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Quote by Ernst Cassirer

Work

An essay on man: an introduction to a philosophy of human culture

This work delves into the fundamental questions of human life, examining the nature of humanity and its place in the world. It explores the development of human culture and the philosophical underpinnings that shape our understanding of society and individual identity. more

Author

Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer

German philosopher, cultural philosopher, and one of the important representatives of phenomenology. Cassirer is renowned for his philosophical exploration of symbolic forms, particularly in the fields of language, art, and religion. His thoughts were deeply influenced by Kant, Hegel, and Husserl, and had a profound impact on 20th-century philosophy. more

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“Of the six men who have done most to make America the wonder and the joy she is to all of us, not one could be the citizen of a government so constituted; for Washington and Franklin and Jefferson, certainly the three mightiest leaders in our early history, were heretics in their day, Deists, as men called them; and Garrison and Lincoln and Sumner, certainly the three mightiest in these later times, would all be disfranchised by the proposed amendment. Lincoln could not have taken the oath of office had such a clause been in the Constitution.”

“If men do their best endeavours to free themselves from all errors, and yet fail of it through human frailty, so well I am persuaded of the goodness of God, that if in me alone should meet a confluence of all such errors of all the Protestants in the world that were thus qualified, I should not be so much afraid of them all, as I should be to ask pardon for them.”

“In the early 50s in the US, there was what was called McCarthyism and the only reason it succeeded was that there was no resistance to it. When they tried the same thing in the 60s it instantly collapsed because people simply laughed at it so they couldn't do it. Even a dictatorship can't do everything it wants. It's got to have some degree of popular support.”

“In a discussion of this kind our interest should be centered not on the weight of the authority but on the weight of the argument. Indeed the authority of those who set out to teach is often an impediment to those who wish to learn. They cease to use their own judgment and regard as gospel whatever is put forward by their chosen teacher.”