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