"I suffer the anthropological malady diagnosed by Le vi- Strauss inTristes tropiques: I find it much more difficult to suspend value judgments about the society in which I normally reside than I do abroad. It takes physical and cultural distance to gain moral detachment and political noncommitment. Relativism implies a solid measure of indifference."

-- Pierre L. van den Berghe

#Distance Quotes #Political Quotes #Suffering Quotes

“Statisticians, like artists, have the bad habit of falling in love with their models.”
“Only with great care. For thousands, carols will be their only link with a church. At the same time, sentimentality is perhaps the single most dangerous feature of our Church and culture-and the sentimental air is never thicker than at Christmas. The Incarnation is messy, dirty, and resonates with the crucifixion. We need a new wave of carol writing that can gradually swill out the nonsense and catch the piercing, joy-through-pain refrains of the New Testament.”
“I just know that I don't want cheating. I refuse. I deepened myself but I don't believe in myself because my thought is invented.”
“Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought.”
“A study was done which shows the majority of oncologists who refer patients for chemotherapy for lung cancer would not themselves take chemotherapy for lung cancer. And in fact if the chemotherapy involved cis-platen, something like 75% of them said they wouldn't take it. But what do these people do all day long? They're sending people for cis-platen.”
“I've grown up watching football my whole life.”
“All teachings are mere references. The true experience is living your own life. Then, even the holiest of words are only words.”
“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.”

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