Lynne

“Voegelin displayed all of these qualities because he understood teaching as an existential quest with students that ascends from ideological disorder to wisdom (sophia) and practical judgment (phronesis). Teachers and learners form an existential community because together they turn, and have their souls turned, from becoming to being. For Voegelin, the “art of the periagoge” consists of inculcating the habits necessary for these existential virtues, and the methods used to inculcate them are various because they require the teacher to dig more deeply than reason into the souls of the students. As Voegelin indicates, his lifelong work is the result of the need to show students why the life of reason is indeed the pursuit of truth. His scholarship and teaching has as its core the moral aspiration for existential life in truth.”
― Lee Trepanier, Teaching in an Age of Ideology

“The sage returns her inner nature to its beginnings and guides her spirit to the realm of the void. She follows the supreme teachings of the limitless and lives in a state of complete emptiness. The ordinary person, however, lives in a world consisting of rules and regulations that are designed to constrain her inner nature. Her thoughts are filled with anxiety, and her senses are fatigued by constant excitement. She promotes pettiness in the name of benevolence, integrity, and culture so that she can display her skills and gain fame and recognition.”
― Eva Wong, Being Taoist: Wisdom for Living a Balanced Life

“The fates of people and of states, of entire civilizations, can depend on whether an extraordinary person can bring forth the proper strength of soul and action. Normal minds and spirits, no matter how numerous, cannot replace such a person.”
― Jacob Burckhardt

“The few really great-the major novelists ... are significant in terms of the human awareness they promote; awareness of the possibilities of life.”
― F.R. Leavis