Humanism: an exaltation of freedom, but one limited by our need to exercise it as an integral part of nature and society.
John Ralston SaulThere is no need to search for global solutions, apart from an absolute necessity to destroy the idea that such things exist.
John Ralston SaulDemocracy is the only system capable of reflecting the humanist premise of equilibrium or balance. The key to its secret is the involvement of the citizen.
John Ralston SaulMarx was fortunate to have been born eighty years before Walt Disney. Disney also promised a child's paradise and unlike Marx, delivered on his promise.
John Ralston SaulGovernments produced by the most banal of electoral victories, like those produced by the crudest of coups d'รฉtat, will always feel obliged to dress themselves up linguistically in some way.
John Ralston SaulIn general, democracy and individualism have advanced in spite of and often against specific economic interest. Both democracy and individualism have been based upon financial sacrifice, not gain. Even in Athens, a large part of the 7,000 citizens who participated regularly in assemblies were farmers who had to give up several days' work to go into town to talk and listen.
John Ralston Saul