Alexander Herzen Quotes

All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former - of the corruption of the will. ~ Alexander Herzen

I have served one idea, marched under one banner - war against all imposed authority - against every kind of deprivation of freedom, in the name of the absolute independence of the individual. ~ Alexander Herzen

On what principle are we to awake the sleeper? In the name of what shall the flabby personality, magnetised by trifles, be inspired, be made discontented with its present way of life of railways, telegraphs, newspapers and cheap goods?
Individuals do not step out of the ranks because there is not the occasion. For whom, for what, or against whom are they to come forward? The absence of energetic men is not a cause but a consequence ~ Alexander Herzen

We have wasted our spirit in the regions of the abstract and general just as the monks let it wither in the world of prayer and contemplation. ~ Alexander Herzen

Would it be possible to stand still on one spot more majestically - while simulating a triumphant march forward - than it is done by the two English Houses of Parliament? ~ Alexander Herzen

Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security. ~ Alexander Herzen

Slavery is the first step towards civilization. In order to develop it is necessary that things should be much better for some and much worse for others, then those who are better off can develop at the expense of others. ~ Alexander Herzen

The Russian system of justice and police is so haphazard, so inhuman, so arbitrary and corrupt, that a poor malefactor has more reason to fear his trial than his sentence. He is impatient for the time when he will be sent to Siberia; for his martyrdom comes to an end when his punishment begins. ~ Alexander Herzen

Never was Catholicism, never were the ideas of chivalry, impressed on men so deeply, so multifariously, as the bourgeois ideas. ~ Alexander Herzen

No one is to blame. It is neither their fault nor ours. It is the misfortune of being born when a whole world is dying. ~ Alexander Herzen

Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development. ~ Alexander Herzen

Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it. ~ Alexander Herzen

We could hardly believe that after so many ordeals, after all the trials of modern skepticism, there was still so much left in our souls to destroy. ~ Alexander Herzen

We are not the doctors. We are the disease ~ Alexander Herzen

To see oneself in print is one of the strongest artificial passions of an age corrupted by books. But it requires courage, nevertheless, to venture on a public exhibition of one's productions. ~ Alexander Herzen

We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. If we merely look to the end of the process, the purpose of life is death ~ Alexander Herzen

I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement. ~ Alexander Herzen

Independence isn't all it's cracked up to be, you know. What country could be more independent than Russia? And in Russia now there isn't a squeak or a pinpoint of light. I have nowhere to publish. The Contemporary has stuck its head up out of harm's way. So I've stopped quarrelling with the world. I sat in this chair the first morning I woke up in this house ... and for the first time ... for a long time, there was silence. I didn't have to talk or think or move, nothing was expected of me, I knew nobody and nobody knew where i was, everything was behind me, all the moving from place to place, the quarrels and celebrations, the desperate concerns of health and happiness, love, death, printer's errors, picnics ruined by rain, the endless tumult of life ... and I just sat quiet and alone all day, looking at the tops of trees on Primrose Hill through the mist. ~ Tom Stoppard

If nations always moved from one set of furnished rooms to another - and always into a better set - things might be easier, but the trouble is that there is no one to prepare the new rooms. The future is worse than the ocean - there is nothing there. ~ Alexander Herzen

Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity or at least is reminiscent of childhood. ~ Alexander Herzen

The world will not know liberty until all that is religious and political is transformed into something simple and human and made susceptible to criticism and denial. ~ Alexander Herzen

I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought. ~ Alexander Herzen

There is no universally valid idea from which man has not woven a rope to bind his own feet, and if possible, the feet of others as well, so that the free product of his creativity becomes a punitive power over him; no true, genuine relationship between people which they have not turned into mutual enslavement. Love, friendship, tribal loyalty, and finally even love of freedom have served as inexhaustible sources of moral oppression and servitude.... Humans are eternally on their knees before one or the other - the golden calf or duty imposed from outside.... It doesn't enter their heads that there is also something within them worthy of respect. ~ Alexander Herzen

The Death of the contemporary forms of social order ought to gladden rather than trouble the soul. Yet what is frightening is that the departing world leaves behind it not an heir, but a pregnant widow. Between the death of the one and the birth of the other, much water will flow by, a long night of chaos and desolation will pass. ~ Alexander Herzen

[T]he departing world leaves behind ... not an heir, but a pregnant widow. ~ Alexander Herzen

To comprehend...the full sanctity, the full breadth and reality of the individual's rights and not to destroy society, not to shatter it into atoms, is the most difficult of tasks. It has never been resolved by any historical systems in the past; for that one needs a great maturity, which mankind has not yet attained. ~ Alexander Herzen

One must open men's eyes, not tear them out. ~ Alexander Herzen

Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, "just in case," in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep. ~ Alexander Herzen

In general modern man has no solutions ~ Alexander Herzen

History is the autobiography of a madman. ~ Alexander Herzen

It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to strike it blind, to drive it insane, to direct it towards a false goal. Napoleon proved this. ~ Alexander Herzen

The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop. ~ Alexander Herzen

How was practice?" Shawna asked when Jet walked into the kitchen. "You must've worked hard again, you smell like a wet puppy." "We did." Jet grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. " Your buddy said she was proud of us today." "That's good." Shawna smiled as checked on their dinner. " Are you starting to like her now?" I don't want to beat her with my flagpole anymore, but I wouldn't say I like her. Now your other friend is all up in the punch. Mrs. Scofield was at practice today passing out chocolate milk and telling us what to do with our glitter," Jet said and took a drink of her water. Shawna glanced at Jet. "What're you going to do with the glitter?" "Put it on my eyelids. Personally, I think we're gonna look like sparkly hookers, but makeup isn't my call... ~ Robin Alexander

Absolute love, heals absolutely. ~ Ivan Alexander Pozo-Illas

This earthly realm is, I believe, where we are meant to learn the lessons of unconditional love, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance. ~ Eben Alexander

What is the Liberty of the Press? Who can give it any definition which does not leave the utmost latitude for evasion? I hold it to be impracticable and from this I infer, that its security, whatever fine declarations may be inserted in any Constitution respecting it, must altogether depend on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people and of the Government." - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist LXXXIV ~ David Alan Corbin

Whenever I teach you always learn something. Some of the greatest things you learn, aren't always in books.

- Mr. Bucon ~ Brooke Alexander

Happiness is the consciousness of growth. [ ... ] If my definition has validity, it suggests that most people come to therapy because they sense their growth has been arrested. Certainly many patients look to therapy to reinstitute the growth process. (33) ~ Alexander Lowen

The market does not know you exist. You can do nothing to influence it. You can only control your behavior. ~ Alexander Elder

The retreat of a minor piece to the back rank, where it cuts the lines of communication between the rooks, is permissable only in exceptional cases. ~ Alexander Alekhine

If you want me to get closer, there are other ways to do it," I said, leaving my statement open-ended. I gave him a pointed look, dropped my hand and turned away, leaving him staring after me. I started to walk toward the ice cream parlor, smiling to myself.
Zack caught up with me, his arms catching me around the waist as he pulled me back against his chest. His lips met the hollow of my neck, just above my collarbone.
"I'd be careful about saying things like, princess," he said, his voice rough and urgent. "I don't think you know what you're insinuating. ~ Monica Alexander

Without a doubt the sense of beauty does not lie determined in the concreteness of an individual beautiful thing or person. Rather its purpose is much more the enchantment of the soul, for there is nothing physical that is not made with the intent of affecting the soul, and there is no soul that does not intend to dazzle everything physical with its sensations. ~ Alexander Lernet-Holenia

This was what it meant to live in Botswana; when the rest of the world might work itself into a frenzy of activity, one might still sit, in the space before a house with ochre walls, a mug of bush tea in one's hand, and talk about very small things: headmen in wells, goats and jealousy. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

But to us of a later generation ... it is inconceivable that millions of Christian men should have killed and tortured each other, because Napoleon was ambitious, Alexander firm, English policy crafty, and the Duke of Oldenburg hardly treated. We cannot grasp the connections between these circumstances and the bare fact of murder and violence, nor why the duke's wrongs should induce thousands of men from the other side of Europe to pillage and murder the inhabitants of the Smolensk and Moscow provinces and to be slaughtered by them. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Let's not have a sniffle, let's have a jolly good cry And always remember, the longer you live, the sooner you jolly well die. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

Mma Ramotswe found it difficult to imagine what it would be like to have no people. There were, she knew, those who had no others in this life, who had no uncles, or aunts, or distant cousins of any degree; people who were just themselves. Many white people were like that, for some unfathomable reason; they did not seem to want to have people and were happy to be just themselves. How lonely they must be
like spacemen deep in space, floating in darkness, but without even that silver, unfurling cord that linked the astronauts to their little metal womb of oxygen and warmth. For a moment, she indulged the metaphor, and imagined the tiny white van in space, slowly spinning against a background of stars and she, Mma Ramotswe, of the No. 1 Ladies' Space Agency, floating weightless, head over heels, tied to the tiny white van with a thin washing line. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my mother and my father. When I am dead, I shall miss the smell of Africa ~ Alexander McCall Smith

Twenty-five years old this day. 'Bless the Lord, O my soul,' for all His goodness. Man is immortal till his work is done. Use me in Thy service alone, blessed Saviour. ~ Alexander Murdoch Mackay

What! I don't care about being a princess! And since I'm already a young lady, how else could I behave? That's like asking a fish not to swim!"
~Princess Eilonwy, daughter of Angharad, daughter of Regat, of the Royal house of Llyr ~ Lloyd Alexander

I never look forward. I live for today. If you think about what's going to happen in a year, in two years, then you begin to plan. And plans never come true. ~ Alexander Ovechkin

Drug-war forfeiture laws are frequently used to allow those with assets to buy their freedom, while drug users and small-time dealers with few assets to trade are subjected to lengthy prison terms. ~ Michelle Alexander

My position and the state will never allow me to become a dictator, but an authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it. You need to control the country, and the main thing is not to ruin people's lives. ~ Alexander Lukashenko

Nothing can inspire religious duty or animation but religion. ~ Alexander Cockburn

There always has to be someone to take the punches. That's how it works. It isn't fair, it isn't right, but that kid licking slop off the floor over there means that we get to eat in peace. ~ Alexander Gordon Smith

'Born to play? Hmmm. Probably Romeo ... or Hamlet, I guess. Also, I'd be a great Alexander the Great. ~ David Carradine

I baptize thee, Germain Alexander Claudel MacKenzie Fraser, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen. ~ Diana Gabaldon

It's how we read the face, said Ian. Remember that you're talking to a psychologist. We like to think about things like that. It's a question of numerous little signals that create the overall impression.
But how do internal states who themselves physically?
Very easily, said Ian. Think of anger. The knitted brow. Think of determination. The gritted teeth.
And intelligence?
Liveliness and engagement with the world. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

When you're on the road, there's no time for second chances and messing yourself up. ~ Shaun Alexander

I am grateful to you for being who you are: for standing up for ladies with large glasses and a bad skin and for everybody else who has had to battle to get where they have got. And most of all I am grateful to you for being my friend, Mma; I am grateful to you for that. That is the best thing that anybody can be to anybody else--a friend. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder. ~ Alexander Berkman

Enough! Clear-souled and far from wasted,
I start upon an untrod way
To take my rest from yesterday. ~ Alexander Pushkin

YOU DO NOT CHANGE PEOPLE BY SHOUTING AT THEM ~ Alexander McCall Smith

If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then "an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ." But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, "My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father? ~ Alexander MacLaren

Truth is told when it tells itself. ~ Jill Alexander Essbaum

Regular maps have few surprises: their contour lines reveal where the Andes are, and are reasonably clear. More precious, though, are the unpublished maps we make ourselves, of our city, our place, our daily world, our life; those maps of our private world we use every day; here I was happy, in that place I left my coat behind after a party, that is where I met my love; I cried there once, I was heartsore; but felt better round the corner once I saw the hills of Fife across the Forth, things of that sort, our personal memories, that make the private tapestry of our lives. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

People were only too ready to believe things that were manifestly untrue. When it came to remarks that portrayed others in a bad light, people were happy to believe things that showed others to be weak or flawed in some way: we believed that of them because it made us feel better; it was as simple as that. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

The zeal of fools offends at any time. ~ Alexander Pope

During the game, we never sit down. Not only is there action on the field, but we also have to cover the half-time show and interview all the celebrities attending. But once it's all over, it's a pretty satisfying feeling. My team and I love delivering an exciting and all-encompassing story the next day for our viewers. We want them to see and experience all that we did. ~ Megan Alexander

I really love the process, with stage, of rehearsal, you get to create a character, and you have a beginning, a middle, and an end of story. And in television, you don't. ~ Sasha Alexander

I think we should, as the public sector or politicians, stop creating an illusion that it is the public sector that drives growth and jobs. It is not. It is the private sector that does it. There is no growth without entrepreneurship. ~ Alexander Stubb

I've shed my own skin and merged into the fog. ~ Alexander Trocchi

You can look at founding father Alexander Hamilton nevertheless assuring - assuring - the countrymen in Federalist 78 that the role of the federal courts under the proposed Constitution would be limited. ~ Sam Brownback

Skyline reveals a city's purpose and character. Oxford had its dreaming spires; Manhattan its glittering towers; Edinburgh its eccentric spikes. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

All the good things that we have in life are on temporary loan, at best, and can be taken away from us in an instant. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

The Muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not wife, / To help me through this long disease, my life. ~ Alexander Pope

If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death. ~ Alexander Smith

Some part of me can't wait to see what life's going to come up with next! Anticipation without the usual anxiety. And underneath it all is the feeling that we both belong here, just as we are, right now. ~ Alexander Shulgin

Experiment with this - on such and such a day I slept so many hours and felt this way afterward. I ate x amount of food and was able to work for this long. In my forties my face began to line - science has told us this is the beginning of old age. How can the science that measures and combines and mixes and observes tell us what is behind the sleep?" Alexander laughed. "Ouspensky, science can measure how long we sleep, but can it tell us what we dreamed about? It will observe our reactions, it can tell if we twitched or laughed, or cried, but can it tell us what was inside our own head? ~ Paullina Simons