“Desire can attain the darkest human terror and give an actual ideal of hell and its horror.”
Octave Mirbeau
» Octave Mirbeau - all quotes »
Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds, or are to be translated into them. The leaders of the Red Terror prattled of peace while they steeped their hands in the blood of the innocent; and many a tyrant has called it peace when he has scourged honest protest into silence. Our words must be judged by our deeds; and in striving for a lofty ideal we must use practical methods; and if we cannot attain all at one leap, we must advance towards it step by step, reasonably content so long as we do actually make some progress in the right direction.
Theodore Roosevelt
Horror is always aware of its cause; terror never is. That is precisely what makes terror terrifying.
Christopher Isherwood
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.
Soren Aabye Kierkegaard
The one thing we know about torture is that it was never designed in the first place to get at the actual truth of anything; it was designed in the darkest days of human history to produce false confessions in order to annihilate political and religious dissidents. And that is how it always works: it gets confessions regardless of their accuracy.
Andrew Sullivan
Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men, that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. Perhaps no one is satisfied with himself, so that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more holy. Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.
Theodore Parker
Mirbeau, Octave
Miro, Joan
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