Plato: Quote for February 28, 2011

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

-- Plato

Categories: Plato

Pope Pius XI: Quote for February 27, 2011

Justice requires that to lawfully constituted Authority there be given that respect and obedience which is its due; that the laws which are made shall be in wise conformity with the common good; and that, as a matter of conscience all men shall render obedience to these laws.

-- Pope Pius XI

Categories: Pope Pius XI

Rosika Schwimmer: Quote for February 26, 2011

I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family.

-- Rosika Schwimmer

Categories: Rosika Schwimmer

Dick Gregory: Quote for February 25, 2011

Baseball is very big with my people. It figures. It's the only way we can get to shake a bat at a white man without starting a riot.

-- Dick Gregory

Categories: Dick Gregory

Nathaniel Branden: Quote for February 24, 2011

In any culture, subculture, or family in which belief is valued above thought, and self-surrender is valued above self-expression, and conformity is valued above integrity, those who preserve their self-esteem are likely to be heroic exceptions.

-- Nathaniel Branden

Categories: Nathaniel Branden

Ayn Rand: Quote for February 23, 2011

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.

-- Ayn Rand

Categories: Ayn Rand

Rahm Emanuel: Quote for February 22, 2011

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

-- Rahm Emanuel

Categories: Rahm Emanuel

Richard Nixon: Quote for February 21, 2011

Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.

-- Richard Nixon

Categories: Richard Nixon

W. Somerset Maugham: Quote for February 20, 2011

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.

-- W. Somerset Maugham

Categories: W. Somerset Maugham

Betty Friedan: Quote for February 19, 2011

The problem that has no name - which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities - is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.

-- Betty Friedan

Categories: Betty Friedan

Franz Kafka: Quote for February 18, 2011

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The non-existent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

-- Franz Kafka

Categories: Franz Kafka

Leo Tolstoy: Quote for February 17, 2011

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction.

-- Leo Tolstoy

Categories: Leo Tolstoy

Arianna Huffington: Quote for February 16, 2011

The middle class is teetering on the brink of collapse just as surely as AIG was in the fall of 2009 - only this time, it's not just one giant insurance company (and its banking counterparties) facing disaster, it's tens of millions of hardworking Americans who played by the rules.

-- Arianna Huffington

Categories: Arianna Huffington

Barack Obama: Quote for February 15, 2011

So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

-- Barack Obama

Categories: Barack Obama

Prince Nekhlyudov: Quote for February 14, 2011

I have come here to be with you, Katusha. I have nothing. I have given away my lands. I've given up my friends. I have nothing but the promise of a new life. How can I live, Katusha, until you have forgiven me? How can man can truly live until he has tried to undo some of the wrongs he's done, not only the wrong I did to you, but all the cruelty and injustice of the world that I've been a part of. All I ask is to live again with your forgiveness, and your help, and your love.

-- Prince Nekhlyudov

from: We Live Again (1934)

Frederic March acted as Prince Nekhlyudov

Anna Sten appears in this clip acting as Katusha.

Categories: Prince Nekhlyudov, Frederic March, We Live Again

Marianne Williamson: Quote for February 13, 2011

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-- Marianne Williamson

Categories: Marianne Williamson

Marian Wright Edelman: Quote for February 12, 2011

We are living in a time of unbearable dissonance between promise and performance; between good politics and good policy; between professed and practiced family values; between racial creed and racial deed; between calls for community and rampant individualism and greed; and between our capacity to prevent and alleviate human deprivation and disease and our political and spiritual will to do so.

-- Marian Wright Edelman

Categories: Marian Wright Edelman

George Carlin: Quote for February 11, 2011

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me - they're cramming for their final exam.

-- George Carlin

Categories: George Carlin

Hosni Mubarak: Quote for February 10, 2011

We will continue to fight the scourge of terrorism against humanity and reject the culture of extremism and violence in any form or shape, from whatever source or place, regardless of justifications or motives, being fully aware of their dangers as a plague that threatens the peace and stability of the whole world.

-- Hosni Mubarak

Categories: Hosni Mubarak

John Buchan: Quote for February 9, 2011

There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness.

-- John Buchan

Categories: John Buchan

Adolf Hitler: Quote for February 8, 2011

Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the very first prerequisite for success. This persistence, however, can always and only arise from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain.

-- Adolf Hitler

from: Mein Kampf (1925-1926)

Categories: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Leo Rosten: Quote for February 7, 2011

The purpose of life is not to be happy - but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.

-- Leo Rosten

Categories: Leo Rosten

Dale Carnegie: Quote for February 6, 2011

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

-- Dale Carnegie

Categories: Dale Carnegie

Michel Foucault: Quote for February 5, 2011

The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarities, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).

-- Michel Foucault

Categories: Michel Foucault