"We have public-house licensing laws, but not sumptuary laws. That is to say, we have laws against the festivity and hospitality of the poor, but no laws against the festivity and hospitality of the rich. We have laws against blasphemy—that is, against a kind of coarse and offensive speaking in which nobody but a rough and obscure man would be likely to indulge. But we have no laws against heresy—that is, against the intellectual poisoning of the whole people, in which only a prosperous and prominent man would be likely to be successful. The evil of aristocracy is not that it necessarily leads to the infliction of bad things or the suffering of sad ones; the evil of aristocracy is that it places everything in the hands of a class of people who can always inflict what they can never suffer."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heretics_(book)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Heretics (book)
111 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Heretics (book) →
Related Quotes
"I do not, therefore, say that the word "progress" is unmeaning; I say it is unmeaning without the previous definition…"
"There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person."
"He says, "Nothing endures, nothing is precise and certain (except the mind of a pedant).... Being indeed!—there is no…"
"A man can understand astronomy only by being an astronomer; he can understand entomology only by being an entomologis…"
"Whistler could produce art; and in so far he was a great man. But he could not forget art; and in so far he was only …"
"It is difficult to attain a high ideal; consequently, it is almost impossible to persuade ourselves that we have atta…"
"The word 'heresy' not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The w…"
"It is foolish, generally speaking, for a philosopher to set fire to another philosopher in Smithfield Market because …"
"At any innocent tea-table we may easily hear a man say, "Life is not worth living." We regard it as we regard the sta…"
"As enunciated today, 'progress' is simply a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative."