quotations about neutrality
I don't represent anyone's opinion. Not even my own. I'm neutral.
LJUPKA CVETANOVA
The New Land
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity toward other nations.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Farewell Address, American Daily Advertiser, September 19, 1796
Nor must we always be neutral where our neighbors are concerned: for tho' meddling is a fault, helping is a duty.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
at the signing of a charter establishing the German Peace Corps, June 24, 1963
You can't be neutral on a moving train.
HOWARD ZINN
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
ELIE WIESEL
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, New York Times, December 11, 1986
Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.
G. K. CHESTERTON
The Speaker, December 15, 1900
Neutrality is selfishness.
MARGARET COXE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Personally, I think neutral is just another way of saving your own ass at the expense of someone else's.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Narcissus in Chains
Men who profess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the common interest of their fellow subjects; and act with independence to that constitution into which they are incorporated. The safety of the whole requires our joint endeavours. When this is at stake, the indifferent are not properly a part of the community; or rather are like dead limbs, which are an encumbrance to the body, instead of being of use to it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Freeholder, February 3, 1716
A bridge has no allegiance to either side.
LES COLEMAN
attributed, Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists
Most people understand the need for neutrality. The real struggle is not between the right and the left -- that's where most people assume -- but it's between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks. And no side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on either of those qualities.
JIMMY WALES
"How a ragtag band created Wikipedia", TED Talk, July 2005
The problem with neutrality is as follows. Neutrality seems to be an important condition, because it makes a great difference to the outcomes of a procedure whether it is neutral or not.
THOMAS CHRISTIANO
Political Equality
The statement that neutrality is impossible is, however, often an awkward formulation for another idea: namely, that neutrality is always wrong.
ANDREW GRAHAM
Neutrality and Impartiality: The University and Political Commitment
A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both, as his honest interest leads him.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
Information smacks of safe neutrality; it is simple, helpful heaping of unassailable facts. In that innocent guise, its the perfect starting point for a technocratic political agenda that wants as little exposure for its objectives as possible. After all, what can anyone say against information?
THEODORE ROSZAK
The Cult of Information
We stand apart, unembroiled, conscious of our own principles, conscious of what we hope and purpose.... Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt.
WOODROW WILSON
address to the Daughters of the American Revolution, October 11, 1915
Neutral men are the devil's allies.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Neutrality is important to the self-image of the modern scientific tradition. Think, for example, of the rhetoric of science as a universal community, a universal culture, and a unifying humanistic force cutting across barriers of culture, race, religion and gender, generating theoretical products that are of benefit to all and threatening to none.
HUGH LACEY
Is Science Value Free?
Neutrality may be useful, but it's useful like eunuchs are useful. Once you cut off their balls they grow big and strong, but you can never be sure if they will serve the harem or the master.
VAUGHN SHERMAN
Sasha Plotkin's Deceit