Levan Chiokadze > Levan's Quotes

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

“Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! 'Have courage to use your own reason!'- that is the motto of enlightenment.”
― Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?

“Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.

That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind...”
― Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?

“But only he who, himself enlightened, is not afraid of shadows.”
― Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?

“ისტორიულად დიდი ხანია აღიარებულია, რომ კერძო საკუთრება არ არის ისეთი რამ, რაც შეიძლება გაუცხოვდეს და ესაა საფუძველი სამოქალაქო საზოგადოებისა. აი, მე შევატრიალებდი ამ არგუმენტს, რათა მეთქვა შემდეგი: თუკი შენ გაქვს მილიონი, ეს არის შენი კერძო საქმე. ხოლო პოლიტიკური საქმე - res public-ის დონეზეა, ანუ საერთო საქმის, საერთო ძალისხმევის, მაგრამ არა ამ მილიონის ექსპოპრიაციის დონეზე. მაშასადამე, პოლიტიკა, როგორც ძალაუფლება და საკუთრება ერთმანეთისგან განცალკევებული უნდა იყოს. საბჭოთა სისტემა კი იმ სახით, რა სახითაც ის ჩამოყალიბდა, უკიდურეს ფორმად იქცა ერთისა და მეორის ურთიერთშენაცვლებისა, ერთის მეორეთი შთანთქმისა და ყოველი მცდელობა, დაარღვიო ეს კავშირი, ბუნებრივია, სამოქალაქო საზოგადოების ფენომენის აღორძინებისკენაა მიმართული. სიცოცხლის ნებისმიერი გამოვლინება არის გენიალური კერძოობა, მათ შორის ნაციის ცხოვრებისაც, რომელიც კონსტიტუციური პროცესის პროდუქტს წარმოადგენს. ასეთია საქმის არსი”
― მერაბ მამარდაშვილი

“- რა აზრის ხართ გეგმიურ მშენებლობებზე, ხუთწლედებზე? რა მშვენიერებაა დაგეგმო, თუ რა იქნება 5 წლის შემდეგ, ან 50 წლის შემდეგ. რა მშვენიერებაა გქონდეს იმედი უკეთეს მომავალზე!
- ეს საშიშია, ააშენო ჰალუცინატორული გეგმები, საშიშია იცხოვრო რომელიღაც განსაზღვრული ოცნებით, იმედით. უნდა ისწავლო ცხოვრება იმედის გარეშე, რადგან იმედი შენი წარმოსახვის უკანონო შვილია, ღრუბელია. ასეთი ცრუ იმედებია, წარმოსახვის ღრუბლებია ხუთწლედები, კომუნიზმის აშენება, იმედი უკეთეს მომავალზე... მთავარია, იცხოვრო, როგორც თავისუფალი ადამიანი, იცხოვრო იმედების გარეშე”
― მერაბ მამარდაშვილი

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away.”
― Stephen Hawking

“You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
― Malcolm X, By Any Means Necessary

“Dare to think!”
― Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?

“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”
― Plato, The Republic

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“The obvious differences apart, Karl Marx was no more a reliable prophet than was the Reverend Jim Jones. Karl Marx was a genius, an uncannily resourceful manipulator of world history who shoved everything he knew, thought, and devised into a Ouija board from whose movements he decocted universal laws. He had his following, during the late phases of the Industrial Revolution. But he was discredited by historical experience longer ago than the Wizard of Oz: and still, great grown people sit around, declare themselves to be Marxists, and make excuses for Gulag and Afghanistan.”
― William F. Buckley, Jr.

“Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.”
― Milton Friedman

“To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death wheather it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man; but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil." -The Last Days of Socrates”
― Plato

“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

“Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion — and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion… while truth again reverts to a new minority.”
― Soren Kierkegaard

“Someday, the realm of liberty and justice will encompass the planet. Freedom is not just the birthright of the few, it is the God-given right of all His children, in every country. It won't come by conquest. It will come, because freedom is right and freedom works. It will come, because cooperation and good will among free people will carry the day.”
― Ronald Reagan, The Quest for Peace, The Cause of Freedom

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
― Lord Acton

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
― Frederic Bastiat, The Law

“Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.”
― Frederick Bastiat

“When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will.”
― Frederic Bastiat

“Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
― Frederic Bastiat

“Each of us has a natural right, from God, to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.”
― Frederic Bastiat

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.”
― Stanisław Lem, Solaris