... That Maxim Of Descartes: "question Everything!"

On The Way From The Renaissance To Our Days We Have Enriched Our Experience, But We Have Lost The Concept Of A Supreme Complete Entity Which Used To Restrain Our Passions And Our Irresponsibility. We Have Placed Too Much Hope In Political And Social Reforms, Only To Find Out That We Were Being Deprived Of Our Most Precious Possession: Our Spiritual Life. In The East, It Is Destroyed By The Dealings And Machinations Of The Ruling Party. In The West, Commercial Interests Tend To Suffocate It. This Is The Real Crisis.

When The Whole Discussion Of "developing A National Idea" Hastily Began In Post-soviet Russia, I Tried To Pour Cold Water On It With The Objection That, After All The Devastating Losses We Had Experienced, It Would Be Quite Sufficient To Have Just One Task: The Preservation Of A Dying People.

It's Quite Enough To Show A Well-beaten Dog The Whip.

Our Twentieth Century Has Proved To Be More Cruel Than Preceding Centuries, And The First Fifty Years Have Not Erased All Its Horrors. Our World Is Rent Asunder By Those Same Old Cave-age Emotions Of Greed, Envy, Lack Of Control, Mutual Hostility Which Have Picked Up In Passing Respectable Pseudonyms Like Class Struggle, Radical Conflict, Struggle Of The Masses, Trade-union Disputes.

Only The First Swath Cut By The Scythe Is Difficult.