A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges.
Irving KristolRead
There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work.
Interpretation
Truth varies based on the audience's understanding and maturity level.
Irving Kristol's quote highlights the idea that truth is subjective and should be tailored to the audience's level of comprehension. It critiques the belief that a universal set of truths can be applied equally to all individuals, emphasizing the importance of context and individual experience in shaping one’s understanding of truth.
In practice
In a classroom setting to discuss how educational content should vary with student maturity.
A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality. A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges.
If you believe that no one was ever corrupted by a book, you have also to believe that no one was ever improved by a book.
No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals
The really difficult moral issues arise, not from a confrontation of good and evil, but from a collision between two goods
I have observed over the years that the unanticipated consequences of social action are always more important, and usually less agreeable, than the intended consequences.
You have to know one big thing and stick with it. The leaders who had one very big idea and one very big commitment. This permitted them to create something. Those are the ones who leave a legacy.
A society that is not willing to demand a life of somebody who has taken somebody else’s life is simply immoral.
Each one of us was harmed by being brought into existence. That harm is not negligible, because the quality of even the best lives is very bad—and considerably worse than most people recognize it to be. Although it is obviously too late to prevent our own existence, it is not too late to prevent the existence of future possible people.
Oh, breathe not his name! let it sleep in the shade, Where cold and unhonour'd his relics are laid
History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community.
Nothing, not even human life, is more precious to us than our myths about ourselves.
Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and _x000D_ the overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced _x000D_ by people of all colours and races here in this ancient Holy Land, _x000D_ the home of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other prophets _x000D_ of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly _x000D_ speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed _x000D_ all around me by people of all colours.
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