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To come out from under the protective wall of role, habit, and frozen perception, a person must throw himself into a situation of heightened exposure. He must put himself at greater risk to the harm that other people may do to him and to the destructive influence that enlarged experience may have on what he had previously regarded as his enduring core of identity.

— Roberto Mangabeira Unger Plasticity Into Power: Comparative-Historical Studies on the Institutional Conditions of Economic and Military Success (1987)

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More quotes by Roberto Mangabeira Unger

The partnership between the progressive school and the deepened democracy may help to nourish the childlike intensity of ordinary people as they grow older.

Democracy Realizedː The Progressive Alternative (1998)

In history obedience rarely pays; what pays is defiance.

The Left Alternative (2009)

Philosophy is a concentrated deployment of the transgressing facilities of the mind.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

We can, we must, jumble up the categories of reform and revolution, preferring change that, though perforce piecemeal, may, in its cumulative effect, become revolutionary.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

We cannot form and enhance personality without encouraging strong impulse and strong vision in the individual. Such impulse and such vision must seek a collective voice and a social expression.

The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound (2007)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Roberto Mangabeira Unger (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.