Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order.
Edwin Hubbel ChapinRead
Neutral men are the devil's allies.
Interpretation
Indifference or neutrality in moral matters can contribute to evil.
This quote suggests that individuals who choose to remain neutral or indifferent in the face of wrongdoing inadvertently support the perpetuation of evil. By not taking a stand or speaking out against injustice, these 'neutral men' become complicit, acting as allies to those who commit morally reprehensible acts. The implication is that moral courage is essential to combat evil and uphold justice.
In practice
During a discussion on social justice, this quote can emphasize the importance of taking a stand.
Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order.
Revolution does not insure progress. You may overturn thrones, but what proof that anything better will grow upon the soil?
Do not ask if a man has been through college; ask if a college has been through him; if he is a walking university.
Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are.
Tomorrow may never come to us. We do not live in tomorrow. We cannot find it in any of our title-deeds. The man who owns whole blocks of real estate, and great ships on the sea, does not own a single minute of tomorrow. Tomorrow! It is a mysterious possibility, not yet born. It lies under the seal of midnight-behind the veil of glittering constellations.
A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star.
It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.
For now she need not think of anybody. She coud be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of - to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others... and this self having shed its attachments was free for the strangest adventures.
And if you can find any way out of our culture, then that's a trap too. Just wanting to get out of the trap reinforces the trap.
Liberties are not given, they are taken.
Strange, isn't it, that no chemical will give a human being the iridescence that illusions have given them? Give me your hat.
All badness is spoiled goodness. A bad apple is a good apple that became rotten. Because evil has no capital of its own, it is a parasite that feeds on goodness.
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