The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. -- Dante Alighieri
To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. -- Confucius
Or, as T.S. Eliot famously put it: "Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm -- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves." (From the 1950 play "The cocktail party")
H. L. Mencken warned us long ago. Some of his more colorful quotes certainly ring true in light of recent events:
As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.Democracy is a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights.
Never be lukewarm.Life itself demands passion.He who is indifferent to God has already forfeited his soul.He who is indifferent to politics has already forfeited his liberty.Good citizenship, for Americans, is not a spectator sport.Do not allow our common destiny as a whole people to just happen.Welcome to my site.
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