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Enlightenment Quotes

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Enlightenment Quotes

“The liberal tradition has its roots in the Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth-century Europe when intellectuals and political leaders had a powerful sense that reason could be employed to make the world a better place.”

World Reason Political Powerful Leader Century Periods Enlightenment Europe Tradition Roots Employed Better Place Political Leaders

Book:The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Source: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

“There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our Puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.”

“I sometimes call my new system 'Italian pagan Catholicism,' but it could more accurately be called 'pragmatic liberalism,' with roots in Enlightenment political philosophy. It is a synthesis of the enduring dual elements in our culture, pagan and Judeo-Christian, Romantic and Classic.”

Sometimes Philosophy Christian Political Culture Elements Enlightenment Roots Endure Classic Liberalism Catholicism Italian Political Philosophy Pagan Pragmatic Synthesis

Author:Camille Paglia

“The origins of the modern West are often seen in the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, but the roots of the Enlightenment can be found in habits of mind cultivated in Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, and the institutions that grew from them.”

Mind Found Modern Century Grew Habit Enlightenment Roots Institutions West Rome Jerusalem Athens Habits Of Mind

Book:Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy

Source: Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy

“The religious wars showed that the Christian faith was no longer Europe's unifying force. A new common ground was needed, and it was found in reason, which is something that is shared by all of mankind. This was one of the roots of the Enlightenment and its concept of universal human rights.”

“Marx's early manuscripts, with their roots in the Enlightenment and Romanticism, derived fundamental concepts such as alienation from a conception of human nature - what we would call genetically determined.”

Humans Human Nature Enlightenment Concepts Roots Fundamentals Determined Conception Alienation Romanticism Manuscripts

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Things flourish, then each returns to its root. Returning to the root is called stillness: Stillness is called return to life, return to life is called the constant; knowing the constant is called enlightenment.”

Spiritual Life Is Spirituality Knowing Return Enlightenment Roots Constant Stillness

Author:Laozi

“Anything that really frightens you may contain a clue to enlightenment. It may indicate to you how deeply you are attached to structure, whether mental, physical, or social. Attachment and resistance are appearances with the same root: when you resist by pulling away your awareness, the emotion is one of fear, and the contraction is experienced as a pull like magnetism or gravity; that is, attachment. That is why we often fear to open our minds to more exalted spiritual beings. We think fear is a signal to withdraw, when in fact it is a sign we are already withdrawing too much.”

“Emotions are not 'bad.' At the roots of our emotions are primal energies which can be put to fruitful use. Indeed...the energies of enlightenment arises from the very same natural origins as those which give rise to our everyday passions and emotions.”

Giving Use Passion Energy Natural Emotion Enlightenment Roots Everyday Arise Primal

Author:James H. Austin

“Duality is the real root of our suffering and of all our conflicts. All our concepts and beliefs, no matter how profound they may seem, are like nets which trap us in dualism. When we discover our limits we have to try to overcome them, untying ourselves from whatever type of religious, political, or social conviction may contain us. We have to abandon such concepts as 'enlightenment', 'the nature of the mind', and so on, until we no longer neglect to integrate our knowledge with our actual existence.”

“As soon as the mouth is opened, evils spring forth. People either neglect the root and speak of the branches, or neglect the reality of the 'illusory' world and speak only of Enlightenment. Or else they chatter of cosmic activities leading to transformations, while neglecting the Substance from which they spring--indeed, there is NEVER any profit in discussion.”

People World Mind Reality Evil Speak Activity Spring Enlightenment Mouths Roots Transformation Profit Substance Discussion Branches Neglect Cosmic Illusory Chatter

Author:Huangbo Xiyun