Inspirational Quotes on Utopia

“The change of the word does not alter the matter”

“[A] permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are very ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motor-car or balloon.”

“Failing all else, their last resort will be: 'This was good enough for our ancestors, and who are we to question their wisdom?' Then they'll settle back in their chairs, with an air of having said the lst word on the subject -- as if it would be a major disaster for anyone to be caught being wiser than his ancestors!”

“And an even stronger example of Mr. Wells's indifference to the human psychology can be found in his cosmopolitanism, the abolition in his Utopia of all patriotic boundaries. He says in his innocent way that Utopia must be a world-state, or else people might make war on it. It does not seem to occur to him that, for a good many of us, if it were a world-state we should still make war on it to the end of the world. For if we admit that there must be varieties in art or opinion what sense is there in thinking there will not be varieties in government? The fact is very simple. Unless you are going deliberately to prevent a thing being good, you cannot prevent it being worth fighting for. It is impossible to prevent a possible conflict of civilizations, because it is impossible to prevent a possible conflict between ideals. If there were no longer our modern strife between nations, there would only be a strife between Utopias. For the highest thing does not tend to union only; the highest thing, tends also to differentiation. You can often get men to fight for the union; but you can never prevent them from fighting also for the differentiation. This variety in the highest thing is the meaning of the fierce patriotism, the fierce nationalism of the great European civilization. It is also, incidentally, the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity.”

“Son tan diferentes los paladares de los mortales, tan torpes las inteligencias de algunos, tan ingratos los ánimos, tan absurdos los juicios, que les son más simpáticos los que se conceden una vida alegre y suelta que los que se molestan con preocupaciones y con el estudio de algo que pueda servir de provecho y placer para los ingratos y los maledicentes. La mayor parte no conoce las letras, y muchos las rechazan. El bárbaro repele lo que no es perfectamente bárbaro.”

“I'd rather say something untrue than tell a lie. In short, I'd rather be honest than clever.”

“...you are bound to bear yourself as agreeably as you can towards those whom nature or chance or your own choice has made the companions of your life.”

“Ví dụ như người Utopia không thể hiểu được tại sao lại có người mê mẩn được vẻ óng ánh buồn thảm của một hòn đá bé xíu trong khi họ có toàn bộ sao sáng trên trời để chiêm ngưỡng - hoặc làm sao lại có người ngu ngốc đến nỗi tưởng mình hơn người khác chỉ vì mặc quần áo dệt bằng sợi len mịn và nhỏ hơn người ta. Nói cho cùng thì len là quần áo của cừu và không thể làm cho ai thành cái gì hơn cừu được.”

“Failing all else, their last resort will be: 'This was good enough for our ancestors, and who are we to question their wisdom?' Then they'll settle back in their chairs, with an air of having said the last word on the subject -- as if it would be a major disaster for anyone to be caught being wiser than his ancestors!”

“This lively health, when entirely free from all mixture of pain, of itself gives an inward pleasure, independent of all external objects of delight; and though this pleasure does not so powerfully affect us, nor act so strongly on the senses as some of the others, yet it may be esteemed as the greatest of all pleasures, and almost all the Utopians reckon it the foundation and basis of all the other joys of life; since this alone makes the state of life easy and desirable; and when this is wanting, a man is really capable of no other pleasure.”

“For a hundred versts around there was perhaps not a single person, beginning with himself, who bore even the remotest resemblance to a future member of ‘mankind’s universal social republic and harmony’.”

“Yes, we will make them work, but in the hours free from labor we will arrange their lives like a children's game, with children's songs, choruses, and innocent dancing. Oh, we will allow them to sin, too; they are weak and powerless, and they will love us like children for allowing them to sin. We will tell them that every sin will be redeemed if it is committed with our permission; and that we will allow them to sin because we love them.”

“Hạnh phúc là một phần thưởng lớn mà ai cũng thích và chỉ có thể có được nhờ phẩm hạnh. Mà phẩm hạnh thì họ định nghĩa là làm theo những thôi thúc tự nhiên như chính Thượng đế muốn ta làm như vậy. Nó bao gồm cả việc nghe theo cái bản năng hợp lý trong những cái thích và không thích của chúng ta. Vì lý lẽ cũng dạy chúng ta trước hết phải kính yêu Thượng đế toàn năng, người đã cho chúng ta cuộc sống và khả năng được hưởng hạnh phúc, và thứ nữa là phải biết vui hưởng cuộc sống này và giúp đồng loại cũng được như vậy.”

“Yasaları çiğnemeden mutluluğu aramak en akıllıca davranıştır. Utopialılar için herkesin iyiliğine çalışmaksa bir dindir. Kendi rahatını sağlamaya çalışırken başkasını rahatından etmek haksızlığın kendisidir.”

“Kanlı bir zaferin kazançları Utopialıları üzer, hatta utandırır; çünkü parlak kazançları insan kanı pahasına elde etmeyi büyük bir çılgınlık sayarlar. Onlar için en şanlı zafer,düşmanı oyun düzen gücüyle yenmektir. İşte yalnız o zaman büyük bayramlar yapar; yiğitlikleriyle övünür, anıtlar dikerler. Onlar için yiğitlik düşmanının akıl yoluyla yenmektir. Böyle bir zaferi hayvanlar kazanamaz, yalnız insan kazanır.”

“Dünyada kaygısız, rahat yürekle, sevinçle yaşamaktan daha büyük zenginlik olabilir mi?”