A conservative, I take it, is a man who despises vulgarity; but the argument which is concerned exclusively with calculations of success, and is based on blindness to the nobility of the effort, is vulgar.
Leo StraussRead
No bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice, envy and hatred, and hence there cannot be a society which does not have to employ coercive restraint.
Interpretation
Society cannot completely rid itself of human malevolence, leading to the necessity of societal controls.
Leo Strauss asserts that no matter how much we attempt to change society, human nature embodies certain negative traits such as malice, envy, and hatred. This inherent darkness means that every society, regardless of its form, will require mechanisms of coercive restraint to manage and mitigate these destructive human impulses, highlighting a persistent tension between ideals of freedom and the need for order.
In practice
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of humanity.
A conservative, I take it, is a man who despises vulgarity; but the argument which is concerned exclusively with calculations of success, and is based on blindness to the nobility of the effort, is vulgar.
If the highest things are unknowable, then the highest capacity or virtue of man cannot be theoretical wisdom.
The silence of a wise man is always meaningful.
The Jewish people and their fate are the living witness for the absence of redemption. This, one could say, is the meaning of the chosen people; the Jews are chosen to prove the absence of redemption.
Real isn't how you are made. It's a thing that happens to you. Sometimes it hurts, but when you are Real you don't mind being hurt. It doesn't happen all at once. You become. Once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. Once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.
Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.
The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
The future is as irrevocable as an inflexible yesterday.
You are an infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience.
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