Arthur Desmond
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Arthur Desmond (c. 1859 – 26 January 1929) was an English revolutionary, poet, philosopher and author, most famous for being the likely author of the incendiary work Might is Right.
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[edit] Quotes
[edit] Might is Right (1890)
- Much evidence indicates Desmond was the likely author of this work, written under the name Ragnar Redbeard; this is not accepted by all, and of notable authors, Jack London is generally considered weaker candidate who has been suggested by some. The intentions of this work remain a subject of debate, and because of the known political affinities of the prominent candidates for authorship, many consider it likely to have been a harsh satire.
- A man’s opportunities are never exhausted so long as other men (who are not his friends) possess millions of acres and thousands of tons of gold.
- If a man smites you on one cheek, smash him on the other.
- To "go to extremes" is ever symptomatic of genius and greatness.
- He who saith “thou shalt” to me is my mortal foe.
- What is a mechanic anyhow but a specially trained slave?
- Sociology is a biological problem and Nations are herds of cattle.
- Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve. This is an Ultimatum.
- The fear of death is the beginning of Slavery.
- The difference between the man who rules in the Castle, and the other man who is chained in the castle-dungeon, is the difference between success and failure.
- There is a strong affinity between the criminal and the conqueror.
- When men cease to fight — they cease to be — Men.
- To be right is to be natural, and to be natural is to be right.
- The crown is for him who takes it and puts it on.
- Napoleon was Darwin on horseback.
- Women shed tears; Men shed blood. Cowards serve masters. Bold men make themselves Masters.
- Government is founded on property, property is founded on conquest, and conquest is founded on Power — and Power is founded on brain and brawn — on Organic Animality.
- Every man’s hand is against every other man: except where living individuals have formed temporary co-partnerships. When one partner breaks the mutual agreement, then the Combine is necessarily dissolved, and all become enemies — as before.
- Disobedience is the stamp of the hero.
- Failure is not only disgrace, but practical proof of organic incompetence.
- All men who would obtain freedom must obtain wealth
- He who is without wealth amidst unlimited quantities of it, is either a coward, a born slave, or a lunatic; and no self-respecting woman should marry such an imbecile.
- When passing through the Valley of Humiliation, slaves and dastards, exposing their sores, sob aloud for consolation and sympathy. Brave men stand apart and ponder vengeance or conquest.
- The essence of slavery is that it takes from the producer all he produces, except just enough to keep the producer in working condition.
- Tremendous indeed is the occult influence of sex-love upon the evolution of organic life. Love and glory, fidelity, emulation, resolution, beauty, strength, and courage are directly inspired by sex-passions.
- Nothing so lowers a lover in a virile maiden’s estimation, than for him to be ‘whipped’ in a personal encounter with a rival.
- The best bid a man can make for the admiration of any women (even the most pious) is a display of undaunted physical prowess.
- Women of vanquished races are usually very prone to wed with the men who have slaughtered their kindred in battle.
- This world is too peaceful, too acquiescent, too tame. It is a circumcised world. Nay! — a castrated world! It must be made fiercer, before it can become grander and better and — more natural.
- Unfitness for war is unfitness for existence.
[edit] Rival Caesars (1903)
- Co-written with Will H. Dilg under the joint pseudonym Desmond Dilg
- Two things greater Than all things are; And the first is love And the second is war. (Poem at begining of novel)
- The reason there are no great poets and writers now is because there are no great deeds or heroes to write about. The world is becoming tame and sad and dreary.
- Why should a man deliberately encircle his mind with needless prison walls. No man can reach highest excellence who puts limits to his own thought.
- It can postpone death, cure disease, release the captive, bring sight to the blind, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, destroy the despot, win the love of women, and procure all reasonable earthly happiness to any man who is not entirely too old. In course of time perhaps it may even resurrect the dead, create life and storm the very gates of heaven, for money is force and force is the essence of the universe.
- Women have ever been the stumbling block and betrayers of ambition.
- Women find little pleasure in the society of women.
- Most women you know are very much interested in the man who is reputed to be deeply admired by other women.
- Those three divine attributes of a perfect woman: goodness, beauty and wealth.
- There is no field of activity for great men without the coming of great wars, great struggles and great revolutions.
- Why do men go to war? Is it not in some way to better their condition. All these new fangled notions that men fight for other things than their own personal advantage is pure delusion. It is the solid things of life that men are ever after, though some of them haven't the courage to admit it. What is love of country but love of it's good things?
- Now what I desire to know is this: If we want to shoot a man and he badly wants to shoot us, why should we not take his property (if we can) as well as his life? Isn't that the way men win a 'fatherland' first? Don't they fight and conquer the original owners and then take the land? Very well then, what is the good of being a soldier, of risking your life, and being a brave man in battle, if you cannot sieze from your beaten enemy, what your greater valor wins and what you stand badly in need of?
- What does it matter whether millions of semi-brainless beings curse or bless my memory? It is equally one to me whether they hang my bones in chains like they did the bones of Cromwell, or build a pyramid of stone over my mouldering coffin. Today only do I regard. Today I know. Today is mine. Today I wish to be something.
- Good or bad I propose to be something great!
[edit] Quotes about Desmond
- The substance of this book, as it is expressed in the editor's preface, is that to measure "right" by the false philosophy of the Hebrew prophets and "weepful" Messiahs is madness. Right is not the offspring of doctrine, but of power. All laws, commandments, or doctrines as to not doing to another what you do not wish done to you, have no inherent authority whatever, but receive it only from the club, the gallows, and the sword. A man truly free is under no obligation to obey any injunction, human or divine. Obedience is the sign of the degenerate. Disobedience is the stamp of the hero. Men should not be bound by moral rules invented by their foes. The whole world is a slippery battlefield. Ideal justice demands that the vanquished should be exploited, emasculated, and scorned. The free and brave may seize the world. And, therefore, there should be eternal war for life, for land, for love, for women, for power, and for gold. (Something similar was said a few years ago by the celebrated and refined academician, Vogüé.) The earth and its treasures is "booty for the bold." The author has evidently by himself, independently of Nietzsche, come to the same conclusions which are professed by the new artists.
- Leo Tolstoy on the philosophy of Might Is Right in What Is Art? (1897)
