H J Laski Quotes & Sayings

If there is one thing fundamental to the life of the spirit it is the absence of force. — Harold Laski

You see what the word of Michael Laski is: a minor but perilous triumph of being over nothingness. — Joan Didion

Why, the only reason for religion is that it can make you, keep you safe. If religion weren't true, then there would be no salvation, no comfort for being alive and alone, there would be nothing but living and dying - no, that cannot be so ... of course religion is true and will save me ... — Marghanita Laski

And what's strange, what would be marvelous, is not that God should really exist; the marvel is that such an idea, the idea of the necessity of God, could enter the head of such a savage, vicious beast as man. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me. — Marghanita Laski

New information technologies are tools - and to have an impact, tools need users, who in turn need goals, direction, and motivation. — Moises Naim

The wave came again and carried them out onto the sea of pain, where he wondered again why life ever came into the world...The tide that drew them out into the troubled waters once again spent itself, and they floated slowly back, resting for a minute or so, only to be dragged out again. He held her up while she contracted and pushed inside herself, trying to open the petals of her flowering body...He lifted her, trying to free the load she was struggling with, but she was straining against the traces, getting nowhere, her eyes like those of a draft horse...Who would choose this, thought Laski, this work, this woe? Life enslaves us, makes us want children, gives us a thousand illusions about love, and all so that it can go forward. — William Kotzwinkle

Whatever the joke is has to be funny, and not coming from a mean-spirited place. I think some things are totally off limits. If someone's spouse died, or one of their children, I would never joke about that. I don't have any aspirations towards writing any cancer jokes, and there's some stuff that I think is definitely taboo. — Amy Schumer

A State divided into a small number of rich and a large number of poor will always develop a government manipulated by the rich to protect the amenities represented by their property. — Harold Laski

With Herr Hitler's consent, he just passed a new ordinance," the man said. "It's a law called the Regulations against Jews' Possession of Weapons. Effective immediately, no Jew in Germany has the right to own, possess, or carry a gun. All weapons and ammunition in the possession of Jews must be turned over forthwith. Any Jews caught with a handgun or rifle will be imprisoned and fined." "And?" Dr. Weisz asked. "I'm no sportsman. Are you?" "No, I'm not," the man from Dresden said. "But don't you see? These attacks on our communities are just the beginning. Now Hitler is disarming us, and when we are completely defenseless, he will come for us, for all of us. Mark my words. — Joel C. Rosenberg

One can never be sure of the end, only of the means, and so we must be sure that the means are good. — Marghanita Laski

Professor Harold Laski declared that the attainment of power by the British Labour Party in the normal parliamentary fashion must result in a radical transformation of parliamentary government. A socialist administration needs 'guarantees' that its work of transformation would not be 'disrupted' by repeal in event of its defeat at the polls. Therefore the suspension of the Constitution is 'inevitable'. — Ludwig Von Mises

Every State is known by the rights it maintains. — Harold Laski

Trying harder doesn't always equal more success; it leads to more frustration, less satisfaction, and giving up. — John Bingham

Those who know the normal life of the poor ... will realize well enough that without economic security, liberty is not worth having. — Harold Laski

I don't know if anybody can second-guess what they will do on Capitol Hill. — Montel Williams

If it weren't for the law, I would steal books; if it weren't for my purse, I would buy them. — Harold Laski

Without equality, I say, there cannot be liberty. — Harold Laski

It is impossible to make peace with the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the permanent enemies of all that is decent in human spirit. — Harold J. Laski

My mom is an art teacher and my dad owns a women's shoe store, so they're not actors by any means. Well, I guess to sell women's shoes, you have to be an actor. — James Wolk

No citizen enjoys genuine freedom of religious conviction until the state is indifferent to every form of religious outlook from Atheism to Zoroastrianism. — Harold Laski

Civilization means, above all, an unwillingness to inflict unnecessary pain ... those of us who heedlessly accept the commands of authority cannot yet claim to be civilized men. — Harold Laski

Historically, means cannot be separated from ends ... — Harold Laski

It would be madness to let the purposes or the methods of private enterprise set the habits of the age of atomic energy. — Harold Laski

I don't think it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I'm gay. — Adam Lambert

A second-class mind dealing with third-class material is hardly a necessity of life. — Harold Laski

If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it. — Wally Lamb

The fight isn't over until you win. — Robin Hobb

The only good thing we can do, the only goodness we can be sure of, is our own goodness as individuals and the good that we can individually do. As groups we often do evil that good may come and very often the good does not come and all that is left is the evil we have pointlessly done. — Marghanita Laski

A healthy loyalty is not passive and complacent, but active and critical. — Harold Laski

The test, surely, of a creed is not the ability of those who accept it to announce their faith; its test is its ability to change their behavior in the ordinary round of daily life. Judged by that test, I know no religion that has a moral claim upon the allegiance of men. — Harold Laski

The only real security for social well-being is the free exercise of men's minds. — Harold Laski

There's no reason why you can't have another child." Laski listened numbly. He thinks that's what has been at stake, our wish for a child, any child, not this particular child who swung down the road between us. They can't know how special he was. They point to the future. But we're here, forever, now. The nurse slipped Diane onto the wheeled table. "I have a needle for you," said the nurse. "No," said Diane, still refusing any anesthetic. "It's to dry up your milk," said the nurse. — William Kotzwinkle

Never bring a weapon too big to double as a dining utensil to the table when dining with friends. — Seanan McGuire

The number of substitutes for fine and clean thinking the world provides positively gnaws at one's vitals. — Harold Laski

Aside from theology and sex there is really nothing to talk about. — Harold Laski

As it happens I am comfortable with the Michael Laskis of this world, with those who live outside rather than in, those in whom the sense of dread is so acute that they turn to extreme and doomed commitments; I know something about dread myself, and appreciate the elaborate systems with which some people manage to fill the void, appreciate all the opiates of the people, whether they are as accessible as alcohol and heroin and promiscuity or as hard to come by as faith in God or History.

But of course I did not mention dread to Michael Laski, whose particular opiate is History. I did suggest "depression," did venture that it might have been "depressing" for him to see only a dozen or so faces at his last May Day demonstration, but he told me that depression was an impediment to the revolutionary process, a disease afflicting only those who do not have ideology to sustain them. — Joan Didion