Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.
Andrei SakharovRead
Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and culture.
Interpretation
Intellectual freedom is essential for progress in science, politics, and culture.
This quote emphasizes the importance of intellectual freedom as a foundational aspect of a democratic society. It asserts that without the ability to think freely and express ideas, it is impossible to foster advancements in politics, economic development, and cultural practices, ultimately leading to a more effective and equitable society.
In practice
In a speech advocating for academic reform, one might quote Sakharov to highlight the need for unimpeded thought.
Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.
A country which does not respect the rights of its own citizens will not respect the rights of its neighbours
I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true - that savagery begets only savagery.
I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.
I'm a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black,...an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.
This is what happened when one left one's home - pieces of oneself scattered all over the world, no one place ever completely satisfied, always a nostalgia for the place left behind.
Suffering begins when you mentally label a situation as bad. That causes an emotional contraction. When you let it be, without naming it, enormous power is available to you. The contraction cuts you off from that power, the power of life itself.
If we go on to cast a look at the fate of these World-Historical persons, whose vocation it was to be the agents of the World-Spirit, we shall find it to have been no happy one. They attained no calm enjoyment; their whole life was labour and trouble; their whole nature was nought else but their master—passion. When their object is attained they fall off like empty hulls from the kernel. They die early, like Alexander; they are murdered, like Caesar.
The old grooves must be erased in your brain, without forming new ones. You must realize yourself as the immovable, behind and beyond the movable, the silent witness of all that happens.
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