Quotes About Individual

He is the only man I ever met with a seersucker face.

Ego is a structure that is erected by a neurotic individual who is a member of a neurotic culture against the facts of the matter. And culture, which we put on like an overcoat, is the collectivized consensus about what sort of neurotic behaviors are acceptable.

Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm.

Charity, if you have the means, is a personal choice, but charity which is expected or compelled is simply a polite word for slavery.

Empirical reality becomes nature when we view it with respect to its universal characteristics; it becomes history when we view it as particular and individual.

the issue in historical explanation is to explain the character and not the mere occurrence of events. A historical event is not an atomic, isolated, permanent thing but (as we have seen) an "identity" or "historical individual" constructed by the historian.

The demand for moral uniformity is more often practical than theoretical, a demand for moral certainty where none is possible. It is, for Oakeshott, an essentially religious demand, and although an individual agent can seek absolutely reliable guidance in faith, this is not an option that is available to the theorist.

Personal isn't the same as important.

Challenges are unique to every individual. What makes a challenge difficult or easy is the level of power inherent within it. Easy challenges do not require a great deal of effort, and therefore their yields are poor. Difficult challenges, on the other hand, require a great deal of effort, and in exercising the will in order to conquer them, they yield magnificent gifts of power.

Concepts such as age, place of birth and parentage can only have meaning within the context of personal history.

One's own self conquered is better than all other people.

Not only is the self entwined in society it owes society its existence in the most literal sense.

Opinions are not only actions but often lethal weapons. In all known wars, the opposing sides attack each other's beliefs and symbols ... The standard that should carry the greatest importance for both the state and the individual is the equal value of all human beings. Every other principle should stem from this.

And we even recognise the apparent paradox that some limitations to our freedoms have the consequence of making us freer overall.

Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.

Peace is normally a great good, and normally it coincides with righteousness, but it is righteousness and not peace which should bind the conscience of a nation as it should bind the conscience of an individual; and neither a nation nor an individual can surrender conscience to another's keeping.

We are bound in honor to strive to bring ever nearer the day when, as far is humanly possible, we shall be able to realize the ideal that each man shall have an equal opportunity to show the stuff that is in him by the way in which he renders service.

The building of a good society is not primarily a social, but a psychic task.

Originally, God was to save individual mind from despair if not disaster, love was an attempt by one mind to possess another mind and justice was a mind's concern for all other minds. In case of the first, mind is too weak and fearful to understand itself. In the second, the nature cripples the reason and over powers human mind! In the third situation, the reason is more evolved and makes the human mind to stand on its own and does what best is possible with respect to other minds!

The greatest intellectual achievement of men should be not only in understanding the importance of the reason, but to consciously and boldly overthrow it as and when the welfare of others' warrants it. Why should anybody think about others welfare? This is because the reason's practical worth is only with respect to others. Instinct is often enough to take care of an individual, but the reason is necessary to meet the societal requirements and also to derive benefits from it.

What the courts must grasp, if they are ever to resolve the battle over assisted suicide once and for all, is that there is no rational, secular basis upon which the government can properly prevent any individual from choosing to end his own life. When religious conservatives use secular laws to enforce their idea of God's will, they threaten the central principle on which America was founded.

Objection 3: According to the Philosopher (Metaph. iv), the meaning of a word is its definition. But the definition of "person" is this: "The individual substance of the rational nature," as above stated. Therefore "person" signifies substance.

Since time is no longer cyclical but one-way and irreversible, personal history is now possible and an individual life can have value.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.