Friedrich Nietzsche | for what one has forbidden so far as a matter of principle has always been — truth alone.
"for what one has forbidden so far as a matter of principle has always been—truth alone."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Zitate
Milan Kundera | The first step in liquidating a people
"The first step in liquidating a people, is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster."
Milan Kundera
C.S. Lewis | I do not like the pretensions of Government
“I do not like the pretensions of Government -- the grounds on which it demands my obedience -- to be pitched too high. I don't like the medicine-man's magical pretensions nor the Bourbon's Divine Right. This is not solely because I disbelieve in magic and in Bossuet's Politique. I believe in God, but I detest theocracy. For every Government consists of mere men and is, strictly viewed, a makeshift; if it adds to its commands 'Thus saith the Lord', it lies, and lies dangerously. On just the same ground I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in. In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent. They 'cash in'. It has been magic, it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. Perhaps the real scientists may not think much of the tyrants' 'science'-- they didn't think much of Hitler's racial theories or Stalin's biology. But they can be muzzled.”
C.S. Lewis
Richard P. Feynman | To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven
"To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell. And so it is with science."
Richard P. Feynman
André Gide | It is better to be hated for what you are
"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."
André Gide
Julius Evola | The inner victory against the deepest forces
"The inner victory against the deepest forces that surface in one’s consciousness during times of tension and mortal danger is a triumph in an external sense, but it is also the sign of a victory of the spirit against itself"
Julius Evola
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce | ELECTOR, n. One who enjoys the sacred privilege
"ELECTOR, n. One who enjoys the sacred privilege of voting for the man of another man's choice."
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Terence McKenna | We are at war with our own nature
"We are, literally, a schizophrenic species. We are at war with our own nature"
Terence McKenna
Gilbert Keith Chesterton | Feminism is a muddled idea
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"If the government was replaced by the mafia we'd probably have half as much corruption and twice as much fun."
Klaus Kinski
Voltaire | men can be influenced by making them think for themselves
"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
"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
"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
„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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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