Polis Quotes

“Participation in the collective life of the polis both restrains the extraordinary individual and enlarges the ordinary individual, allowing him to participate in the extraordinary. An individual can achieve participatory excellence via the accomplishments of the polis and need not always be caught up in the agnostic struggle to outdo his peers.”

“I'm too busy thinking what I'm going to say next to remember what I've said, but my staff tells me I'm sometimes funny. Not always on purpose, though.”

“I prefer a positive view of freedom, drawing on another tradition of political thinking that goes all the way back to the ancient Greek polis.”

“It's often difficult for those who are lucky enough to have never experienced what true depression is to imagine a life of complete hopelessness, emptiness and fear.”

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair...”

“Love is being honest with yourself at all timesbeing honest with the other person at all timestelling, listening, respecting the truthand never pretendingLove is the source of reality”

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”

“Love is . . . Being happy for the other person when they are happy, Being sad for the person when they are sad, Being together in good times, And being together in bad times.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH.Love is . . . Being honest with yourself at all times, Being honest with the other person at all times, Telling, listening, respecting the truth, And never pretending.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF REALITY.Love is . . . An understanding so complete that you feel as if you are a part of the other person, Accepting the other person just the way they are, And not trying to change them to be something else.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF UNITY.Love is . . . The freedom to pursue your own desires while sharing your experiences with the other person, The growth of one individual alongside of and together with the growth of another individual. LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SUCCESS.Love is . . . The excitement of planning things together, The excitement of doing things together.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF THE FUTURE.Love is . . . The fury of the storm, The calm in the rainbow.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF PASSION.Love is . . . Giving and taking in a daily situation, Being patient with each other's needs and desires.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SHARING.Love is . . . Knowing that the other person will always be with you regardless of what happens, Missing the other person when they are away but remaining near in heart at all times.LOVE IS THE SOURCE OF SECURITY.LOVE IS . . . THE SOURCE OF LIFE!”

“Debate is never finished; it can't be, lest democracy be no longer democratic and society be stripped of or forfeit its autonomy. Democracy means that the citizen's task is never complete. Democracy exists through persevering and unyielding citizens' concern. Once that concern is put to sleep, democracy expires. And so there is no, and cannot be, a democracy, an autonomous society, without autonomous citizens - that is, citizens endowed with individual liberty and individual responsibility for the ways they use it. That liberty is another value - though unthinkable in separation from the value of democracy. Democracy rests on the freedom of its citizens, and citizens rest their confidence of being free and the courage to be free on the democracy of their polis. The two make each other and are made in the process of that making.”