Randolph Bourne Quotes

• War is the Health of the State.

  Randolph Bourne

  War, Liberty, Libertarian

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.382, Univ of California Press

  49 Copy quote

• War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society these irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.

  Randolph Bourne

  War, Government, Groups

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1965). “The world of Randolph Bourne: an anthology edited”

  31 Copy quote

• If you are not an idealist by the time you are twenty you have no heart, but if you are still an idealist by the time you are thirty, you don't have a head.

  Randolph Bourne

  Heart, Twenties, Thirty

  16 Copy quote

• The State is not the nation, and the State can be modified and even abolished in its present form, without harming the nation. On the contrary, with the passing of the dominance of the State, the genuine life-enhancing forces of the nation will be liberated.

  Randolph Bourne

  Dominance, Genuine, Force

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1919). “Untimely Papers”

  10 Copy quote

• In your reaction to an imagined attack on your country or an insult to its government, you draw closer to the herd for protection, you conform in word and deed, and you insist vehemently that everybody else shall think, speak, and act together. And you fix your adoring gaze upon the State, with a truly filial look, as upon the Father of the flock.

  Randolph Bourne

  Country, War, Father

  15 Copy quote

• Self-recognition is necessary to know one's road, but, knowing the road, the price of the mistakes and perils is worth paying. The following of that road will be all the discipline one needs. Discipline does not mean being molded by outside forces, but sticking to one's road against the forces that would deflect or bury the soul. People speak of finding one

  Randolph Bourne

  Mistake, Mean, Self

  Randolph Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.133, Univ of California Press

  14 Copy quote

• We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear.

  Randolph Bourne

  Slave, Precaution, Bourne

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1913). “Youth and Life”

  9 Copy quote

• Society is one vast conspiracy for carving one into the kind of statue likes, and then placing it in the most convenient niche it has.

  Randolph Bourne

  Anger, Society, Likes

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.133, Univ of California Press

  14 Copy quote

• Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience.

  Randolph Bourne

  People, Tragedy, Scratches

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1913). “Youth and Life”

  15 Copy quote

• A good discussion increases the dimensions of everyone who takes part.

  Randolph Bourne

  Collaboration, Dimensions, Increase

  18 Copy quote

• He who mounts a wild elephant goes where the elephant goes.

  Randolph Bourne

  Elephants

  7 Copy quote

• Culture, like the kingdom of heaven, lies within us, and not in foreign galleries and books.

  Randolph Bourne

  Lying, Book, Heaven

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1969). “History of a Literary Radical and Other Essays”, p.43, Biblo & Tannen Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• Really to believe in human nature while striving to know the thousand forces that warp it from its ideal development - to call for and expect much from men and women, and not to be disappointed and embittered if they fall short - to try to do good with people rather than to them - this is my religion on its human side. And if God exists, I think that he must be in the warm sun, in the kindly actions of the people we know and read of, in the beautiful things of art and nature, and in the closeness of friendships.

  Randolph Bourne

  Beautiful, Art, Believe

  "The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918".

  7 Copy quote

• All we can ever do in the way of good to people is to encourage them to do good to themselves.

  Randolph Bourne

  Motivational, People, Way

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1913). “Youth and Life”

  7 Copy quote

• The ironic life is a life keenly alert, keenly sensitive, reacting promptly with feelings of liking or dislike to each bit of experience, letting none of it pass without interpretation and assimilation, a life full and satisfying - indeed a rival of the religious life.

  Randolph Bourne

  Religious, Feelings, Ironic

  Randolph Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.136, Univ of California Press

  7 Copy quote

• One keeps healthy in wartime...by a vigorous assertion of values in which war has no part.

  Randolph Bourne

  Peace, War, Healthy

  16 Copy quote

• Diplomacy is a disguised war, in which states seek to gain by barter and intrigue, by the cleverness of arts, the objectives which they would have to gain more clumsily by means of war.

  Randolph Bourne

  Art, War, Mean

  "Diplomacy is a Disguised War: Obama’s Diplomatic 'Sleight-of-hand'" by Peter Fay, www.globalresearch.ca. March 22, 2011.

  10 Copy quote

• We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear. Although we can never rivet our fortune so tight as to make it impregnable, we may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life that we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living.

  Randolph Bourne

  Quality, May, Guarding

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1913). “Youth and Life”

  7 Copy quote

• No matter what we have come through, or how many perils we have safely passed, or how many imperfect and jagged - in some places perhaps irreparably - our life has been, we cannot in our heart of hearts imagine how it could have been different. As we look back on it, it slips in behind us in orderly array, and, with all its mistakes, acquires a sort of eternal fitness, and even, at times, of poetic glamour.

  Randolph Bourne

  Mistake, Heart, Reflection

  9 Copy quote

• A cultivation of the powers of one's personality is one of the greatest needs of life.

  Randolph Bourne

  Personality, Needs, Power Of One

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1913). “Youth and Life”

  4 Copy quote

• With the shock of war the state comes into its own again.

  Randolph Bourne

  War, Political, Politics

  Randolph Silliman Bourne (1919). “Untimely Papers”

  6 Copy quote

• A man with few friends is only half-developed; there are whole sides of his nature which are locked up and have never been expressed. He cannot unlock them himself, he cannot even discover them; friends alone can stimulate him and open him.

  Randolph Bourne

  Friendship, Men, Sides

  Randolph Bourne (1992). “The Radical Will: Selected Writings, 1911-1918”, p.111, Univ of California Press

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Horace Kallen

James Oppenheim

Van Wyck Brooks

John Dewey

Herbert Croly

Jeannette Rankin

Justin Raimondo

Walter Lippmann