“I started with the belief that every person who came to the laboratory was free to accept or to reject the dictates of authority. This view sustains a conception of human dignity insofar as it sees in each man a capacity for choosing his own behavior. And as it turned out, many subjects did, indeed, choose to reject the experimenter's commands, providing a powerful affirmation of human ideals.” MenHumansPersonsBeliefViewsPowerfulAcceptingSubjectsAuthorityBehaviorCapacityIdealsDignityCommandRejectsConceptionProvidingAffirmationLaboratoryHuman Dignity Author:Stanley Milgram
“In the Middle Ages, the troubadour poets invented the concept of courtly love--a fantasy love, a noble passion, which was also extra-marital and thus inevitably thwarted, illicit, adulterous. One of the medieval terms for it was amour honestus (honest love). I've always wondered why this passionate ideal--masochistic, spiritual-travelled with such wildfire throughout Europe. My poem, a ghazal, takes up the subject.” AgeSpiritualPassionTermFantasyMiddleSubjectsHonestPoetConceptsEuropeIdealsPassionateNobleExtrasMiddle AgesMedievalAmourWildfiresMasochisticTroubadoursFantasy LoveHonest Love Author:Edward Hirsch
“Plato said that poets should be excluded from the ideal republic because they are such liars. I am a poet, and I affirm that this is true. About no subject are poets tempted to lie so much as about their own lives; I know one of them who has floated at least five versions of his autobiography, none of them true. I of course - being also a novelist - am a much more truthful person than that. But since poets lie, how can you believe me?” KnowsShouldBelievePersonsSaidLyingCoursesFiveSubjectsPoetIdealsVersionsNovelistsLiarsRepublicTruthfulBelieve In MeAutobiographyPlatoTemptedExcluded Author:Margaret Atwood
“I had often joked in my speeches that I had imaginary conversations with Mrs. Roosevelt to solicit her advice on a range of subjects. It's actually a useful mental exercise to help analyze problems, provided you choose the right person to visualize. Eleanor Roosevelt was ideal.” PersonsHelpingProblemAdviceSubjectsExerciseConversationSpeechIdealsRangeYou ChooseImaginaryRight PersonEleanor Book:Living History Source: Living History
“All art constantly aspires to the condition of music....In its ideal, consummate moments, the end is not distinct from the means, the form from the matter, the subject from the expression; they inhere in and completely saturate each other.” MeanArtEndsMatterMomentsFormConditionsSubjectsExpressionIdealsAspire Author:Walter Pater