#contrary

Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#abstraction #ages #commitment #continuous #contrary

It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger. ↗

— David Hume

#destruction #finger #prefer #reason #scratching

My hope is that the Chinese government will come to realise that it is futile to repress free speech, and that contrary to what they believe a regime's strength rests not its suppression of a plurality of opinions and ideas, but in its capacity and willingness to encourage them. ↗

— Ma Jian

#capacity #chinese #chinese government #come #contrary

It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of so much suffering, and that therefore, per impossibile, they simply have to be squared with the existence of all this suffering, somehow. ↗

— Walter Kaufmann

#assumptions #cannot #contrary #existence #fact

Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love. ↗

— Thomas Aquinas

#caused #contrary #every #hated #hatred

No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#been #commission #contrary #could #crime

Tell him, on the contrary, that he needs, in the interest of his own happiness, to walk in the path of humility and self-control, and he will be indifferent, or even actively resentful. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#contrary #even #happiness #him #his

I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#beings #confirmation #contrary #equally #far

I do not at all have the mind of a bully... in my mind bullies are intolerant of contrary opinion, domineering and rather cowardly. I would hope that none of those terms could be fairly used in describing me. ↗

— Conrad Black

#bully #contrary #could #cowardly #describing

My disorder has been attended with several symptoms of a consumption; and I have been at times apprehensive that my great change was at hand: yet blessed be God, I have never been affrighted; but, on the contrary, at times much delighted with a view of its approach. ↗

— David Brainerd

#approach #attended #been #blessed #blessed be