Quotes for All
A man with few friends is only half-developed; there are whole sides of his nature which are locked up and have never been expressed. He cannot unlock them himself, he cannot even discover them; friends alone can stimulate him and open him. Randolph Bourne
With the shock of war the state comes into its own again. Randolph Bourne
A cultivation of the powers of one’s personality is one of the greatest needs of life. Randolph Bourne
We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear. Although we can never rivet our fortune so tight as to make it impregnable, we may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life that we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living. Randolph … Read more
No matter what we have come through, or how many perils we have safely passed, or how many imperfect and jagged – in some places perhaps irreparably – our life has been, we cannot in our heart of hearts imagine how it could have been different. As we look back on it, it slips in … Read more
Really to believe in human nature while striving to know the thousand forces that warp it from its ideal development – to call for and expect much from men and women, and not to be disappointed and embittered if they fall short – to try to do good with people rather than to them – … Read more
The ironic life is a life keenly alert, keenly sensitive, reacting promptly with feelings of liking or dislike to each bit of experience, letting none of it pass without interpretation and assimilation, a life full and satisfying – indeed a rival of the religious life. Randolph Bourne
One keeps healthy in wartime…by a vigorous assertion of values in which war has no part. Randolph Bourne
Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war. Randolph Bourne
All we can ever do in the way of good to people is to encourage them to do good to themselves. Randolph Bourne