‘My own impression,’ writes Rebecca Solnit, whose book A Paradise Built in Hell (2009) gives a masterful account of Katrina’s aftermath, ‘is that elite panic comes from powerful people who see all humanity in their own image.’14 Dictators and despots, governors and generals – they all too often resort to brute force to prevent scenarios that exist

The humanist’s hope is an illusion, based on too great an optimism concerning the inherent goodness of human nature.

As long as there are humans, the irrational will find its voices and means of spreading. Rationality is something to be acquired by individuals, not by mass movements or technological progress.

There is something amiss with the intentions of those who do not make a sincere effort to know.

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

there is no good for a human being except what creates justice, self-control, courage and freedom, and nothing evil except what destroys these things.”