Posts
Gilbert Keith Chesterton | Feminism is a muddled idea
in Gilbert Keith Chesterton"Feminism is a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands."
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Fjodor Dostojewski | The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping
in Fjodor Dostojewski"The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison."
Fjodor Dostojewski
Barack Obama | Ordinary men and women are too small-minded
in Barack Obama"Ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign."
Barack Obama
Napoleon Bonaparte | A higher power is pushing me to a goal
in Napoleon Bonaparte"A higher power is pushing me to a goal i don’t know. Until it is reached, i will be invulnerable, unshakeable. As soon as i’m no longer needed, one fly will be enough to knock me down."
Napoleon Bonaparte
George Bernard Shaw | We want a few mad people now
in George Bernard Shaw"We want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us!"
George Bernard Shaw
Tom Clancy | What the government is good at is collecting taxes
in Thomas Leo Clancy Jr."What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else."
Tom Clancy
Erich Fromm | Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable
in Erich Fromm"Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth."
Erich Fromm
Klaus Kinski | If the government was replaced by the mafia
in Klaus Kinski"If the government was replaced by the mafia we'd probably have half as much corruption and twice as much fun."
Klaus Kinski
Benjamin Constant | When you pay the representatives of the people
in Benjamin Constant"When you pay the representatives of the people, you do not arouse in them an interest in performing their functions conscientiously; rather, you interest them only in continuing to secure for themselves the exercise of those functions."
Benjamin Constant
Voltaire | men can be influenced by making them think for themselves
in Voltaire"Controversy never convinced any man; men can be influenced by making them think for themselves, by seeming to doubt with them, by leading them as if by the hand, without their perceiving it. A good book lent to them, which they read at leisure, produces upon them surer effects, because they do not then blush to be subjugated by the superior reason of an antagonist."
Voltaire
John Edgar Hoover | a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists
in John Edgar Hoover"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent."
John Edgar Hoover
Viktor Emil Frankl | The truth – that love is the ultimate and the highest goal
in Viktor Emil Frankl"A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life, I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.[...] Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true."
Viktor Emil Frankl
Ayn Rand | You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences
in Ayn Rand„Neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive by any random means, as a parasite, a moocher or a looter, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment—so he is free to seek his happiness in any irrational fraud, any whim, any delusion, any mindless escape from reality, but not free to succeed at it beyond the range of the moment nor to escape the consequences.“
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand | He is free to evade reality
in Ayn Rand"He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see."
Ayn Rand
Arno Gruen | While those who can no longer bear the loss of human values
in Arno Gruen"While those who can no longer bear the loss of human values are considered insane, those who have separated from their human roots are certified normal."
Arno Gruen
Thomas von Aquin | The greatest kindness
in Thomas von Aquin"The greatest kindness one can render to any man consists in leading him from error to truth."
Thomas von Aquin
Daniel Dennett | There’s simply no polite way
in Daniel Dennett"There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion."
Daniel Dennett
Thomas von Aquin | He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral
in Thomas von Aquin"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust."
Thomas von Aquin
Bill Hicks | a productive member of society
in Bill Hicks"If you want to understand a society, take a good look at the drugs it uses. And what can this tell you about American culture? Well, look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in."
Bill Hicks
Friedrich Nietzsche | We live in a system
in Friedrich Nietzsche"We live in a system in which one must either be a wheel or get crushed by the wheels."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Edward Osborne Wilson | We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom
in Edward Osborne Wilson"We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely."
Edward Osborne Wilson
Ayn Rand | The smallest minority on earth
in Ayn Rand"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
Ayn Rand
Erich Fromm | The holders of authority and those who take advantage of it
in Erich Fromm"The holders of authority and those who take advantage of it must convince people of this fiction and put to sleep their realistic, that is to say, critical, faculty of thought. Every thinking person knows the methods of propaganda, methods by which critical judgment is destroyed and the mind is lulled until it submits to clichés that stultify people because they make them dependent, depriving them of the ability to trust their eyes and their judgment. This function, in which they believe, blinds them to reality."
Erich Fromm
Søren Kierkegaard | There are two ways to be fooled
in Søren Kierkegaard"There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true."
Søren Kierkegaard
Karl Jaspers | Where is the Federal Republic headed?
in Karl Jaspers"Every four years it elects the Bundestag. The lists or persons submitted to it by the parties are already elected beforehand by the parties. The process of this hidden preliminary election, which is the actual election, is convoluted; the names for the constituency lists and the state lists are not drawn up in the same way. But it is always the party committees, never the people, who would be involved in this decisive beginning. One must be a party member in order to participate somewhere in this election and to be able to be set up. Even those who are party members, as such, have little effect in the nominations. The decisive factor is the party hierarchy and bureaucracy.[...] Even the elections are not really elections, but acclamations to the party oligarchy. [....] The parties, which should by no means be the state, make themselves, withdrawn from the life of the people, the state [....] The governance of the state is in the hands of the party oligarchy [....] Their position, not limited by any tension to other power, seduces [....] the parties to want to occupy the seats by their own people. This is the reward for party work, the spoils of victory after the electoral battle [....]"
Karl Jaspers
Nikola Tesla | My brain is only a receiver
in Nikola Tesla"My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists."
Nikola Tesla
Ljudmila Ulitzkaya | Whoever comes to power has passed through a filter
in Ljudmila Ulitzkaya"Whoever comes to power has passed through a filter that does not let decent people pass."
Ljudmila Ulitzkaya