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Monday, September 16, 2002
I just finished re-reading The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour, a tale about the exploits of a young man in thirteenth century Europe and Middle East. While reading I found several good quotes that I'd like to share:
On Learning:
- Only the ignorant can become fanatics.
- Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.
On Religion:
- It is a poor sort of man who is content to be spoon-fed knowledge that has been filtered through the canon of religious or political belief, and it is a poor sort of man who will permit others to dictate what he may or may not learn.
- No, I am no blasphemer, but something worse, I am an asker of questions.
- To die for what one believes is all very well for those so inclined, but it has always seemed to me the most vain of solutions. There is no cause worth dying for that is not better served by living.
- The radical ideas of today are often the conservative policies of tomorrow, and dogma is left protesting by the wayside.
- Had I been a Christian, I would undoubtedly have been considered a heretic, for what the world has always needed is more heretics and less authority.
On Philosophy:
- I have reverence for truth, but I do not know what truth is. I suspect there are many truths, and therefore, I suspect all who claim to have the truth. . . . I have reverence for the inquirer, for the seeker. I have no reverence for those who accept any idea, mine included, without question.
- A true philosopher will never refuse a lass, a glass, or an hour of conversation!
On Women:
- It is a theory of mine . . . that as a seeker for truth I should find my own answers, and my own women.
- Women admire gentlemen and sleep with cads.
| Mr. McBastard | 6:51 PM | | |
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