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    If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed in winning the support of their fellow citizens and converting them to the endorsement of policies that bring and preserve prosperity, the cause of mankind and civilization is hopeless. There is no other means to safeguard a propitious development of human affairs than to make the masses of inferior people adopt the ideas of the elite. This has to be achieved by convincing them. It cannot be accomplished by a despotic regime that instead of enlightening the masses beats them into submission. In the long run the ideas of the majority, however detrimental they may be, will carry on. The future of mankind depends on the ability of the elite to influence public opinion in the right direction.

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There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

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It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which read more

It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

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What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to read more

What is the use of physicians like myself trying to help parents to bring up children healthy and happy, to have them killed in such numbers for a cause that is ignoble?

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All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks read more

All lasting change is incremented, based on unfolding traditions and developing institutions. Revolutionary upheavals may change how the world looks but seldom changes the way the world works. Lasting historical change comes not through tidal waves but through the irresistible creeping tide.

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I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of read more

I think most historians will agree that the part played by impulses of selfish, individual aggression in the holocausts of history was small; first and foremost, the slaughter was meant as an offering to the gods, to king and country, or the future happiness of mankind. The crimes of Caligula shrink to insignificance compared to the havoc wrought by Torquemada. The number of victims of robbers, highwaymen, rapists, gangsters and other criminals at any period of history is negligible compared to the massive numbers of those cheerfully slain in the name of the true religion, just policy, or correct ideology.

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The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is read more

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.

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The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and read more

The only way you can do that [decrease taxes, balance the budget, and increase military spending] is with mirrors, and that's what it would take.

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War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

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Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of read more

Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

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