4 John Ralston Saul Quotes on Values

John Ralston Saul quotes on values

3. Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.

16. The individual has been allowed out of his socially constructed cage. That, at least, is the contemporary myth. What is not clear, however, is what that liberation has to do with the fulfullment of individualism. The lessons of history seem relatively clear. Societies on the rise are simple, unadorned and relatively uncompromising. Those on the decline are given to open-mindedness, self-indulgence and the baroque.

32. [W]e have more than two options... a critique of reason does not have to be a call for the return of superstition and arbitrary power.... [O]ur problems do not lie with reason itself but with our obsessive treatment of reason as an absolute value. Certainly it is one of our qualities, but it functions positively only when balanced and limited by the others.

53. [T]hree of [Newt Gingrich's] 'Five Principles of American Civilization' deal with business, technology, and organization - all characteristics of work. There is no mention of liberty or equality or, for that matter, of democracy.