[T]he departing world leaves behind... not an heir, but a pregnant widow. Alexander Herzen More Quotes by Alexander Herzen More Quotes From Alexander Herzen What breadth, what beauty and power of human nature and development there must be in a woman to get over all the palisades, all the fences, within which she is held captive! Alexander Herzen human-nature development fence History is the autobiography of a madman. Alexander Herzen autobiography madmen Science even more than the Gospel teaches us humility. She cannot look down on anything, she does not know what superiority means, she despises nothing, never lies for the sake of a pose, and conceals nothing out of coquetry. She stops before the facts as an investigator, sometimes as a physician, never as an executioner, and still less with hostility and irony. Alexander Herzen teaching mean lying It is possible to lead astray an entire generation, to strike it blind, to drive it insane, to direct it towards a false goal. Napoleon proved this. Alexander Herzen atheism insane goal Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live. Alexander Herzen live-life life thinking The world will not know liberty until all that is religious and political is transformed into something simple and human and made susceptible to criticism and denial. Alexander Herzen political simple religious The Death of the contemporary forms of social order ought to gladden rather than trouble the soul. Yet what is frightening is that the departing world leaves behind it not an heir, but a pregnant widow. Between the death of the one and the birth of the other, much water will flow by, a long night of chaos and desolation will pass. Alexander Herzen night order long The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop. Alexander Herzen libertarian liberty people To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius. Alexander Herzen venice genius cities There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it. Alexander Herzen stubborn pieces world Science, which cuts its way through the muddy pond of daily life without mingling with it, casts its wealth to right and left, but the puny boatmen do not know how to fish for it. Alexander Herzen cutting science way I have served one idea, marched under one banner - war against all imposed authority - against every kind of deprivation of freedom, in the name of the absolute independence of the individual. Alexander Herzen names war ideas I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought. Alexander Herzen passion feelings men People who have realized that this is a dream imagine that it is easy to wake up, and are angry with those who continue sleeping, not considering that the whole world that environs them does not permit them to wake. Life proceeds as a series of optical illusions, artificial needs and imaginary sensations. Alexander Herzen dream sleep people We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. If we merely look to the end of the process, the purpose of life is death Alexander Herzen growing-up children thinking The people is always expressive of the truth. The life of a people cannot be a lie. Alexander Herzen freedom lying people One must open men's eyes, not tear them out. Alexander Herzen tears eye men Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it. Alexander Herzen submission political government I believe in nothing here, except a handful of people, a few ideas, and the fact that one cannot arrest movement. Alexander Herzen believe people ideas This socialism will develop in all its phases until it reaches its own extremes and absurdities. Then once again a cry of denial will break from the titanic chest of the revolutionary minority and again a mortal struggle will begin, in which socialism will play the role of contemporary conservatism and will be overwhelmed in the subsequent revolution, as yet unknown to us. Alexander Herzen roles struggle play
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