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R Quotes

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All R Quotes

“Rourk didn’t even know her name, but he knew he’d never seen anyone so magnificent in his life. Her wavy hair glistened in the sunlight. She had a delicate, round face with large, blue-green eyes and full lips. With her cheeks flushed from the cold fall air, she reminded him of a porcelain doll. He knew that her looks deceived; her bold, daring eyes gave her away. She constantly observed her surroundings. Rourk smiled to himself; soon they would be together.”

“Rousseau already observed that this form of government is more accurately an ‘elective aristocracy’ because in practice the people are not in power at all. Instead we’re allowed to decide who holds power over us. It’s also important to realise this model was originally designed to exclude society’s rank and file. Take the American Constitution: historians agree it ‘was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period’. It was never the American Founding Fathers’ intention for the general populace to play an active role in politics. Even now, though any citizen can run for public office, it’s tough to win an election without access to an aristocratic network of donors and lobbyists. It’s not surprising that American ‘democracy’ exhibits dynastic tendencies—think of the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Bushes. Time and again we hope for better leaders, but all too often those hopes are dashed. The reason, says Professor Keltner, is that power causes people to lose the kindness and modesty that got them elected, or they never possessed those sterling qualities in the first place. In a hierarchically organised society, the Machiavellis are one step ahead. They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition. They’re shameless.”

“Rousseau, esse primeiro homem moderno, idealista e 'canaille' numa só pessoa; que necessitava da 'dignidade' moral para aguentar seu próprio aspecto; doente de vaidade e de autodesprezo desenfreados. Esse aborto que se recostou no umbral da nova época também queria 'retorno à natureza' -- para onde, repito a pergunta, queria retornar Rousseau? -- Eu odeio Rousseau inclusive na Revolução: ela é a expressão histórico-universal dessa duplicidade de idealista e 'canaille'. A 'farce' sangrenta com que transcorreu essa Revolução, a sua 'imoralidade', pouco me importa: o que odeio é a sua moralidade rousseauniana -- as chamadas 'verdades' da Revolução, com as quais ela ainda faz efeito e convence para o seu lado tudo o que é raso e medíocre. A doutrina da igualdade!... Mas não há veneno mais venenoso: pois ela parece pregada pela própria justiça, enquanto é o fim da justiça... 'Aos iguais o que é igual, aos desiguais o que é desigual' -- esse seria o verdadeiro discurso da justiça: e, consequência disso, 'jamais igualar o que é desigual.' O fato de as coisas terem transcorrido de maneira tão medonha e sangrenta em torno dessa doutrina da igualdade conferiu a essa 'ideia moderna' par excellence uma espécie de glória e resplendor, de modo que a Revolução como espetáculo também seduziu os espíritos mais nobres. Isso não é, no fim das contas, razão para estimá-la mais. -- Vejo apenas um homem que a considerou da maneira que ela deve ser considerada, com nojo -- Goethe”

“Rousseau had it backwards. We are NOT born free. We are born in the chains of the random and the reflexive, and are ignorant and unreasonable by simple nature. We must learn to be free, to organize the random and detect the reflexive, to acquire the knowledge of particulars and the powers of reason. The examined life is impossible if we cannot examine, order, classify, define, distinguish, always in minute particulars.”

“Rousseau's constant influence on later generations is indubitable (though not always positive). He can be seen as father of the Romantic movement (and even a great-grandfather of the Green movement). The Romantics were inspired by his confirmation of the worth of each and every one of us, however ordinary, by his emphasis on equality, on knowledge of the inner self, and on a spiritual connection with nature, as well as by his imagination and the depth of his feelings.”

“Rousseau said that a woman’s place is the home. Many women are at home…watching their children starve. Some Assembly members voted for schools to teach girls home arts. Did any woman of the Third Estate not learn home arts as soon as she could walk? If women were educated, they’d have other ways to feed their children besides laundering and whoring.”

“Route 206 has only two lanes, which makes no sense in this over populated state, but presumably someone in power believes that restricting the road to only two lanes forestalls the advent of a further population explosion. Presumably these same people have not realized that a two-lane system clogs cars, frustrates drivers, and imperils a family of three (Mom, Dad, Ben) driving to a dinner deep in Southern New Jersey. These same people have not seen any logic to expanding a roadway so that a bleary, sweaty, fleshy man, vodka steaming from his pores, angry at the Range Rover sputtering in front of him, angry that the man with the ponytail driving the Range Rover has a Range Rover, angry at himself for not picking up Willy, his eleven-year-old son, from his mother's today because he went to the bar Fredo's instead, angry angry angry - so fuck it, fuck it all, he thought, I'm going to fucking pass this fucking asswipe Range Rover asshole, I don't care who's coming down the other side, I don't care if the President and his fucking Secret Service guys are barreling down this shitty road, fuck it all, I have the bigger car, I don't need a Range Rover, I have this, my TRUCK, my beautiful big motherfucking TRUCK, and goddamn it, what was up with the blond at the bar?”

“Routine ruins the life, variety vitalise the life.”

“Routine shortens and variety lengthens time, and it is therefore in the power of men to do something to regulate its pace. A life with many landmarks, a life which is much subdivided when those subdivisions are not of the same kind, and when new and diverse interests, impressions, and labours follow each other in swift and distinct successions, seems the most long.”