On Utopia

When the perfect order prevails, the world is like a home shared by all. Leaders are capable and virtuous. Everyone loves and respects their own parents and children as well as the parents and children of others. The old are cared for, adults have jobs, children are nourished and educated. There is a means of support for all those who are disabled or find themselves alone in the world. Everyone has an appropriate role to play in the family and society. Devotion to public duty leaves no place for idleness. Scheming for ill gain is unknown. Sharing displaces selfishness and materialism.
— Confucius

“Without the Utopians of other times, men would still live in caves.…..Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities.
— Anatole France

“It is no longer enough to point out what we don’t like, we have to work out ‘What sort of society do we want?”
— Sheila Rowbotham

“The world is now too dangerous for anything less than utopia.
—R. Buckminster Fuller

“The first arresting fact about the Utopians is that they were practical enough to try putting their ideas to the test of fact. Owing to the greater opportunities offered by a New Country, many of these trials were made in the United States. The familiar names of Brookfarm, New Hope, New Harmony, New Enterprise, record these efforts, and the personalities of Hawthorne, Horace Greeley, Ripley, Albert Brisbane, Henry James Sr., adorn a movement of ideas which continue to live, though in much modified form, in the modern world. Contrary to usual belief, the actual settlements did not all come to an end from incompetence or quarrels or unworkability. Some even grew rich and became the object of their nonsocialized neighbors’ envy…..”
— Jacques Barzun

Life without idealism is empty indeed.
— Pearl S. Buck

Tags: Anatole France, Confucius, Jacques Barzun, Pearl S. Buck, R. Buckminster Fuller, Sheila Rowbotham, Utopia, Utopians