1566) A faith is not acquired by reasoning. One does not fall in love with a woman, or enter the womb of a church, as a result of logical persuasion.

Arthur Koestler
in The God That Failed (1950)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1567) The distinction between theories and values is not sufficiently recognized, but it is fundamental. On a group of theories one can found a school; but on a group of values one can found a culture, a new way of living together among men.

Ignazio Silone
in The God That Failed (1950)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1568) I consider that on account of its compromises Christianity is bankrupt. I have written, and I firmly believe, that if Christianity has really prevailed and if it had really fulfilled the teaching of Christ, there would be [...] no social problem at all.

Andre Gide with Enid Starke
in The God That Failed (1950)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1569) All goals [...] are nothing in the abstract. They only have meaning in relation to the interests of living men, women , and children who are the means through which everything on earth is achieved. In one's zeal for a cause, it is possible to forget them, or to suppose that they can wait or to imagine that they don't mind. In one's absorption in an ideal, it is possible to imagine that one generation can be sacrificed for the sake of its descendants. But sacrificing people may become a habit unto the second and third generation. I thought [...] that I was serving humanity. But it is only since then that I have really discovered the human being.

Louis Fischer
in The God That Failed (1950)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1570) The idea [...] of a perfect and immortal commonwealth, will always be found to be as chimerical as that of a perfect and immortal man.

David Hume
The History of England (1761)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1571) Of what use is political liberty to those who have no bread? It is only of value to ambitious theorists and politicians.

Jean Paul Marat
letter to Camille Desmoulins (6/22/1790)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1572) The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratic council, and oligarchical junta, or a single emperor.

John Adams
in a letter to Thomas Jefferson (11/13/1815)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1573) "One can't believe impossible things!" [said Alice] "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age I always did it for half-four a day. Why, sometimes, I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Lewis Carroll [Charles Dodgson]
Through the Looking Glass (1872)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1574) From each according to his abilities, to each according to their needs.

Karl Marx
"Critique of the Gotha Programme" (1875)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1575) The weakness of all utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of smaller ones. They first assume that no man will want more than his share, and then are ingenious in explaining whether his share will be delivered by motorcar or balloon.

G.K. Chesterton
"Heretics" (1905)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1576) Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

George Orwell
1984 (1949)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)

1577) Every revolutionary ends as an oppressor or a heretic.

Albert Camus
L'Homme revolte (1951)
quoted in program notes compiled by
Frank Dwyer and Christopher Breyer
for a production of Slavs! (play, 1994)
by Tony Kushner, at the
Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
(10/15/1995 - 11/19/1995)