The Wisdom Letter #295

5 quotes from William Hazlitt, Martin Luther King Jr., and more.

✹ For today’s edition of Wisdom Letter, we have carefully curated five bite-sized quotes from brilliant thinkers such as William Hazlitt and Martin Luther King Jr., each paired with a philosophical question designed to provoke deep reflection.

Quote № 01:

“The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much.”

— William Hazlitt (1778–1830), “Common Places”

~ Follow-up Question:

When individuals prioritize enduring over enjoying, what does this reveal about their conception of time, value, and purpose—and does this perspective challenge or reinforce dominant cultural narratives about success and happiness?

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Quote № 02:

“The trouble isn't so much that we don't know enough, but it's as if we aren't good enough. The trouble isn't so much that our scientific genius lags behind, but our moral genius lags behind. The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. The problem is with man himself and man's soul. We haven't learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we've made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we've failed to make of it a brotherhood.”

— Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968), “Rediscovering Lost Values”

~ Follow-up Question:

In a world increasingly interconnected by technology yet divided by mistrust and injustice, what responsibilities do individuals and societies have to align their moral capacities with their expanding influence, and what might be the consequences of failing to do so?

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Quote № 03:

“You may not believe in evolution, and that is all right. How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves.”

— Jane Goodall (1934), “Reason for Hope: a Spiritual Journey”

~ Follow-up Question:

How does prioritizing present ethical responsibility over origins or belief systems reshape the way we define truth and relevance in public discourse, particularly when addressing global crises?

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Quote № 04:

“Against slavery all right thinkers revolt, and though torture be the price of resistance, torture must be dared: though the only road to freedom lie through the gates of death, those gates must be passed; for freedom is indispensable.”

— Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855), “The Professor”

~ Follow-up Question:

If freedom is regarded as indispensable, even at the cost of immense suffering, how should societies determine the ethical limits of resistance, and what responsibilities do individuals bear when the pursuit of liberty threatens life itself?

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Quote № 05:

“I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

— Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

~ Follow-up Question:

Suppose a society suppresses all forms of rebellion in the name of peace—what long-term consequences might arise from this approach, and how does it affect the moral and intellectual development of its citizens?

✽ Thank you for reading today’s Wisdom Letter.

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Maze Heart, the curator of Philosophors