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Quote by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

“Luxury and excessive refinement are sure forerunners of the decadence of states, because when all individuals seek their own interests they neglect the public weal.”

Author

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

French author known for his wit and moral maxims. His works delve deeply into the flaws of human nature and the hypocrisy of society. more

“The most important characteristic of an organism is that capacity for internal self-renewal known as health. There are two organisms whose processes of self-renewal have been subjected to human interference and control. One of these is man himself (medicine and public health). The other is land (agriculture and coservation). The effort to control the health of land has not been very successful.”

Source: Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)

“Any attempt to shape the world and modify human personality in order to create a self-chosen pattern of life involves many unknown consequences. Human destiny is bound to remain a gamble, because at some unpredictable time and in some unforeseeable manner nature will strike back. The multiplicity of determinants which affect biological systems limits the power of the experimental method to predict their trends and behavior.”

World Humans Self Order Destiny Risk Personality Shapes Limits Behavior Consequence Method Bounds Patterns Strikes Chosen Trends Unpredictable Gamble Multiplicity Human Personality Strike Back

Author:Rene Dubos

“Man could escape danger only by renouncing adventure, by abandoning that which has given to the human condition its unique character and genius among the rest of living things.”

Men Humans Character Given Risk Conditions Danger Adventure Genius Unique Human Condition Living Things

Author:Rene Dubos

“... men as a rule are more preoccupied with the dangers that threaten their life than interested in the biological forces on which they depend for a constructive existence.”

Men Force Existence Risk Danger Depends Constructive

Author:Rene Dubos

“As long as mankind is made up of independent individuals with free will, there cannot be any social status quo. Men will develop new urges, and these will give rise to new problems, which will require ever new solutions. Human life implies adventure, and there is no adventure without struggles and dangers.”

Men Giving Humans Long Made Problem Individual Social Struggle Risk Mankind Danger Adventure Solutions Independent Human Life Urges Free Will Status Quo Social Status

Author:Rene Dubos

“High-consequence risks form one particular segment of the generalised 'climate of risk' characteristic of late modernity - one characterised by regular shifts in knowledge-claims as mediated by expert systems.”

Form Risk Particular Late Consequence Claims Climate Experts Characteristics Modernity

Book:Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

Source: Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

“The risk climate of modernity is thus unsettling for everyone: no one escapes.”

Risk Climate Modernity

Book:Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

Source: Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

Quote by Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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