"It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it. Poland fought for freedom as no other country did. The Czech nation was prepared to fight for its freedom in 1938; it was not lack of courage that sealed its fate. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 — the work of young people with nothing to lose but their chains — triumphed and then ended in failure. ... Democracy and freedom do not guarantee the millennium. No, we do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
HumanistsPhilosophers from the United KingdomPhilosophers from AustriaLogicians from AustriaLogicians from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Popper
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"[F]rom the moral point of view, pain cannot be outweighed by pleasure, and especially not one man's pain by another m…"
"We should realize that from the moral point of view suffering and happiness must not be treated as symmetrical; that …"
"I believe that there is, from the ethical point of view, no symmetry between suffering and happiness, or between pain…"
"Appealing to his Einstein's] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everyth…"
"The answer to this problem is: as implied by Hume, we certainly are not justified in reasoning from an instance to th…"
"Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the t…"
"Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer—whether anima…"
"If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look…"
"Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technolog…"
"You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which…"