If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
-George Orwell, (Unpublished) original preface to Animal Farm
Tag: Quotes
Marcus Aurelius On Other People’s Opinions
It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own. If a god appeared to us—or a wise human being, even—and prohibited us from concealing our thoughts or imagining anything without immediately shouting it out, we wouldn’t make it through a single day. That’s how much we value other people’s opinions—instead of our own.
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.4
To compel a man to furnish contributions
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom
Every joke is a tiny revolution.
A thing is funny when—in some way that is not actually offensive or frightening—it upsets the established order. Every joke is a tiny revolution.
-George Orwell, “Funny, But Not Vulgar,” 1945.
You are a little soul, carrying a corpse.
You are a little soul, carrying a corpse.
-Epictetus, Fragments, Fragment xxvi.
Epictetus Quote
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
-Epictetus, Discourses, Book III, Chapter 23