“There is no such thing as absolute cost of labour; it is all a matter of comparison. Every one gets the most which he can for his exertions; some can get little or nothing, because they have not sufficient strength, knowledge or ingenuity; others get much, because they have, comparatively speaking, a monopoly of certain powers.” LittlesMatterCertainCostAbsolutesSufficientLabourComparisonMonopolyIngenuityExertion Book:The Theory of Political Economy Source: The Theory of Political Economy
“The existence of a medium, after all, is its absolute justification, if as so many seem to think, it needs one and all comparison of potentialities is useless and irrelevant. Whether a water-color is inferior to an oil, or whether a drawing, an etching, or a photograph is not as important as either, is inconsequent. To have to despise something in order to respect something else is a sign of impotence. [emphasis added] Let us rather accept joyously and with gratitude everything through which the spirit of man seeks to an ever fuller and more intense self-realization.” IfsThinkingMenNeedsImportantSelfSeemsSpiritOrderWaterExistenceAcceptingColorGratitudeAbsolutesPhotographOilDrawingIntenseSelf RealizationMediumsRealizationUselessComparisonDespiseJustificationInferiorsIrrelevantEmphasisImpotenceEtching Author:Paul Strand
“Bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations. Weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us...No longer is the quest for disarmament a sign of weakness, (nor) the destruction of arms a dream - it is a practical matter of life or death. The risks inherent in disarmament pale in comparison to the risks inherent in an unlimited arms race.” WarMatterDreamNationsRaceRiskArmsWeaponsWeaknessDestructionAbsolutesPracticalsComparisonQuestsPaleInherentUnlimitedAbolishDisarmamentAbsolute PowerArms RaceLife Or Death Author:John F. Kennedy
“Now, we occupy a lowly position, both in space and rank in comparison with the heavenly sphere, and the Almighty is Most High not in space, but with respect to absolute existence, greatness and power.” SpaceExistencePositionGreatnessAbsolutesComparisonHeavenlySpheresAlmighty Book:Guide for the perplexed Source: Guide for the perplexed
“Now, even more than the evening before, he could think of no one with whom to compare her. She had become absolute, beyond comparison. She had become decision and fate.” ThinkingDecisionFateAbsolutesEveningCompareComparison Book:Thousand Cranes Source: Thousand Cranes
“Humility is just as much the opposite of self-abasement as it is of self-exaltation. To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than anything else in the universe. It is ? is nothing, yet at the same time one with everything. It is in this sense that humility is absolute self-effacement.” SelfRealityUniverseHumilityOppositesBiggerAbsolutesHumbleSecureComparisonBe HumbleExaltationAbasement Author:Dag Hammarskjold
“There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.” WantDoeTruthValuesAtheismDangerousAbsolutesEducationalComparisonDeceivingDeceivedAgnosticismAbsolute TruthSupposition Author:Friedrich Nietzsche