Quotations: July 2004 Archives

"The Neo-humanist policy to ensure the well-being of all creation is to first serve human beings, then animals, then plants and then inanimate objects. Human beings should not kill the creatures of the animal kingdom just for their own survival. If a man kills a cow so that he may live, then why not let the cow live and the man die? Let the man die! Why should a cow die for the man? If cows symbolise motherhood, are those humans who drink cows' milk calves? Buffaloes and goats also provide the milk which humans drink, so are they also peoples' mothers? Human beings should stop killing cows out of respect for higher forms of life, not because of the sentiment which respects motherhood. The slaughter of buffaloes and goats should also be immediately stopped for the same reason.

"Human beings have learnt to feel the pain and agony of other human beings, but when a dog grieves nobody pays any attention to it. It is as if people think that dogs do not suffer any pain. When human beings come to understand that animals also experience pleasure and pain they will acquire a new dimension of wisdom. It is because of our human sense of duty and our higher understanding that we should be sympathetic to all living beings.

"As a general rule human beings should not kill animals under any circumstances. The exception to this rule is when human life is in danger. For example, if you are confronted by a tiger which threatens your life, before it attacks you may be forced to kill it. Similarly, if lions, snakes, elephants, etc. enter your locality, then as a last resort they may have to be killed to ensure human safety. But animals should only be killed when they directly endanger human life. It follows from this that you should not kill animals in their natural habitat. In the forests there are many lions, tigers, snakes, etc., but such creatures should not be killed in their natural environment because there they pose no threat to human life. Although it is the nature of some tigers to attack human beings, all tigers should not be killed simply for this reason. We must not forget that it is also the duty of human beings to build sanctuaries for dying animals and endangered species of animals and plants. This is the practical approach of the living philosophy of Neo-humanism. This is the approach of Neo-humanism to animal and plant life."

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win
without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure
and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to
fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for
survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is
no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as
slaves."

Sir Winston Churchill
(1870-1965) Prime Minister of England

"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions?
Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the
suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that
suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties
might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was
shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases
wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that
operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost
prepared to live under its constant suspension."

-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence,
3rd US President
Source: letter to James Madison, 1788

Definition of 'habeas corpus':
A writ having for its object to bring a party before a court or judge;
especially, one to inquire into the cause of a person's imprisonment or
detention by another, with the view to protect the right to personal
liberty.

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day"

President Theodore Roosevelt, April 19, 1906

"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our
tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out.
That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our
lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to
stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile,
but is morally treasonable to the American public."

President Theodore Roosevelt:
(1918)

"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came
for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then
they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me."

Reverend Martin Niemoeller
German Lutheran pastor, was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau in
1938. He was freed by the allied forces in 1945.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. The want rain without thunder and lightning....

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will .... Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get."

Frederick Douglass

“Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it
politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the
question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply
because it is right.”

Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968

"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects
from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the
reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal
principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty,
and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and
assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote;
they depend on the outcome of no elections."

Justice Robert H. Jackson
(1892-1954), U. S. Supreme Court Justice

"We pledge to the Iraqi people and the world to continue resisting oppression and occupation to our last drop of blood.

"Resistance is a legitimate right and not a crime to be punished."

Moqtada Sadr

"In every sphere of life - social, economic, mental and spiritual - making human beings conscious of their rights leads to the expansion of knowledge, and the full application of these rights is called the cultivation of science. Neglected people who, for whatever reasons, have not pursued knowledge and science, should be given full opportunities. There should be no discrimination. It is true, however, that self-seeking vested interests have taken advantage of the ignorance of the people, and have taken over in every field: social, economic, psychological and spiritual. They don't want the ignorant to receive the light of wisdom, or the low-caste to climb the social ladder, or the hungry to have square meals, or the superstitious to banish their superstitions. They do not want all people to acquire spiritual and scientific knowledge, to have equal opportunities to attain the kingdom of God. In order to remove this false distinction between the "literate" and the "illiterate", human values have to be recognized. Knowledge and science will be as free as light and air - they will be like a free-flowing spring, keeping all alive, supplying vital energy constantly to the human society."

Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar

"I am not a teacher, but an awakener."

Robert Frost, poet

"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first
appears he is a protector."

Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher (428/427-348/347 B.C.)

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the
instruments of tyranny at home."

James Madison: US fourth president, 1751-1836

"A great wave of oppressive tyranny isn’t going to strike, but rather a slow
seepage of oppressive laws and regulations from within will sink the American
dream of liberty."

George Baumler

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants,
and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good
conscience."

Albert Camus: French novelist, essayist, and playwright.1957 Nobel
Prize for Literature. 1913-1960

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy."

James Madison: US fourth president, 1751-1836

"May [the Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe
it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all),
the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish
ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves,
and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form
which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded
exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened,
or opening, to the rights of man."

-- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence,
3rd US President, June 24, 1826