items of interest

with contributions from Lou Marinoff, Paul Simon, Sharon Begley, Patricia Beard

"The Stoics ... thought we shouldn't value anything that can be taken from us by someone else. If we do so, we put ourselves in that other person's power. For you to overvalue your car, your stereo, your job, ... is in effect putting yourself in a position of fear .... one thing that can't be taken from you by somebody is your virtue. You can relinquish it, but no one can take it from you. ... You can't be corrupted unless you are willing to be corrupted."

Lou Marinoff,
philosophical counselor
Interviewed by Merle Hoffman
On the Issues
Winter 1999

When nations were first debating the value of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it wasn't easy to get agreement among governments that ranged from communist to capitalist. Yet in the end, the declaration's essential premise prevailed: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." This is still of vital importance, fifty years later.

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