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To know oneself is to disbelieve utopia.

Michael Novak

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Michael Novak
Age: 83 †
Born: 1933
Born: September 9
Died: 2017
Died: February 17
Diplomat
Journalist
Philosopher
Political Scientist
Writer
Johnstown
Pennsylvania
Disbelieve
Utopia
Oneself

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In most of history, societies have not been free. It's a very rare society that is free. The default condition of human societies is tyranny.
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We talk about a civilization and love and we're seeing it at the end. So many people around the world are - that whole electronic band that Dostoyevsky imagined of love around the world - that every contribution, every moment of love, every act of kindness feeds that and is like a reservoir for somebody in need to draw upon.
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Our Founders always wondered about how long it would last. The price of liberty is everlasting vigilance. You've got to be on your guard every minute or you will lose it.
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Practically every movie that shows the pope or even a bishop as a character, and in much of western literature of the last 300 or 400 years, these are portrayed as awful figures.
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Unity in diversity is the highest possible attainment of a civilization, a testimony to the most noble possibilities of the human race. This attainment is made possible through passionate concern for choice, in an atmosphere of social trust.
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Don't be afraid of anything. We've seen so much suffering and evil in the 20th century and we got through it. We can go on. God is with us. God will help us. Trust Him.
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Granted that I must die, how shall I live?
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Individual freedom is a Jewish idea, but it's one of the functions of Christianity to make this idea universal.
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Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice.
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I need not to be afraid of the void. The void is part of my person. I need to enter consciously into it. To try to escape from it is to try to live a lie. It is also to cease to be. My acceptance of despair and emptiness constitutes my being to have the courage to accept despair is to be.
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The Lord God, the creator of Judaism and the God of Judaism and Christianity, empowered our minds and gave us the ability to question.
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Marriage, the family unit, was the original Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
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Tradition lives because young people come along who catch its romance and add new glories to it.
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Jews do not have to be Christians. Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism, but too utopian, too hopeful, too unrealistic a turn.
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You're a sovereign as a citizen. If you're not involved in your government, you're not doing your job. In the long run that's very bad for the Republic.
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What is the most effective, practical way of raising the wealth of nations? What causes wealth? I have come to think that the dream of democratic socialism is inferior to the dream of democratic capitalism, and that the latter's superiority in actual practice is undeniable.
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Everything I do that I'm enthusiastic about. This is genuine enthusiasm. If I don't - I mean I've done other projects that I have not been a fan of until I realized I was doing it and I wasn't really there. And I don't do those anymore.
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We really feel happier when things look bleak. Hope is endurance. Hope is holding on and going on and trusting in the Lord.
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Sports is, somehow, a religion.
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Christians must be Jews. The truth of what we believe depends on the truth of Judaism, depends on the first covenant.
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