All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.

The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.

The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most read more

It is the very essence of despotism that it can never afford to fail. This is what distinguishes it most vitally from democracy. In a despotism there is no organized opposition which can take over the power when the Administration in office has failed. All the eggs are in one basket. Everything is staked on one coterie of men. When the going is good, they move more quickly and efficiently than democracies, where the opposition has to be persuaded and conciliated. But when they lose, there are no reserves. There are no substitutes on the bench ready to go out on the field and carry the ball. That is why democracies with the habit of party government have outlived all other forms of government in the modern world. They have, as it were, at least two governments always at hand, and when one fails they have the other. They have diversified the risks of mortality, corruption, and stupidity which pervade all human affairs. They have remembered that the most beautifully impressive machine cannot run for very long unless there is available a complete supply of spare parts.

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for read more

I met someone on the street who said wasn't it great that we're going to have a movie star for president, that it was so Pop, and (laughs) when you think about it like that, it is great, it's so American.

Sometimes you wonder how you got on this mountain. But sometimes you wonder, "How will I get off?".

Sometimes you wonder how you got on this mountain. But sometimes you wonder, "How will I get off?".

The right to be heard does not autmatically include the right to be taken seriously.

The right to be heard does not autmatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that read more

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

In our own time we have seen domination spread over the social landscape to a point where it is beyond read more

In our own time we have seen domination spread over the social landscape to a point where it is beyond all human control. Compared to this stupendous mobilization of materials, of wealth, of human intellect, of human labor for the single goal of domination, all other recent human achievements pale to almost trivial significance. Our art, science, medicine, literature, music and "charitable" acts seem like mere droppings from a table on which gory feasts on the spoils of conquest have engaged the attention of a system whose appetite for rule is utterly unrestrained.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying read more

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.