| Core: noun, the most important part of a thing, the essence; from the Latin cor, meaning heart. |
|
| Volume 0.0 | This View’s Prose | February 4, 2002 |
| The Source of the Evils that Plague Men and Nations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All the evils which poison men and nations and trouble so
many hearts have a single cause and a single source: ignorance of the truth—and
at times even more than ignorance, a contempt for truth and a reckless rejection
of it. Thus arise all manner of errors, which enter the recesses of men’s
hearts and the bloodstream of human society as would a plague. These errors
turn everything upside down: they menace individuals and society itself.
And yet, God gave each of us an intellect capable of attaining natural truth. If we adhere to this truth, we adhere to God Himself, the author of truth, the lawgiver and ruler of our lives. But if we reject this truth, whether out of foolishness, neglect, or malice, we turn our backs on the highest good itself and on the very norm for right living. |
||||
| Bl. Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) | ||||
| Encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram (June 29, 1959) ## 6-7 |
| The Defense of Liberty | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence?
It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts, the guns of
our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These
are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All
of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger
or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty
which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation
of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands,
everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism
around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage,
and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample
on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own
independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who
rises. |
||||
| Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858 |
||||
| Collected Works Volume III p. 95 |
|
Prose
|
| This View from the Core © E. L. Core 2002 |
| Cor ad cor loquitur — J. H. Newman — “Heart speaks to heart” |