"Often you only have to ask What would I do if I were not afraid?"

James Richardson Politics See all quotes by James Richardson →

React to this quote

More by James Richardson

“First he gathered what he needed. Then he needed to keep gathering what he used to need.”

“Books serve us simply by opening a window on all we wanted to say and feel and think about. We may not even notice that they have not said it themselves till we go back to them years later and do not find what we loved in them. You cannot keep the view by taking the window with you.”

“Happiness, like water, is always available, but so often it seems we’d prefer a different drink.”

“Why would we write if we’d already heard what we wanted to hear?”

“The best way to get people to do what you want is not to be too particular about what you want.”

“It is less important to escape pain than to avoid exceptionless rules.”

Resonant Thoughts

"While I was police commissioner, an anti-Semitic preacher from Berlin, Rector Ahlwardt, came over to New York to preach a crusade against the Jews. Many of the New York Jews were much excited and aske…"

— Theodore Roosevelt

Politics1858–1919

#art

"Confession frees, but power reduces one to silence; truth does not belong to the order of power, but shares an original affinity with freedom: traditional themes in philosophy, which a political histo…"

— Michel Foucault

Literature1926–1984

#freedom

"Bad language coarsens the whole quality of our life. It normalises harsh, often indecent language, which despoils our communication."

— Mary Whitehouse

Politics1910–2001

#life

"The greatest work of the composer is often sublimation, that is, the deflection of energies, thoughts, occurrences, psychological and physical reactions, into socially constructive or creative channel…"

— Marion Bauer

Music1882–1955

#philosophy