I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement.
Alexander HerzenRead
I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought.
Interpretation
Herzen expresses deep concern about the emotional and intellectual deficiencies of modern society.
In this quote, Alexander Herzen articulates his dismay at what he perceives as the emotional and intellectual shortcomings of contemporary individuals. He critiques the lack of depth in people's feelings, the narrowness in their perspectives, and the overall weakness in their thinking, implying that these traits contribute to a diminished human experience in the modern world.
In practice
In a discussion about societal values, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for deeper emotional and intellectual engagement.
I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement.
Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.
False gods must be repudiated, but that is not all: The reasons for their existence must be sought beneath their masks.
History is the autobiography of a madman.
Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, "just in case," in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.
There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it.
If there's hell below, we're all gonna go.
Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.
The flesh is the surface of the unknown.
People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.
What is still more to our shame as civilized Christians, we debauch their morals already too prone to vice, and we introduce among them wants and perhaps disease which they never before knew and which serve only to disturb that happy tranquility which they and their forefathers enjoyed. If anyone denies the truth of this assertion, let him tell me what the natives of the whole extent of America have gained by the commerce they have had with Europeans.
It is greater than the stars - that moving procession of human energy; greater than the palpitating earth and the things growing thereon.
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