Jean Anouilh Quotes
The only immorality is not to do what one has to do when one has to do it.
Anouilh, Jean. Becket: or, The Honor of God. Translated by Lucienne Hill, Coward-McCann, 1960.
This quotation is classic in that it illustrates a fundamental difference between a political and religious view of rights. Politically a citizen is entitled to rights with no requirement or condition of responsibility. Politically, we may desire and applaud or even reward responsible behavior, but we may not condition the rights on someone’s version of responsible use of the rights. Indeed, the real test is if people have rights who are generally thought to be irresponsible. See {633640} .
On this day there was a combination of weather and forest fires in New England and the day darkened markedly. Many legislators thought that the Day of Judgment was upon them and wanted to adjourn. Davenport persuaded them to continue.
There was virtually no subject that Eleanor Roosevelt would not write about—politics, philosophy, human relations. And she would lead people to examine some of the most fundamental values that Americans held then without thinking much about them.
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. His plays are less experimental than those of his contemporaries, having clearly organized plot and eloquent dialogue. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.
