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All U Quotes

“Ultimately, the witch craze was not the result of just one single factor. Rather, it was a conglomeration of influences that worked together over the span of hundreds of years to shape early modern Europe into the ideal environment for a continent-wide witch hunt: misogyny, patriarchy, religious tyranny, scapegoating, land disputes, the rise of capitalism, shifting views about magic, political propaganda, and an established history of persecution and violence.”

“Ultimately there are but three systems of ethics, three conceptions of the ideal character and the moral life. One is that of Buddha and Jesus, which stresses the feminine virtues, considers all men to be equally precious, resists evil only by returning good, identifies virtue with love, and inclines in politics to unlimited democracy. Another is the ethic of Machiavelli and Nietzsche, which stresses the masculine virtues, accepts the inequality of men, relishes the risks of combat and conquest and rule, identifies virtue with power, and exalts an hereditary aristocracy. A third, the ethic of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, denies the universal applicability of either the feminine or the masculine virtues; considers that only the informed and mature mind can judge, according to diverse circumstance, when love should rule, and when power; identifies virtue, therefore, with intelligence; and advocates a varying mixture of aristocracy and democracy in government.”

“Ultimately there can be no freedom for self unless it is vouchsafed for others; there can be no security where there is fear, and a democratic society presupposes confidence and candor in the relations of men with one another and eager collaboration for the larger ends of life instead of the pursuit of petty, selfish or vainglorious aims.”

“Ultimately there is light and love and intelligence in this universe. And we are it, we carry that within us, it’s not just something out there, it is within us and this is what we are trying to re-connect with, our original light and love and intelligence, which is who we are, so do not get so distracted by all this other stuff, you know, really remember what we are here on this planet for.”

“Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.”

“Ultimately, there is no way that laws or institutions can prevent a democracy from becoming illiberal. All our institutionalized protections can be undone, given enough time, by an unsympathetic majority. The constitution can be amended, new judges can be appointed, agencies can be dismantled, and freedoms can be curtailed. And once a democracy devolves into illiberal majoritarianism, it rarely stays democratic for long. 'If America ever loses its liberty,' Tocqueville prophesied, 'the fault will surely lie with the omnipotence of the majority, which may drive minorities to despair and force them to resort to physical force.' Institutions can slow down the march toward majoritarian tyranny, but they cannot stop it. To remain truly democratic, people have to be willing to protect each other's rights and interests even when they control enough votes to do otherwise. They have to recognize each other's right to exist, express opinions, and participate fully in the political process. And they have to preserve the laws and institutions that guarantee human rights and civil liberties for everyone, not just for the ruling majority. We must have enough regard for each other that we decline to use the mechanisms of democracy to treat our fellow citizens unjustly. Another way to say this is that we must not be enemies. We must be friends.”

“Ultimately, there's no path towards police abolition—or even police reform—that doesn't involve a reckoning with police unions as the central bastion of police power. Not only are the police the enemies of workers and people of color, but from their very origin they have been synonymous with a racialized division of the working class that has always forestalled progress, much less revolution. Police unions today remain faithful to those origins into that history of betrayal.”

“Ultimately, they gamble in reckless desperation and the dream world brings no relief. It brings only increased debt and extreme anxiety, driving family and friends further away. But the obsession to gamble is accelerated nonetheless. The gamblers' self-destruction becomes a terrifying experience for families and loved ones and may involve their destruction as well.”

“Ultimately virility is all about helping others express their reluctantly shared feelings while doing so from a safe distance.”

“Ultimately, whether myth is religion or folk tale is, and always has been, a question of faith. When Europeans encountered the narratives of the peoples they colonized, they dismissed them as ‘myths’—whence the modern, pejorative sense of ‘myth’ as ‘fiction’ or ‘falsehood’—but their own Garden of Eden, Holy Trinity, and Easter Resurrection they regarded instead as theology.”