I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Mikhail BakuninRead
No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of personal exploration and experience over reliance on established theories or systems.
Mikhail Bakunin's quote reflects a deep philosophical stance on the pursuit of truth and knowledge. He suggests that mere adherence to existing systems, theories, or texts is insufficient for genuine understanding or for making a significant impact in the world. Instead, he identifies himself as a 'true seeker,' indicating that personal inquiry and critical examination of established beliefs are paramount for true enlightenment and change.
In practice
During a discussion on the importance of self-discovery in personal growth.
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
We must overthrow the material and moral conditions of our present-day life. . . . We must first purify our atmosphere and completely transform the milieu in which we live; for it corrupts our instinct and our will, and constricts our heart and our intelligence
The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.
By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.
By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.
This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other.
We do not have to die to enter the kingdom of Heaven, In fact we have to be fully alive. When we are truly alive we see that the tree is part of Heaven and we are also part of Heaven. The whole universe is conspiring to reveal this to us. Peace is available and when we touch it everything becomes real. We become ourselves, fully alive in the present moment.
When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves--that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.
I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody's easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method.
Indeed, what is startling about the notion of a victimless crime is that even when the behavior in question is genuinely victimless, its criminality is still affirmed by those who are eager to punish it. It is in such cases that the true genius lurking behind many of our laws stands revealed. The idea of a victimless crime is nothing more than a judicial reprise of the Christian notion of sin.
Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.
The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.