Journalism possesses in itself the potentiality of becoming one of the most frightful monstrosities and delusions that have ever cursed mankind. This horrible transformation will occur at the exact instant at which journalists realise that they can become an aristocracy.
Gilbert K. Chesterton, “The New Priests” (1901).
The secret of getting along with people is that of postponing quarrels.
Murray Leinster, “Exploration Team” (1956), as it appeared in Isaac Asimov, editor, The Hugo Winners, Vol. 1, p. 115.
Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.
Octavia E. Butler, The Parable of the Sower (1993), Chapter 10.
Everything not forbidden is compulsory.
The slogan over the entrance to an ant colony in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone (1938), chapter 13.
Every one belongs to every one else.
Government slogan in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World (1932).
Listen, this whole system of yours could be on fire and I couldn’t even turn on the kitchen tap without filling out a twenty-seven B stroke six … bloody paperwork.
Harry Tuttle, a character in Brazil (1985) played by Robert De Niro. Film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown.