“Machiavelli, however, took his bearings from people as they are. He defined the political project as making the best of this flawed material. He knew (in words Kant would write almost three centuries later) that nothing straight would be made from the crooked timber of humanity.” PeopleWritingMadeWould BePoliticalHumanityThreeCenturyMaterialsProjectsDefinedFlawedCrookedTimber Author:George Will
“For Immanuel Kant, the term anthropology embraced all the human sciences, and laid the foundation of familiar knowledge we need, to build solidly grounded ideas about the moral and political demands of human life. Margaret Mead saw mid-twentieth-century anthropology as engaged in a project no less ambitious than Kant's own, and her Terry Lectures on Continuities in Cultural Evolution provide an excellent point to enter into her reflections.” NeedsHumansIdeasPoliticalTermMoralSawsCenturyEvolutionDemandProjectsReflectionFoundationFamiliarExcellentHuman LifeEngagedAmbitiousGroundedLecturesTwentieth CenturyContinuityAnthropologyMead Author:Margaret Mead
“I cannot... perceive any ground for hoping that any practical good would, while the funding system exists in its present extent, result from the adoption of any of those projects, which have professed to have in view what is called Parliamentary Reform... when the funding system, from whatever cause, shall cease to operate upon civil and political liberty, there will be no need of projects for parliamentary reform. The parliament will, as far as shall be necessary, then reform itself.” NeedsPoliticalCausesResultsViewsLibertyProjectsPracticalsCeaseReformPerceiveAdoptionParliamentFundingParliamentary Author:William Cobbett
“The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one's ideas and beliefs are not merely idiosyncratic but speak to vital human needs, interests and desires, and therefore will be persuasive to many and ultimately most people. But this is a very different matter from deciding to put forward only those ideas presumed (accurately or not) to be compatible with what most people already believe.” PeopleNeedsBelieveHumansIdeasDifferentMatterPoliticalDesireBeliefSpeakInterestMovementProjectsDemocraticCompatiblePersuasiveHuman NeedsPolitical Movements Book:Don't Think, Smile!: Notes on a Decade of Denial Source: Don't Think, Smile!: Notes on a Decade of Denial
“When women oppose themselves to the projects and ambition of men, they excite their lively resentment; if in their youth they meddle with political intrigues, their modesty must suffer.” IfsMenPoliticalSufferingYouthAmbitionProjectsResentmentModestyIntrigueLively Author:Madame de Stael