The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.
the Basic Writings Of Bertrand Russellby bertrand Russell
The best we can do, according to Bradley, is to say things that are “not intellectually corrigible” — further progress is only possible through a synthesis of thought and feeling, which, when achieved, will lead to our saying nothing. Ideas have degrees of truth, greater or less according to the stage at which they come in the dialectic.
Bradley / corrigible / dialectic / ideas / truth
But in the ’nineties young men desired something more sweeping and passionate, more bold and less bland.
bland / bold / Men / nineties / passionate
Ibsen, Strindberg, and Nietzsche were angry men — not primarily angry about this or that, but just angry. And so they each found an outlook on life that justified anger. The young admired their passion, and found in it an outlet for their own feelings of revolt against parental authority. The assertion of freedom seemed sufficiently noble to justify violence; the violence duly ensued, but freedom was lost in the process.
In spite of the fundamental importance of economic facts in determining politics and beliefs of an age or nation, I do not think that non-economic factors can be neglected without risks of error which may be fatal in practice.
Ridicule, nominally amusing but really an expression of hostility, was the favourite weapon — the worst possible, short of actual cruelty, in dealing with young people.
If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves, is it not the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age?
age / devil / enjoyment / excitement / personage