#pragmatism

Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods. ↗

— Margaret Chase Smith

#end #greatness #high #justifying #manifested

What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute finite evil is ‘overruled’ already, we may, therefore, whenever we wish, treat the temporal as if it were potentially the eternal, be sure that we can trust its outcome, and, without sin, dismiss our fear and drop the worry of our finite responsibility. In short, they mean that we have a right ever and anon to take a moral holiday, to let the world wag in its own way, feeling that its issues are in better hands than ours and are none of our business. ↗

— William James

#business

If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless and displaced in a future or a past which are not ours because they are always beyond our reach. The present is our right place, and we can lay hands on whatever it offers us. ↗

— Thomas Merton

#hope #pragmatism #present #dreams

Cine a ucis stelele? Cine a surpat drumul spre viitor al celor din morminte? ↗

— Ionel Teodoreanu

#dreams #hope #pragmatism #dreams

At 1.24 am on 26 April 1986 Chernobyl’s Unit 4 reactor exploded after staff disabled safety systems and performed an ill-advised experiment to check – ironically enough – the reactor’s safety. ↗

— Mark Lynas

#ecology #pragmatism #science #experience

Too much faith is the worst ally. When you believe in something literally, through your faith you'll turn it into something absurd. One who is a genuine adherent, if you like, of some political outlook, never takes its sophistries seriously, but only its practical aims, which are concealed beneath these sophistries. Political rhetoric and sophistries do not exist, after all, in order that they be believed; rather, they have to serve as a common and agreed upon alibi. Foolish people who take them in earnest sooner or later discover inconsistencies in them, begin to protest, and finish finally and infamously as heretics and apostates. No, too much faith never brings anything good... ↗

— Milan Kundera

#dogma #faith #history #machiavellian #moderation

Ordinary life goes on--that has saved many a man's reason. ↗

— Graham Greene

#life

Prophetic pragmatism attempts to keep alive the sense of alternative ways of life and of struggle based on the best of the past. In this sense, the praxis of prophetic pragmatism is tragic action with revolutionary intent, usually reformist consequences and always visionary outlook. ↗

— Cornel West

#life

The hands that help are better far than lips that pray. ↗

— Robert Green Ingersoll

#atheism #pragmatism #proactive #responsibility #true-religion

We make versions, and true versions make worlds. ↗

— Nelson Goodman

#philosophy #philosophy-of-science #pragmatism #science