Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.
Tony JudtRead
Obviously a primary liberal conviction is that we should be tolerant of other peoples' convictions. But if we believe in something, we had better find ways to say so convincingly.
Interpretation
Tolerating different beliefs is essential, but we must also express our own convictions clearly.
In this quote, Tony Judt emphasizes the importance of tolerance towards others' beliefs while also advocating for the necessity of articulating and defending one's own convictions. He suggests that merely accepting differing viewpoints is not enough; instead, we should strive to communicate our beliefs effectively and compellingly.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion on the importance of free speech.
Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.
If active or concerned citizens forfeit politics, they thereby abandon their society to its most mediocre and venal public servants
Social democracy does not represent an ideal future; it does not even represent the ideal past.
What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.
I'm not sure I've learned anything new about life; but I've had to think harder about death and what comes after for other people.
We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.
So, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.
All things flourish, and each returns to its source.
Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one's own genes in the generations to follow.
It must be so,-Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'T is the divinity that stirs within us; 'T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.
Scapegoating is as American as apple pie. And because there's almost always a racial or ethnic dynamic to it in our country, scapegoating is the evil cousin of white supremacy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.