We have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die.
R. D. LaingRead
There are good reasons for being obedient, but being unable to be disobedient is not one of the best reasons.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Obedience can be justified, but blind compliance without the ability to question is not a virtue.
This quote by R. D. Laing emphasizes the importance of having the capacity to question authority and make independent choices. While there may be valid reasons to follow rules and directives, the inability to be disobedient suggests a lack of critical thinking and autonomy, which can lead to blindly following unjust or irrational orders.
Themes
ObedienceDisobedienceFreedomAutonomyCritical Thinking
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about authority in society.
More from R. D. Laing
All quotes βMadness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death.
R. D. LaingRead
Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is love in life.
R. D. LaingRead
The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.
R. D. LaingRead
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
R. D. LaingRead
Here we have the paradox, the potentially tragic paradox, that our relatedness to others is an essential aspect of our being, as is our separateness, but any particular person is not a necessary part of our being.
R. D. LaingRead
Similar quotes
Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen.
MaimonidesRead
When you resolve to become pious, the devil in your nature cries out at you, "Tread not those paths, O confused one; distress and poverty will overcome you. You will be despised, let down by friends, you will regret it." Dread of the devil has bound their souls; the cries of the devil are the drover of the damned; the call of the Lord is a guardian of the saints.
RumiRead
My witness is, that those who are honoured of their Lord in public, have usually to endure a secret chastening, or to carry a peculiar cross, lest by any means they exalt themselves, and fall into the snare of the devil.
Charles SpurgeonRead
Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe.
Mark TwainRead
I sleep seven hours. If I go to bed at two, I wake up at nine. If I go to bed at midnight, I wake up at seven. I don't wake up before - the house can fall apart, but I sleep for seven hours.
Karl LagerfeldRead
I am never bored; to be bored is an insult to one's self.
Jules RenardRead