I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Interpretation
True freedom is achieved only when everyone is free, and mutual freedom reinforces individual freedom.
This quote from Mikhail Bakunin emphasizes the interconnectedness of human freedom. It suggests that an individual's freedom cannot be viewed in isolation; instead, it is contingent on the freedom of others. Bakunin argues that the liberation of one person enhances the freedom of all, suggesting a collective responsibility towards ensuring universal liberty as a foundational aspect of true freedom.
In practice
This quote can be shared during discussions about social justice.
We must overthrow the material and moral conditions of our present-day life. . . . We must first purify our atmosphere and completely transform the milieu in which we live; for it corrupts our instinct and our will, and constricts our heart and our intelligence
The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.
By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.
By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.
This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other.
To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
We need not wait for the world to become more mystical; the world is mystical. Our problem is not that the world lacks magic; our problem is that we don't believe in its magic. We do not show up fully for life, and then wonder why life is not showing up more fully for us.
What is that which can never die It is that faithful force that is born into us that one that is greater than us that calls new seed to the open and battered and barren places so that we can be resown. It is this force in its insistence in its loyalty to us in its love of us in its most often mysterious ways that is far greater far more majestic and far more ancient than any heretofore ever known.
And she thought then how strange it was that disaster--the sort of disaster that drained the blood from your body and took the air out of your lungs and hit you again and again in the face--could be at times, such a thing of beauty.
Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
The value comes from what is there, but the use comes from what is not there.
I was supposed to be waiting up here when you got back, only your Phoenix lot got in the way...β βYes, they do that,β said Dumbledore.
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