Category: Thought

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable what then?

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-​Four (1949), Part 1, Chapter Seven.

A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.

Richard Feynman, “The Development of the Space-​Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics,” Nobel Lecture (December 11, 1965).

The columns of figures set out in governmental economic plans express claims to economic powers that are only imaginary. But belief in such powers may be induced by carrying out with great emphasis some fairly extensive economic policies — which cause a certain amount of stress and strain — and pretending that you are thereby putting into effect your economic plan, with all its figures.

Michael Polanyi, The Logic of Liberty: Reflections and Rejoinders (1951), p. 137.

In terms of political logic, I am a mistake, because what I have come to do is in fact stamp out the privileges of politicians.

Javier Milei, as quoted in Maximilan Heath, “Who is Javier Milei, Argentina’s new libertarian president?” Reuters (November 20, 2023).

People need to do their own research about everything. You live in a democracy, make up your own mind. One thing my father told me, people in authority lie. Part of the duty of living in a democracy is to maintain a posture of constant skepticism toward any aggregation of power. “Trusting the experts” is not something you do in a democracy. That’s not a feature of democracy or science; it’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., interviewed by VLAD TV, “Robert F Kennedy Jr Names the CIA Agents Who Killed His Uncle JFK (Part 6),” November 11, 2023.

Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;
Which every wise and vertuous man attains:
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
Cities of men, or head-​strong Multitudes,
Subject himself to Anarchy within,
Or lawless passions in him which he serves.

John Milton, Paradise Regain’d (1671), Book II.