Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | The most powerful figment of the imagination is public opinion
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"The most powerful figment of the imagination is public opinion: no one knows exactly who makes it, no one has ever met it personally, but everyone lets themselves be tyrannized by it!"
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Aldous Huxley | I believe that the world’s rulers
„Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large-scale biological and atomic war—in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.“
Aldous Huxley
Prof. Steven Weinberg | The International Space Station is an orbital turkey
"The International Space Station is an orbital turkey....No important science has come out of it. I could almost say no science has come out of it. And I would go beyond that and say that the whole manned spaceflight program, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value."
Prof. Steven Weinberg
Truman Show | We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented
Mike Michaelson : Christof, let me ask you, why do you think that Truman has never come close to discovering the true nature of his world until now?
Christof : We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that.
Truman Show
Brian Cox | There is absolutely no basis at all for thinking the world is flat
“There is absolutely no basis at all for thinking the world is flat. Nobody in human history, as far as I know, has thought the world was flat. The Greeks measured the radius of the Earth. I cannot conceive of a reason why anybody would think the world is flat. There are interesting bits of physics that tell you you live on a spinning planet and one of them is called the Coriolis force, which is the force that's responsible for causing storm systems to rotate on the planet. So when you see those beautiful pictures of storms spinning around and rotating, the reason for that is that we live on a spinning planet. It's probably the most nonsensical suggestion that a thinking human being could possibly make. It is drivel.”
Brian Edward Cox
Max Planck | Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind
"Anybody who has been seriously engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with."
Max Planck
Max Goldt | This newspaper is an organ of infamy
"This newspaper is an organ of infamy. It is wrong to read it. Someone who contributes to this newspaper is absolutely unacceptable socially. It would be wrong to be friendly or even polite to one of its editors. One must be as unkind to them as the law will just allow. They are bad people who do wrong."
Max Goldt
Marcia Angell | It is simply no longer possible
“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as editor of The New England Journal of Medicine”
Marcia Angell
Richard Horton | The case against science is straightforward
“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness”
Richard Horton
Michio Kaku | Why do we think that?
"Why do we think that? Because we have a theory called string theory, it is fantastic it is incredible. It has astounded the world of mathematics, and physics and now you can't move in the physics world without bumping into somebody who wants to talk about the 10th Dimension the 11th Dimension the Multiverse hyperspace time travel. All the things that were once considered science fiction are now centerpiece in our understanding of the nature of everything."
Dr. Michio Kaku
George A. Keysworth | All government agencies lie part of the time
"All government agencies lie part of the time, but NASA is the only one I've ever encountered that does so routinely. "
George A. Keyworth
George Francis Rayner Ellis | People need to be aware
"People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations….For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations….You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that."
George Francis Rayner Ellis
Leo Tolstoi | There is something in the human spirit that will survive
"There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes."
Leo Tolstoi
Theodore J. Kaczynski | These engineered human
"These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they most certainly will not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals."
Theodore J. Kaczynski
Alejandro Jodorowsky | irds born in a cage think flying is an illness
"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness."
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Walter Rathenau | Approximately 300 men determine the fate of this world
"Approximately 300 men that know each other and that appoint their successors themselves determine the fate of this world. Their power exists in absolute confidentiality."
Walter Rathenau
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach | Happy slaves are the bitterest enemies of freedom
"Happy slaves are the bitterest enemies of freedom."
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
Erich Mielke | Fear, is the most effective driving force of human action
"Fear, is the most effective driving force of human action".
Erich Mielke (Allegedly)
José Luis Sampedro Sáez | They govern us through fear
"They govern us through fear."
José Luis Sampedro Sáez
Vince Ebert | They would become afraid of something else virtually overnight
"I'm pretty sure: if the climate change thing was miraculously solved, many Germans wouldn't breathe a sigh of relief. They would become afraid of something else virtually overnight."
Vince Ebert
Gerald G. Grosz | We just live in an open psychiatric ward
"We just live in an open psychiatric ward, the most serious cases sit on the government bench, the offspring stick on the streets or smear pictures. All of them would probably be better off in the padded cell and yes the world would be saved."
Gerald G. Grosz
Ernst Reinhardt | It takes courage to seek the truth
"It takes courage to seek the truth without knowing if you can bear it."
Ernst Reinhardt
David Graeber | We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth
"We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth. It is cosmically unlikely that the developed world will choose to end its orgy of fossil energy consumption, and the Third World its suicidal consumption of landscape. Until such time as Homo Sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along."
David Graeber
Ludwig von Mises | Nothing can make a demagogue more popular today
"Nothing can make a demagogue more popular today than when he repeatedly calls for sharp taxes against the rich [...] Wealth levies and high income taxes on the larger incomes are quite extraordinarily popular with the masses who do not have to pay them."
Ludwig von Mises
Roland Baader | Ecologism is a decay product of Marxism
"Ecologism is (among quite a few other ism) a decay product of Marxism. The failed "impoverishment thesis" is replaced by the eco- and climate catastrophe. The goal is the extinction of capitalism - and thus of Western freedom."
Roland Baader
John Lennon | The more real you get the more unreal the world gets
"The more real you get the more unreal the world gets."
John Lennon
Tony Benn | I think there are two ways in which people are controlled
"I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all, frighten people, and secondly, demoralise them. An educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern. And I think there’s an element in the thinking of some people... ‘We don’t want people to be educated, healthy and confident, because they would get out of control."
Tony Benn
Joseph Goebbels | According to the idea of the NSDAP, we are the German left
"According to the idea of the NSDAP [Nazi party], we are the German left. Nothing is more hateful to us than the right-wing national ownership block."
Joseph Goebbels
Edwin Grant Conklin | Dictators seek to control men’s thoughts
“Dictators seek to control men’s thoughts as well as their bodies and so they attempt to dictate science, education and religion. But dictated education is usually propaganda, dictated history is often mythology, dictated science is pseudo-science.”
Edwin Grant Conklin
Dara O’Briain | Science knows it doesn’t know everything
"Science knows it doesn't know everything; otherwise, it'd stop. But just because science doesn't know everything doesn't mean you can fill in the gaps with whatever fairy tale most appeals to you."
Dara O'Briain
P Diddy | Donald Trump is a friend of mine
"Donald Trump is a friend of mine, and he works very hard"
P Diddy (who was born Sean Combs)
Donald Trump | I love Diddy, You know he’s a good friend of mine
"I love Diddy, You know he’s a good friend of mine, he’s a good guy. Is he a good guy?"
Aubrey O'Day: "I don't want to answer that question,"
Trump said he was "going to stick up for him," adding, "Well, I think he's a good guy."
Donald Trump | Aubrey O'Day
Montagu Norman | Capital must protect itself in every possible way
"Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished."
Montagu Norman
