We have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die.
R. D. LaingRead
There are good reasons for being obedient, but being unable to be disobedient is not one of the best reasons.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Obedience can be justified, but blind compliance without the ability to question is not a virtue.
This quote by R. D. Laing emphasizes the importance of having the capacity to question authority and make independent choices. While there may be valid reasons to follow rules and directives, the inability to be disobedient suggests a lack of critical thinking and autonomy, which can lead to blindly following unjust or irrational orders.
Themes
ObedienceDisobedienceFreedomAutonomyCritical Thinking
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a discussion about authority in society.
More from R. D. Laing
All quotes βMadness need not be all breakdown. It may also be break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death.
R. D. LaingRead
Whether life is worth living depends on whether there is love in life.
R. D. LaingRead
The experience and behavior that gets labeled schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation.
R. D. LaingRead
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.
R. D. LaingRead
Here we have the paradox, the potentially tragic paradox, that our relatedness to others is an essential aspect of our being, as is our separateness, but any particular person is not a necessary part of our being.
R. D. LaingRead
Similar quotes
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
Pema ChodronRead
Between believing a thing and thinking you KNOW is only a small step and quickly taken.
Mark TwainRead
A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
Malcolm XRead
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
Henry FordRead
You renew yourself every day. Sometimes you're successful, sometimes your not, but it's the average that counts.
Satya NadellaRead
Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding.
Mihaly CsikszentmihalyiRead