A cult is a religion with no political power.
—Tom Wolfe
Stripped of ethical rationalizations and philosophical pretensions, a crime is anything that a group in power chooses to prohibit.
—Freda Adler
Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is.
—Jean Anouilh
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him or to him.
—Thomas Edison
Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person.
—Ethel Mumford
There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, “That person I see is a savage monster”; instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do. If you ask the ceo of some major corporation what he does, he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving twenty hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees. But then you take a look at what the corporation does, the effect of its legal structure, the vast inequalities in pay and conditions, and you see the reality is something far different.
—Noam Chomsky
A thousand influences constantly press a working man down into a passive role. He does not act; he is acted upon. He feels himself the slave of mysterious authority and has a firm conviction that “they” will never allow him to do this, that, and the other. Once when I was hop-picking I asked the sweated pickers (they earn something under sixpence an hour) why they did not form a union. I was told immediately that “they” would never allow it. Who were “they”? I asked. Nobody seemed to know, but evidently “they” were omnipotent.
—George Orwell
During the contest for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, John F. Kennedy visited a mine in West Virginia. “Is it true you’re the son of one of our wealthiest men?” asked one of the miners there. Kennedy admitted that this was true. “Is it true that you’ve never wanted for anything and had everything you wanted?” “I guess so,” Kennedy replied. “Is it true you’ve never done a day’s work with your hands all your life?” Kennedy nodded. “Well, let me tell you this,” said the miner. “You haven’t missed a thing.”
—Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes
Is it altogether a Utopian dream that once in history a ruling class might be willing to make the great surrender and permit social change to come about without hatred, turmoil, and waste of human life?
—Upton Sinclair
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
—John Donne
I remember a medicine man in Africa who said to me almost with tears in his eyes: "We have no dreams anymore since the British are in the country." When I asked him why, he answered, "The District Commissioner knows everything."
—Carl Jung
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
—Samuel Johnson
Things could change so entirely, in a heartbeat; the world could be made entirely anew, because someone was kind.
—Jo Baker in Longbourn
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.
—Edward Abbey
The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.
—Umberto Eco