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    It is a dangerous and idle dream to think that the state can become rule by philosophers turned kings or scientists turned commissars. For if philosophers become kings or scientists commissars, they become politicians, and the powers given to the state are powers given to men who are rulers of states, men subject to all the limitations and temptations of their dangerous craft. Unless this is borne in mind, there will be a dangerous optimistic tendency to sweep aside doubts and fears as irrelevant, since, in the state that the projectors have in mind, power will be exercised by men of a wisdom and degree of moral virtue that we have not yet seen. It won't. It will be exercised by men who will be men first and rulers next and scientists and saints long after.

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A recent conversation: Dubya: Look at the clock, time is racing! Cheney: That's the second hand, George.

A recent conversation: Dubya: Look at the clock, time is racing! Cheney: That's the second hand, George.

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Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

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So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a read more

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.

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If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed read more

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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Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.

Men resort to talking only when they haven't the power to enforce their convictions upon others.

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What is hateful to thyself do not do to another. That is the whole Law, the rest is Commentary.

What is hateful to thyself do not do to another. That is the whole Law, the rest is Commentary.

by Hillel Found in: Politics / government Quotes,
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Why do grandparents and grandchildren get along so well? They have the same enemy -- the mother.

Why do grandparents and grandchildren get along so well? They have the same enemy -- the mother.

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None can love freedom but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license, which never hath more scope than read more

None can love freedom but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license, which never hath more scope than under tyrants.

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In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also is despotic governments: in the former, because they are read more

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also is despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.

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