“Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.”
― Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals
― Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
― Confessions
― Confessions
“Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in being tired of good. Despair does not lie in being weary of suffering, but in being weary of joy. It is when for some reason or other the good things in a society no longer work that the society
begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless. We might almost say that in a society without such good things we should hardly have any test by which to register a decline; that is why some of the static commercial oligarchies like Carthage have rather an air in history of standing and staring like mummies, so dried up and swathed and embalmed that no man knows when they are new or old.”
― The Everlasting Man
begins to decline; when its food does not feed, when its cures do not cure, when its blessings refuse to bless. We might almost say that in a society without such good things we should hardly have any test by which to register a decline; that is why some of the static commercial oligarchies like Carthage have rather an air in history of standing and staring like mummies, so dried up and swathed and embalmed that no man knows when they are new or old.”
― The Everlasting Man
“You will smile here at the consistency of those democratists who, when they are not on their guard, treat the humbler part of the community with the greatest contempt, whilst, at the same time they pretend to make them the depositories of all power.”
― Reflections on the Revolution in France
― Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reading the Church Fathers
— 331 members
— last activity Jan 02, 2025 09:30PM
There is an immense library of Christian philosophy, theology, history, apologetics, biblical commentary, and devotion written in the first seven cent ...more
Jeni’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jeni’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Jeni
Lists liked by Jeni
























