Category: Thought

No state would ever dare to patronize such men as Plato and Schopenhauer. And why? Simply because the state is always afraid of them. They tell the truth. . . . Consequently, the man who submits to be a philosopher in the pay of the state must also submit to being looked upon by the state as one who has waived his claim to pursue the truth into all its fastnesses. So long as he holds his place, he must acknowledge something still higher than the truth — and that is the state. . . .

Friedrich Nietzsche, “Schopenhauer als Erzieher,” as translated by H. L. Mencken, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (Third Edition, 1913), Chapter XII, Education.

The state tells lies in all the tongues of good and evil; and whatever it says it lies — and whatever it has it has stolen. Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth, and bites easily.

Friedrich W. Nietzsche, as translated by Walter Kaufmann in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “The New Idol.”

State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it tells lies too: and this lie crawls out of its mouth: “I, the state, am the people.”

Friedrich W. Nietzsche, as translated by Walter Kaufmann in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “The New Idol.”

I heartily approve of her campaign to beautify America. It would be greatly improved if the First Family were kept out of sight.

Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar (1968).

What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person.

Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human? (1938).

When I used to speak of the lunatic fringe, I didn’t know I was going to be head of it.

Oscar Levant, The Memoirs of an Amnesiac (1965).

A human being must have occupation, if he or she is not to become a nuisance to the world.

Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human? (1938).

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you will find the real tinsel underneath.

Oscar Levant, as quoted in Theodor Reik‘s Jewish Wit (1962), p. 104.

The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art.

Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891).

If with the literate I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.

Dorothy Parker, in Life, (June 2, 1927) p. 13.