Human attempts to construct moral order are always precarious: If righteousness too often leads to self-righteousness, the demand for justice can lead to one guillotine or another. — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Sometimes realism seems to mean no more than the advice to plan ahead before you start a war. Sometimes realism means the recognition that… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Ordinary goodness is fraught with veins of vanity and self-interest and above all with pleasure--because goodness makes you feel more alive.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
One great function of the arts is to keep ideals alive in a culture that does not yet realize them. — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“The dangers of sophistry and scholasticism are present in the possibility of philosophy itself.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
In the most general terms, the Enlightenment goes back to Plato's belief that truth and beauty and goodness are connected; that truth and beauty,… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“The claim that there is no alternative but perdition to a worldview that shows how everything fits together and makes perfect sense is a… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“When education is overwhelmed by hypermedia, travel facile or ruinous, and work a blurred mixture of more dependence and less meaning, it’s harder than… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Vitality is not the denial of mortality, but the grown-up way of facing it.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Negotiating small differences is part of being a grownup; no one can tell you in advance where to put your foot down.” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“how can human beings behave in ways that so thoroughly violate both reasonable and rational norms?” — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“It’s a matter of logical structure: what is, just is, and any claim about what ought to be is a claim about our own… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
“Kitsch is much more than a question of style; it's a preference for consolation over truth. Disney's version of reality is not just cleaned… — Susan Neiman Copy Share Image
