Vera

“Career"

Galileo, the clergy maintained,
was a pernicious and stubborn man.
But time has a way of demonstrating
the most stubborn are the most intelligent.

In Galileo's day, a fellow scientist
was no more stupid than Galileo.
He was well aware the earth revolved,
but he also had a large family to feed.

Stepping into a carriage with his wife,
after effecting his betrayal,
he believed he was launched on a career,
though he was undermining it in reality.

Galileo alone had risked asserting
the truth about our planet,
and this made him a great man... His was
a genuine career as I understand it.

I salute then a career,
when the career is akin to
that of a Shakespeare or Pasteur,
a Newton or Tolstoy- Leo!

Why did people fling mud at them all?
Talent speaks for itself, whatever the charges.
We've forgotten the men who abused them,
Remember only the victims of slander.

All who rushed into the stratosphere,
the doctors who perished fighting cholera,
were, all of them, men of career!
I take their careers as my example!

I believe in their sacred faith.
Their faith is my very manhood.
I shall therefore pursue my career
by trying not to pursue one.”
― Yevgeny Yevtushenko

“. . . in no instance has a system in regard to religion been ever established, but for the purpose, as well as with the effect of its being made an instrument of intimidation, corruption, and delusion, for the support of depredation and oppression in the hands of governments.”
― Jeremy Bentham, Constitutional Code; For the Use All Nations and All Governments Professing Liberal Opinions Volume 1

“Мы, магометане, издавна лучше сживались с евреями, чем вы, христиане. Уже в то время, когда здесь появились первые еврейские колонисты, в конце прошедшего столетия, часто случалось, что спорящие арабы избирали в судьи еврея, или же обращались к представителю еврейской колонии за помощью, советом или решением спорного вопроса – при таких условиях, разумеется, полное сближение было вполне осуществимо.”
― Theodor Herzl, Old New Land

“The only sensible thing to do when you are attacked is, as Napoleon once said, to counter-attack.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda