It is the invariable habit of bureaucracies, at all times and everywhere, to assume...that every citizen is a criminal. Their one apparent purpose, pursued with a relentless and furious diligence, is to convert the assumption into a fact. They hunt endlessly for proofs, and, when proofs are lacking, for mere suspicions. The moment they become aware of a definite citizen, John Doe, seeking what is his right under the law, they begin searching feverishly for an excuse for withholding it from him.
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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.
All revolutions...have been led by persons who knew oppression well, but not on their own skin.
All revolutions...have been led by persons who knew oppression well, but not on their own skin.
The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of read more
The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
This current administration cannot even bring home a soldier from Iraq and they talk about putting a man on the read more
This current administration cannot even bring home a soldier from Iraq and they talk about putting a man on the moon.. didn't the Democrats whose candidates were elected in the last
3 presidential elections do that?
There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are read more
There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would read more
No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would you replace it with?" When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with?
When the people have no tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one.
When the people have no tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime read more
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
You shall judge a man by his foes as well as by his friends.
