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.
The fundamental maxim of free men is to live in love towards our actions, and to let live in the understanding of the other person’s will.
Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom: A Modern Philosophy of Life Developed by Scientific Methods (1916), Chapter Nine.
How come all these other countries got better ‘Donald Trumps’ than we did?
Bridget Phetasy concluding her coverage of President Elect Javier of Argentina, on “Two Americas, One Cup,” the 130th episode of her podcast Dumpster Fire (December 3, 2023).
There is no security of property, where a despotic authority can possess itself of the property of the subject against his consent. Neither is there such security, where the consent is merely nominal and delusive.
Jean-Baptiste Say, A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Chapter XIV.
Terrifying the population is what our government does best, and most avidly. Officials regularly gin up irrational fears about COVID, or “white supremacy,” or Vladimir Putin — or a dozen other topics as part of a pretty obvious control strategy. It’s not as if these people mind scaring you; they want to scare you. And they do it every day.
Tucker Carlson, Tucker on X, Ep. 42 (November 29, 2023).