Once, perhaps, the God-intoxicated few could abscond to the wild frontiers, the forests, the desert places to keep alive the perennial wisdom that they harbored. But no longer. They must now become a political force or their tradition perishes. Soon enough, there will be no solitude left for the saints to roam but its air will shudder with a noise of great engines that drowns out all prayers.

—Theodore Roszak

solitude politics God wisdom society prayer frontier

About Theodore Roszak

Theodore Roszak (November 15, 1933 – July 5, 2011) was an American academic and novelist who concluded his academic career as Professor Emeritus of history at California State University, East Bay. He is best known for his 1969 text The Making of a Counter Culture.

More quotations from Theodore Roszak

When industrial pollutants finally make the air unbreathable, we will be advised to cover the cities over with plastic domes and air-condition them. Technological optimism is the snake oil of urban industrialism.

—Theodore Roszak

air breathing pollution domes

Suddenly, it becomes a subversion of progress to assert the common-sense principle that communities exist for the health and enjoyment of those who live in them, not for the convenience of those who drive through them, fly over them, or exploit their real estate for profit.

—Theodore Roszak

All revolutionary changes are unthinkable until they happen—and then they are understood to be inevitable.

—Theodore Roszak

change revolution inevitiability

J. Robert Oppenheimer, witnessing the first test of a nuclear weapon, confessed to tasting sin. But he and all his colleagues knew from the beginning what lay waiting at the end of the project. And which was the stronger flavor, the sin, or the satisfaction of having stolen fire from the gods?

—Theodore Roszak

nuclear weapons gods sin

More quotations tagged with “prayer”

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.

—John F. Kennedy

life hope strength prayer

It was quite incomprehensible to me… why in my evening prayers I should pray for human beings only. So when my mother had prayed with me and had kissed me goodnight, I used to add silently a prayer that I had composed myself for all living creatures. It ran thus: "O Heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath; guard them from all evil, and let them sleep in peace. "

—Albert Schweitzer

God belief prayer animals blessing human beings

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your abundance.

—Kahlil Gibran

joy prayer desire abundance need

A man who possesses a veneration of life will not simply say his prayers. He will throw himself into the battle to preserve life, if for no other reason than that he himself is an extension of life around him.

—Albert Schweitzer

wonder life prayer veneration

He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

—Douglas Adams

belief prayer heaven afterlife

History

3 Dec 2014 Added