clouds that swirl around its peak. Sitting like a mountain, let your mind rise and fly and soar
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There are two modes of acquiring knowledge, namely by reasoning and experience. Reasoning draws a conclusion and makes us grant the conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, nor does it remove doubt so that the mind may rest on the intuition of truth, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.
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Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next.
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Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old... - Wang Lung
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