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Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien

“How shall a man judge what to do in such times?' 'As he ever has judged,' said Aragorn. 'Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear...It is a man's part to discern them, as much in th Golden Wood as in his own house.”

Quote by J.R.R. Tolkien

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J.R.R. Tolkien

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“It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience; how a human being becomes evil and how good. In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel. In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor. In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments. And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains… an unuprooted small corner of evil.”

EvilGood
Book:The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
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“Imagine you're evil. Not misunderstood. Not sad. But evil. Imagine you've got a heart that spends all day wanting more. Imagine your mind is a selfish room full of pride or pity. Imagine you're like Brandon Goff and you find poor kids in the halls and make fun of their clothes, and you flick their ears until they scream in pain and swing their arms, and so you pin them down and break their fingers. Or you spit in his food in the cafeteria. Or you just call him things like cockroach and sand monkey. Imagine you're evil and you don't do any of those things, but you're like Julie Jenkins and you laugh and you laugh at everything Brandon does, and you even help when a teacher comes and asks what's going on and you say nothing's going on, and he believes you because you get A-pluses in English. Or imagine you just watch all of this. And you act like you're disgusted, because you don't like meanness. But you don't do anything or tell anyone. Imagine how much you've got compared to all the kids in the world getting blown up or starved, and the good you could do if you spent half a second thinking about it. Suddenly evil isn't punching people or even hating them. Suddenly it's all that stuff you've left undone. All the kindness you could have given. All the excuses you gave instead. Imagine that for a minute. Imagine what it means.”

EvilKindnessSelfishnessBullyingBulliesBystandersEvilness
Book:Everything Sad Is Untrue
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“In a 2016 essay, the writer and former soldier Roy Scranton describes watching Star Wars while stationed in Baghdad. He is forced in that moment to confront the reality that so much of the American self-image demands a narrative in which his country plays the role of the rebel, the resistance, when at the same time every shred of contemporary evidence around him leads to the conclusion that, by scope and scale and purpose of violence, this country is clearly the empire. A central privilege of being of this place becomes, then, the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts simultaneously.”

AmericaEvilUnited StatesGoodResistanceStar WarsGood Vs EvilEmpireRebels
Book:One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
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“Wishes are possibilities. Dare to make a wish.”

Inspirational QuotesDreamsInspirational LifeSelf LoveWise WordsWise QuotesDreams QuotesDreams Come TrueEncouragement QuotesNew ThoughtPositive Thinking QuotesDreams And RealityOpportunity QuotesDare To DreamWishes QuotesPossibility QuotesSelf Motivation QuotesEncourage YourselfNew Year S ResolutionsOpportunities In LifeWishes FulfilledEncouragement And AttitudePossibilities QuotesEncouraging And Empowering GirlsWishes For New YearDare To SeekDreaming AwakeWishes And Dreams
Book:Think Great: Be Great!
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“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. Steal a fish from one guy and give it to another--and keep doing that on a daily basis--and you'll make the first guy pissed off, but you'll make the second guy lazy and dependent on you. Then you can tell the second guy that the first guy is greedy for wanting to keep the fish he caught. Then the second guy will cheer for you to steal more fish. Then you can prohibit anyone from fishing without getting permission from you. Then you can expand the racket, stealing fish from more people and buying the loyalty of others. Then you can get the recipients of the stolen fish to act as your hired thugs. Then you can ... well, you know the rest.”

GovernmentEvilPoliticsFreedomLibertyViolenceCapitalismSlaveryLibertarianSocialismCommunismAnarchyTaxationFree MarketTheftCoercionSuperstitionCollectivismStatismVoluntaryismLaissez FaireNon Aggression PrincipleAnarcho CapitalismAustrian School Of EconomicsInitiation Of ForceVoluntaryist
Author:Larken Rose
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“One question in my mind, which I hardly dare mention in public, is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world. Patriotism is rampant in war and there are some good things about it. Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family, pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people. War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them to be ready to die for it. At no time do people work so well together to achieve the same goal as they do in wartime. Maybe that's enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue. If only I could get out of my mind the most patriotic people who ever lived, the Nazi Germans.”

WarEvilVirtuePridePatriotismNazi
Book:My War
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