Source: The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal DemocracyA boy can take you into the open at night and show you the stars; he might tell you no end of things about them, conceivably all that an astronomer could teach.
But until and unless he feels the vast indifference of the universe to his own fate, and has placed himself in the perspective of cold and illimitable space, he has not looked maturely at the heavens.
Until he has felt this, and unless he can endure this, he remains a child, and in his childishness, he will resent the heavens when they are not accommodating.
He will demand sunshine when he wishes to play, and rain when the ground is dry, and he will look upon storms as anger directed at him, and the thunder as a personal threat.
Credit: Walter Lippman
(Harvard Paperbacks, page 154)Posts where this quotation is embedded
- Science Curiosity A desire to seek out and consume scientific information for pleasure
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In-person, 7–11 September 2026
Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. This week-long workshop offers a space to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience.