The Revolutions Of Thought Which Shape The

I Have Repeatedly Stressed That The Selfish Impulses Of Man Constitute A Much Less Historic Danger Than His Integrative Tendencies. To Put It In The Simplest Way: The Individual Who Indulges In An Excess Of Aggressive Self-assertiveness Incurs The Penalties Of Society-he Outlaws Himself, He Contracts Out Of The Hierarchy. The True Believer, On The Other Hand, Becomes More Closely Knit Into It; He Enters The Womb Of His Church, Or Party, Or Whatever The Social Holon To Which He Surrenders His Identity.

We Know That Virtue Does Not Matter To History, And That Crimes Remain Unpunished; But That Every Error Had Its Consequences And Venges Itself Unto The Seventh Generation.

The Greatest Temptation For The Like Of Us Is: To Renounce Violence, To Repent, To Make Peace With Oneself. Most Revolutionaries Fell Before This Temptation, From Spartacus To Danton And Dostoevsky; They Are The Classical Form Of Betrayal Of The Cause. The Temptations Of God Were Always More Dangerous For Mankind Than Those Of Satan. As Long As Chaos Dominates The World, God Is An Anachronism; And Every Compromise With One’s Own Conscience Is Perfidy. When The Accursed Inner Voice Speaks To You, Hold Your Hands Over Your Ears….

I Went To Communism As One Goes To A Spring Of Fresh Water, And I Left Communism As One Clambers Out Of A Poisoned River Strewn With The Wreckage Of Flooded Cities And The Corpses Of The Drowned.

Innovation Is A Twofold Threat To Academic Mediocrities: It Endangers Their Oracular Authority, And It Evokes The Deeper Fear That Their Whole, Laboriously Constructed Intellectual Edifice Might Collapse.