This is the "quote of the day" on this site. Have you ever read a book that has changed your way of thinking, changed your way of doing something, or even changed your life?
Throughout history we have seen many writers, philosophers, painters, and thinkers who have spent their days - and life - portraying and displaying their ideas about - and faith - in something. Some of the well-known authors like Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu, Emile de Chatalet, from the time of the French Revolution of 1789, were French enlightenment writers, whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
One of the paintings and stories from art and history that I have studied, that has made a lasting impression on me, is the painting by Jacques-Louis David of
Marat from 1793. It has impressed me how a writer lives for his beliefs, and dies for them. Jean-Paul Marat, who spent much time in his bath tub because of a skin disease, was murdered while bathing by Charlotte Corday - a Girordin sympathiser, who came from an impoverished royalist family. She was guillotined herself for her deed.These people were willing to die for what they fought for.
(Madame Marie Tussaud claimed that the painter David used her wax model of Marat when he painted this painting. She was saved from the guillotine herself, and employed to make death masks of important revolutionary figures like King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, Marat, and others)
I may not agree with all of their ideas, but I admire their passion. They wanted to turn the brains of the people by getting their ideas out there.
The written word can be both wonderful and dangerous. Choose carefully what you read.
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