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“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
— Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)
You can certainly destroy enough of humanity so that only the greatest act of faith can persuade you that what’s left will be human.
— J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), American physicist
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
— John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer
‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and
Hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
— William Shakespeare
…. always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice and corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy for the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.
— Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), American newspaper publisher; statement of policy on his retirement, April 10, 1907
“Power always has to be kept in check. Power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.”
— Sen. William Proxmire (1915-2005)
You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.
— Ho Chi Minh (1890?-1969), North Vietnamese leader
“Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.”
— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
The history of the human race, and each individual’s experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.
— Mark Twain (1835-1910), American writer
It is sad that man is not intelligent enough to solve problems without killing …. The present world crisis can be solved only by a general human revolution against outdated concepts …. Man is not a blood-thirsty animal, and war is only due to the greed and lust for power of relatively small groups, the conspiracy of the few against the many.
— Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893-1986), American biochemist, Nobel Prize 1937
