#difference

And an even stronger example of Mr. Wells's indifference to the human psychology can be found in his cosmopolitanism, the abolition in his Utopia of all patriotic boundaries. He says in his innocent way that Utopia must be a world-state, or else people might make war on it. It does not seem to occur to him that, for a good many of us, if it were a world-state we should still make war on it to the end of the world. For if we admit that there must be varieties in art or opinion what sense is there in thinking there will not be varieties in government? The fact is very simple. Unless you are going deliberately to prevent a thing being good, you cannot prevent it being worth fighting for. It is impossible to prevent a possible conflict of civilizations, because it is impossible to prevent a possible conflict between ideals. If there were no longer our modern strife between nations, there would only be a strife between Utopias. For the highest thing does not tend to union only; the highest thing, tends also to differentiation. You can often get men to fight for the union; but you can never prevent them from fighting also for the differentiation. This variety in the highest thing is the meaning of the fierce patriotism, the fierce nationalism of the great European civilization. It is also, incidentally, the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#difference #separation #trinity #utopia #war

What America is, to me, is a guy doesn't want to buy, you let him not buy, you respect his not buying. A guy has a crazy notion different from your crazy notion, you pat him on the back and say, Hey pal, nice crazy notion, let's go have a beer. America, to me, should be shouting all the time, a bunch of shouting voices, most of them wrong, some of them nuts, but please, not just one droning glamorous reasonable voice. ↗

— George Saunders

#america #americans #buying #craziness #difference

A civilization, when the moment has come for crowds to acquire a high hand over it, is at the mercy of too many chances to endure for long. Could anything postpone for a while the hour of its ruin, it would be precisely the extreme instability of the opinions of crowds and their growing indifference and lack of respect for all general beliefs. ↗

— Gustave Le Bon

#crowds #decline #indifference #the-masses #respect

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings. ↗

— Helen Keller

#wrong-direction #science

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. ↗

— J. K. Rowling

#dislike #indifference #more #much #neglect

As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?' ↗

— Richard Whately

#anything #begin #believe #bring #difference

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races. ↗

— Mark Twain

#best #difference #horse #makes #opinion

It was just like a dream. I could have ended up with an album that's not all that different from anything else coming out of Nashville. Mutt made the difference. He took these songs, my attitude, my creativity, and colored them in a way that is unique. ↗

— Shania Twain

#anything #attitude #colored #coming #could

The only difference from one $100 million budget film to another is which of the 12 box stars are getting $20 million to be in it. ↗

— Dirk Benedict

#box #budget #budget film #difference #film

There is a profound difference between information and meaning. ↗

— Warren G. Bennis

#difference #information #meaning #profound