{"quotes":[{"text":"Keep a light, hopeful heart. But ­expect the worst.","author":"Joyce Carol Oates","tags":["best","hope","optimism","pessimism","pragmatism","worst"],"id":6349,"author_id":"Joyce+Carol+Oates"},{"text":"The goal of religious thinking is exactly the same as that of technological research -- namely, practical action. Whenever man is truly concerned with obtaining concrete results, whenever he is hard pressed by reality, he abandons abstract speculation and reverts to a mode of response that becomes increasingly cautious and conservative as the forces he hopes to subdue, or at least to outrun, draw ever nearer.","author":"René Girard","tags":["doctrine","pragmatism","religion","technology"],"id":7004,"author_id":"Ren%C3%A9+Girard"},{"text":"We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we stand still we shall be frozen to death. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of a good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes.... If death ends all, we cannot meet death better.","author":"Fitzjames Stephen","tags":["courage","existentialism","pragmatism"],"id":20528,"author_id":"Fitzjames+Stephen"},{"text":"The ways of the heart are complex.” He looked out at the ocean again. “The waves churn and break upon the rocks, Talon. So do human feelings. Passion can be a man’s undoing. With passion must come wisdom; otherwise, your enemies have a weapon to use against you.","author":"Raymond E. Feist","tags":["passion","passionate-love","pragmatism","wisdom"],"id":39416,"author_id":"Raymond+E.+Feist"},{"text":"See the exquisite contrast of the types of mind! The pragmatist clings to facts and concreteness, observes truth at its work in particular cases, and generalises. Truth, for him, becomes a class-name for all sorts of definite working-values in experience. For the rationalist it remains a pure abstraction, to the bare name of which we must defer. When the pragmatist undertakes to show in detail just why we must defer, the rationalist is unable to recognise the concretes from which his own abstraction is taken. He accuses us of denying truth; whereas we have only sought to trace exactly why people follow it and always ought to follow it. Your typical ultra-abstractions fairly shudders at concreteness: other things equal, he positively prefers the pale and spectral. If the two universes were offered, he would always choose the skinny outline rather than the rich thicket of reality. It is so much purer, clearer, nobler.","author":"William James","tags":["idealism","philosophy","pragmatism","rationalism","truth"],"id":56654,"author_id":"William+James"},{"text":"The actor passed him his cigarette case. 'No, you must tell us all about it. One should always be reminded of the fact that even in this best of worlds the blood still flows freely.'The Dead Jew.","author":"Hanns Heinz Ewers","tags":["horror","pragmatism"],"id":56680,"author_id":"Hanns+Heinz+Ewers"},{"text":"Peace is the opposite of dreaming. It’s built slowly and surely through brutal compromises and tiny victories that you don’t even see. It’s a messy business, bringing peace into the world.","author":"Bono","tags":["discipleship","ministry","pragmatism"],"id":76567,"author_id":"Bono"},{"text":"It is as if a man should hesitate indefinitely to ask a certain woman to marry him because he was not perfectly sure that she would prove an angel after he brought her home. Would he not cut himself off from that particular angel-possibility as decisively as if he went and married some one else? Scepticism, then, is not avoidance of option; it is option of a certain particular kind of risk. Better risk loss of truth than chance of error,-that is your faith-vetoer's exact position. He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is; he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.","author":"William James","tags":["faith","philosophy","pragmatism","skepticism"],"id":76733,"author_id":"William+James"},{"text":"If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless and displaced in a future or a past which are not ours because they are always beyond our reach. The present is our right place, and we can lay hands on whatever it offers us.","author":"Thomas Merton","tags":["dreams","hope","pragmatism","present"],"id":80387,"author_id":"Thomas+Merton"},{"text":"There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.","author":"Richard M. Rorty","tags":["philosophy","pragmatism"],"id":81716,"author_id":"Richard+M.+Rorty"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":66,"pages":7,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}