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Quote by Michael Ignatieff

“To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive war.”

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Michael Ignatieff

Michael Ignatieff is a prominent Canadian politician, scholar, and writer. He has held several academic and public positions and is well-regarded both in Canada and internationally. more

“In the mind of all, fiction, in the logical sense, has been the coin of necessity;—in that of poets of amusement—in that of the priest and the lawyer of mischievous immorality in the shape of mischievous ambition,—and too often both priest and lawyer have framed or made in part this instrument.”

Mind Has Beens Made Fiction Poet Shapes Ambition Instruments Lawyer Priests Logical Coins Amusement Immorality Framed Mischievous

Book:The works

Source: The works

“He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.”

Ifs Thinking Matter Direct Claims Guides Thanks Explicit Beacons

Book:Benthamiana: Or Select Extracts from the Works of Jeremy Bentham. With an Outline of His Opinions on the Principal Subjects Discussed in His Works

Source: Benthamiana: Or Select Extracts from the Works of Jeremy Bentham. With an Outline of His Opinions on the Principal Subjects Discussed in His Works

“What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes.”

Source: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

“Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.”

Natural Simple Rights Nonsense Rhetorical Natural Rights Stilts

Author:Jeremy Bentham

“The chief business of seventeenth-century philosophy was to reckon with seventeenth-century science... the chief business of twentieth-century philosophy is to reckon with twentieth-century history.”

Century Chiefs Twentieth Century

Author:Robin G. Collingwood

“All history is the history of thought.”

Author:Robin G. Collingwood

Quote by Michael Ignatieff

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