“We think the purpose of a child is to grow up because it does grow up. But its purpose is to play, to enjoy itself, to be a child. If we merely look to the end of the process, the purpose of life is death”
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
“There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it.”
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
“Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live.”
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
“We are not the doctors. We are the disease”
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"Science even more than the Gospel teaches us humility. She cannot look down on anything, she does not know what superiority means, she despises nothing, never lies for the sake of a pose, and conceals nothing out of coquetry. She stops before the facts as an investigator, sometimes as a physician, never as an executioner, and still less with hostility and irony."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"The world will not know liberty until all that is religious and political is transformed into something simple and human and made susceptible to criticism and denial."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"I am truly horrified by modern man. Such absence of feeling, such narrowness of outlook, such lack of passion and information, such feebleness of thought."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"The people is always expressive of the truth. The life of a people cannot be a lie."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"Would it be possible to stand still on one spot more majestically — while simulating a triumphant march forward — than it is done by the two English Houses of Parliament?"
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"All religions have based morality on obedience, that is to say, on voluntary slavery. That is why they have always been more pernicious than any political organization. For the latter makes use of violence, the former - of the corruption of the will."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"Slavery is the first step towards civilization. In order to develop it is necessary that things should be much better for some and much worse for others, then those who are better off can develop at the expense of others."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"The departing world leaves behind... not an heir, but a pregnant widow."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)
"Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all legal professions of history have based their job security."
― Alexander Herzen (1812-1870)