| Author Quoted | Nicolas Berdyaev |
| Title Quoted | Slavery and Freedom |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1958/06/10 |
| Imprint | New York : Charles Scribners's Sons. 1945 |
| Quotation | "It need to be said that politics are always based on lies"¦(we ought to) demand the reduction of politics and of their fictitious power over human life to the very minimum. Politics are always an extension of the slavery of man. The astonishing thing is that politics have never been an expression even of intelligence, to say nothing of morality, or of goodness. The so-called great among statesmen and political figures have said nothing wise and intelligent. They have usually been men of ordinary, current ideas, of banalities adapted to the average man." "The majority of these great figures are distinguished by the same criminality, hypocrisy, craftiness, and intoleranc"¦An exception must be made in favor of social reformers who emancipated man from slavery." Berdyaev. Slavery and Freedom, p. 143. |
| Quotation Source | A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3, 1952-1960.; Edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham. / San Francisco : Harper Collins. 1996, p. 205-06 |
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| Notes | |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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