It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it. (Lionel Trilling)

It is possible that the contemplation of cruelty will not make us humane but cruel; that the reiteration of the badness of our spiritual condition will make us consent to it.

Lionel Trilling

Related topics

badness condition consent contemplation cruel cruelty possible reiteration spiritual

Related quotes

Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth. View quote
Swami Vivekananda
In fact, violence as a symbol of our growing irrationality has had an increasing role in activity for its own sake, when no possible justification could be made that the activity was seeking to resolve a problem. View quote
Carroll Quigley
Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life. View quote
Lyndon B. Johnson
However well equipped our language, it can never be forearmed against all possible cases that may arise and call for description: fact is richer than diction. View quote
J. L. Austin
...there must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientist, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale. View quote
Ralph Ellison