“Reason's biological function is to preserve and promote life and to postpone its extinction as long as possible. Thinking and acting are not contrary to nature; they are, rather, the foremost features of man's nature. The most appropriate description of man as differentiated from nonhuman beings is: a being purposively struggling against the forces adverse to his life.” ThinkingMenLongReasonForceActingStruggleFunctionContraryPreservesFeaturesAppropriateDescriptionExtinctionAdverse Book:Human action: a treatise on economics Source: Human action: a treatise on economics
“The essence of religion is inertia; the essence of science is change. It is the function of the one to preserve, it is the function of the other to improve. If, as in Egypt, they are firmly chained together, either science will advance, in which case the religion will be altered, or the religion will preserve its purity, and science will congeal.” IfsTogetherCasesEssenceFunctionPreservesPurityEgyptAlteredInertiaChained Book:The Martyrdom of Man Source: The Martyrdom of Man
“Nevertheless, the ultimate business of philosophy is to preserve the force of the most elemental words in which Dasein expresses itself, and to keep the common understanding from levelling them off to that unintelligibility which functions in turn as a source of pseudo-problems.” PhilosophyProblemTurnsForceUnderstandingCommonSourceUltimateFunctionPreservesNeverthelessElementalsPseudo Author:Martin Heidegger
“Soul one might say is more imperfectly infinite than spirit, because soul tends to abolish the ego-consciousness that it absorbs or overwhelms, reducing its particularizing structure to pure sublime feeling (immediacy); but spirit is more successfully infinite than soul, even though also more difficult and abstruse, because it digests the functions of consciousness into itself and thus preserves and deploys the senses and intelligence of conscious ego to higher ends.” SoulEndsFeelingsMightSpiritDifficultConsciousnessHigherPureEgoConsciousFunctionInfiniteStructureSensesPreservesSublimeReducingAbolishImmediacy Author:Kenny Smith
“Comedy today is not what it was years ago. It's always changing, in particular to female comics. No longer are certain subjects considered to be a male preserve. Women can talk about sexuality and their bodily functions and it can be very, very entertaining. It's changed the impact of comedy acting.” YearsTodayCertainActingComedySubjectsChangedParticularFemaleYears AgoFunctionImpactMalesSexualityPreservesEntertainingBodily Functions Author:Patrick Stewart
“All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will keep trying.” TryingFirstsChildrenYoungPerfectDoubtMoralityProtectSurvivalUniversalFunctionFoundationMalesLuxuryPreservesNo DoubtFollyPrimePregnantNeverthelessEmergenciesKeep TryingYoung ChildrenIdealistDumpedPregnant WomenAdornmentPerfect Society Book:Time Enough for Love Source: Time Enough for Love
“The intellectual's hostility to the businessman presents no mystery, as the two have, by function, wholly different standards. While the businessman's motto is the customer is always right, the intellectual's task is to preserve his perceived standards against the weight of popular opinion.” TwoDifferentPhilosophyPoliticalOpinionMysteryIntellectualStandardsEconomicsTasksWeightFunctionCustomersPreservesBusinessmanMottoHostilityPopular Opinion Author:Bertrand de Jouvenel