Some Favorite Quotes
"And what will become of virtue if riches are to be acquired at any cost?" -
Rousseau
"The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators." -
Edward Gibbon
"Perhaps ignorance is bliss because it hides from us our capacity for
hypocrisy." - Ron Yezzi
"Nothing done in the name of humanity is more noble or more human than the tasks
of a philosopher." - Ron Yezzi
"Nothing is too absurd to be said by some of the philosophers." - Cicero
"We may desire abolition of war, industrial justice, greater equality of
opportunity for all. But no amount of preaching good will or the golden rule or
cultivation of sentiments of love and equity will accomplish the results. There must be
change in objective arrangement not merely on the hearts of men. To think otherwise is to
suppose that flowers can be raised in a desert or motor cars run in a jungle. Both things
can happen and without a miracle. But only by first changing the jungle and desert."
- John Dewey
"We ought to act (speak, think, and do) so as to maximize the totality of power,
satisfaction, and reality." - Ron Yezzi
"In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be
perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise
tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms." -
Stephen Jay Gould
Comments? yezzi@mankato.msus.edu
(Note: For years I've maintained a policy of not listening to anonymous telephone
callers and of not reading anonymous letters addressed to me. Before reading an e-mail
message offering comments, I first satisfy myself that I know the identity of the sender
and I then test to make sure that I can send a reply. So if you want me to do more than
admire the ingenuity of your e-mail name, be sure to identify yourself and to make a
dialogue possible.)
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Last updated 12/3/95