#position

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." [Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States, August 8, 1950] ↗

— Harry S. Truman

#dissent #freedom-of-speech #opposition #politics #repression

Grudge no expense - yield to no opposition - forget fatigue - till, by the strength of prayer and sacrifice, the spirit of love shall have overcome . ↗

— Maria Weston Chapman

#fatigue #forget #grudge #love #opposition

The school made it very clear that women were entitled to positions of authority. That sense of entitlement allowed us to feel that we have a natural place in leadership in the world. That gave me a mental and emotional confidence. ↗

— Linda Vester

#authority #clear #confidence #emotional #entitled

[W]hen someone finds himself quite unjustly attacked and hated on all sides, there is no need for such a person to feel dismayed by misfortune. See how Fortune, who has harmed many a one, is so inconstant, for God, Who opposes all wrong deeds, raises up those in whom hope dwells. ↗

— Christine de Pizan

#endurance #hatred #hope #injustice #life

I realize what it means to be financially comfortable, and I want to be that. But I'm lucky enough to be in that position. And I'm also careful. I save 38 percent of my earnings after expenses, before taxes. ↗

— David Duval

#also #before #careful #comfortable #earnings

The conductor's gift does not always go hand in hand with that of composition; indeed, the union is found much more seldom than is popularly believed. ↗

— Anton Seidl

#believed #composition #conductor #does #found

It isn't very logical to live my life on goundless supposition. I have to assume the truth of the moment is the truth of the future. - Leah ↗

— Jacquelyn Frank

#logical #present-moment #supposition #life

I am often described to my irritation as a 'contrarian' and even had the title inflicted on me by the publisher of one of my early books. (At least on that occasion I lived up to the title by ridiculing the word in my introduction to the book's first chapter.) It is actually a pity that our culture doesn't have a good vernacular word for an oppositionist or even for someone who tries to do his own thinking: the word 'dissident' can't be self-conferred because it is really a title of honor that has to be won or earned, while terms like 'gadfly' or 'maverick' are somehow trivial and condescending as well as over-full of self-regard. And I've lost count of the number of memoirs by old comrades or ex-comrades that have titles like 'Against the Stream,' 'Against the Current,' 'Minority of One,' 'Breaking Ranks' and so forth—all of them lending point to Harold Rosenberg's withering remark about 'the herd of independent minds.' Even when I was quite young I disliked being called a 'rebel': it seemed to make the patronizing suggestion that 'questioning authority' was part of a 'phase' through which I would naturally go. On the contrary, I was a relatively well-behaved and well-mannered boy, and chose my battles with some deliberation rather than just thinking with my hormones. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#contrarianism #dissent #dissidents #free-thought #harold-rosenberg

I'm in a position where, theoretically, I could play the same ten concertos and make a very good living bouncing around playing Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Barber, but I really think artists should keep pushing limits and trying new things. ↗

— Joshua Bell

#artists #barber #bouncing #could #good

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war. ↗

— George H. W. Bush

#else #ever #going #i #i can