The working of great administrations is mainly the result of a vast mass of routine, petty malice, self-interest, carelessness and sheer mistake. Only a residual fraction is thought.
Giorgio de Santillana, The Crime of Galileo (1958).
The mind celebrates a little triumph whenever it can formulate a truth.
George Santayana, The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress; Vol. IV, Reason in Art (1906).
Henry David Thoreau, “Slavery in Massachusetts” (1854).
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.
F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, p. 83.
Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.
It would be different if the government were a team, but in fact they’re a loose confederation of warring tribes.
Sir Ian Whitworth, Permanent Secretary for Health, Yes, Prime Minister, “The Smoke Screen” (S1; E3: Thu, Jan 23, 1986), as performed by John Barron; written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn.
Behavior is imitated, then abstracted into play, formalized into drama and story, crystallized into myth and codified into religion — and only then criticized in philosophy, and provided, post-hoc, with rational underpinnings.
Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning (1999), p. 78.