A Quote by C. Wright Mills

Above all, do not give up your moral and political autonomy by accepting in somebody else's terms the illiberal practicality of the bureaucratic ethos or the liberal practicality of the moral scatter. Know that many personal troubles cannot be solved merely as troubles, but must be understood in terms of public issues and in terms of the problems of history making.

C. Wright Mills

Quote Topics

Above Accepting Autonomy Bureaucratic Cannot Do Not Give Up Else Ethos Give History History Making Issues Know Liberal Making Many Merely Moral Must Personal Political Practicality Problems Public Scatter Solved Somebody Terms Troubles Understood Up Your

Quote Author

C. Wright Mills
American - Sociologist
August 28, 1916 - March 20, 1962

It is the political task of the social scientist — as of any liberal educator — continually to translate personal troubles into public issues, and public issues into the terms of their human meaning for a variety of individuals. It is his task to display in his work — and, as an educator, in his life as well — this kind of sociological imagination. And it is his purpose to cultivate such habits of mind among the men and women who are publicly exposed to him. To secure these ends is to secure reason and individuality, and to make these the predominant values of a democratic society.

C. Wright Mills

If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational, and reason accepts no commandments.

Ayn Rand

Freedom possesses many meanings. It speaks not merely in terms of political and religious liberty but also in terms of economic and social progress.

Robert Kennedy

I consider myself a logical person and, you know, a lot of people try to categorize me in one way or another. You know, there are some of the things that I say that probably would be considered very much non-conservative. But I don't think really conservative or liberal; I think: What makes sense? What's going to help the American people? What's going to give them what they need? Not only in health care but in terms of jobs, in terms of education, in terms of a whole host of issues.

Benjamin Carson

Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art.

Thom Mayne

There are too many African-Americans with too much money for us to have to go to anybody else for anything in terms of schools, in terms of scholarships, in terms of entrepreneurship, in terms of moving us along as a group to that place where we should be as a people.

James Avery

I love the practicality of a good car. You know what I mean? And when I say 'practicality,' I mean the complete practicality of a Ferrari 458, a wonderfully fantastic every day car.

Hunter Hayes

If you have not even a little imagination, you are simply a brute. So you must not lower your ideal, neither are you to lose sight of practicality. We must avoid the two extremes.... You must try to combine in your life immense idealism with immense practicality.

Swami Vivekananda

I try not to think in terms of good and bad but more in terms of helpful or unhelpful in regards to specific moral codes and goals.

Richard Brancatisano

In Aristotelian terms, the good leader must have ethos, pathos and logos. The ethos is his moral character, the source of his ability to persuade. The pathos is his ability to touch feelings to move people emotionally. The logos is his ability to give solid reasons for an action, to move people intellectually.

Mortimer Adler

Issues of energy, climate change, nuclear arms control and non-proliferation are all big deals. These are problems that we have to get right globally, not just nationally, and there are big benefits in cooperating, in terms of sharing costs, in terms of sharing risks, in terms of propagating the best answers.

John Holdren

The truth is that political consciousness in this country is pretty low... To the degree that we can help educate and organize people around the most important issues facing their lives and show that there is support for fundamental changes in the way we do business in the United States of America in terms of income inequality, in terms of low wages, in terms of disastrous trade policies, in terms of being the only major country not to have a national healthcare program - that's success.

Bernie Sanders

Redefine the sport in terms of your expertise, in terms of your talent, in terms of your strength, in terms of your flair. Make it interesting. Make it something that people want to watch.

George Elliott Clarke

I very much dislike doctrinaire liberals - they want to own your minds. And I don't like reactionary conservatives. I like to face issues in terms of conditions and not in terms of someone's inborn political philosophy.

Carl Albert

Neurologically, people have a need to feel oriented, to know where they are, not just in terms of a compass and not just in terms of geography, but in terms of their culture and history. To be informed about where they're coming from and to have some glimpse towards a hopeful future.