Quotable Quotes: Random Views On The Human Race
by Miki Saxon
I love the pithy, brilliant one-liners that have come down through history. The old ones usually specify ‘man’ or ‘men’, because in the era they were said women were ignored—but that doesn’t change their validity, value or applicability to both sexes.
I don’t know how old this Japanese saying is, but it certainly is true if you’re in the wrong corporate culture—“The nail that sticks up gets hammered.”
The same bosses who make free with the hammers often love consultants, but the problem with many of them is beautifully summed up by Colin Powell when he said, “Experts often possess more data than judgment.”
Cardinal Newman said that “A gentleman is one who never knowingly inflicts pain.” Assuming that is true, we have a hell of a lot of folks walking around, on and off Wall Street, who aren’t gentlemen
A similar truth was stated by Pascal when he said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Sadly, we have millions of cheerful folks from every religion around the world doing their damnedest more completely than ever before.
Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” Does that mean that all those people doing something to to those who disagree with them are good people?
Sadly, the one that makes the most sense, and probably answers my previous question, is a true jewel from George Bernard Shaw, who said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man.”
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Image credit: sourmash on flickr
October 4th, 2009 at 5:45 am
what is sad about the final quote? i don’t think he meant reasonable as in logical or rational – he meant reasonable as in agreeable and moderate. unreasonable people won civil rights around the world, unreasonable people won the right to vote and unreasonable people continue to fight for a good world.
being a dreamer is unreasonable but is the required element of progress
October 4th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Hi Pat, that’s an interesting take and a far more positive one than I found.
I usually do find the positive in most things, but this one hit me definitely on the negative side, i.e., the narrow-minded unreasonableness of today’s ideologues.
I like your view MUCH better. Thanks for visiting and adding so much with your comment.