Paul Soglin famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

These are 8- and 12-year-old kids. It doesn't matter how they got here. It is time to show a little compassion
-- Paul Soglin

#Kids #Compassion #Years

I watched so many movies when I was a kid, and I'd watch them over and over.
I'm one of five kids and we lived on a massive farm in New South Wales with my mum and dad.
My critique of democracy begins and ends with this point. Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.
I think there is a complicated side effect to overcoming evil in that we are forever changed by it. I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.
Can you imagine if you really let it in that you are not a problem to be solved in any way? Imagine you knew that anything that would tell you otherwise is just a movement of thought in the mind that says "Whatever is, isn't the way it is supposed to be." So the biggest act of compassion starts within. And when the self is no longer seen as a problem, this is called "the peace that passes all understanding."
If pity was always equally alive and acting in all individuals and in all circumstances, we could do away with moral. Unfortunately, it is not compassion, but rather it's contrary, selfishness, that act most strongly in us.
Apart from selfish reasons, such as fear of punishments, fear of blame, of dishonour, etc, there remains only two motives that can stop (or prevent, "empÃ¢echer", Fr.) men from acting badly; the natural sense of commiseration (or "sympathy", - "commisÃ©ration", Fr.) for one's fellow men - compassion, and the influence of education, by association of ideas ("par l'association d'idÃ©es", Fr.) - habit.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough, And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide. Now, of my threescore years and ten, Twenty will not come again, And take from seventy springs a score, It only leaves me fifty more. And since to look at things in bloom Fifty springs are little room, About the woodlands I will go To see the cherry hung with snow.
In 1917 European history, in the old sense, came to an end. World history began. It was the year of Lenin and Woodrow Wilson, both of whom repudiated the traditional standards of political behaviour. Both preached Utopia, Heaven on Earth. It was the moment of birth for our contemporary world.
No matter how much we learn, there is always more knowledge to be gained. In this connection I am reminded of a short poem that has been in my mind over the years. It reads as follow: I used to think I knew I knew. But now I must confess. The more I know I know I know I know I know the less.

Paul Soglin famous quotes

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