Skeptic Quotations

New quotes	Old Quotes	See also	Recommended Links	Recommended Articles	Kiss Principle	Talleyrand	Winston Churchill
Mark Twain	Famous quotes of John Kenneth Galbraith	George Bernard Shaw	Kurt Vonnegut	Oscar Wilde	Authority	Humor	Etc

The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.
-- Samurai Maxim

Mark Twain once pen The War Prayer his probably most caustic attack on a religion (among several others) which became classic. As of yesterday, Mark Twain id bit more likely to live in Canada...

New Quotes

A state that privatizes most of its functions will inevitably defend itself by employing its own people as mercenaries Phillip Bobbit

“There is a problem when the turnover in the United States House of Representatives is lower than it was in the Soviet Politburo.”

NATHANIEL PERSILY, an election law expert
at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Sited fromhttp://realprogress.org/

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class, except Congress."

—Mark Twain

"Perhaps the most serious threat of 'galloping conservatism' is that in a time of crisis it could easily be transformed into full-blown fascism. When people are afraid, they are susceptible to trading away their civil liberties to protect their 'things'. One of the archapostles of conservative economics, Milton Friedman, has already said that, given the choice between preserving American constitutional freedoms and the economic freedom to make a dollar without interference, he would choose economic freedom hands down (Friedman, 1980, Free to Choose, Avon Books, p. xvi). How tragically ironic it would be if conservative Americans bartered away their constitutional liberties to preserve their affluent lifestyles!" (Sine, 1981, 56).

Tom Sine, "The Mustard Seed Conspiracy," 1981

"All governments lie, the muckraker I.F. Stone used to say. They fudge and omit. They bury and muffle inconvenient facts. They do this repeatedly, relentlessly, shamelessly. That's hardly surprising. Why shouldn't they...

[For reporters] there was—and remains—considerable reluctance to invoke what a Times reporter I spoke to called "reportorial authority," which, as he put it, would require that "when the president says the sun rose in the west, we take it upon ourselves to say no."

By Todd Gitlin
In "The great media breakdown"

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

"Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses. ...Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand."

Colin Powell

"Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs". Josef Stalin (1879-1953)

Fascism/corporatism is "an attempt to create a 'modern' version of feudalism by merging the 'corporate' interests with those of the state."

Free Dictionary ( www.thefreedictionary.com )

"If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. ... They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead."

"American fascism will not be really dangerous, until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information..."

"The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

Vice president Wallace in his 1944 Times article

History Channel Corporatism = Fascism

John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes - The Quotations Page

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled sea of thought.
Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.
Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.
Where humor is concerned there are no standards - no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
There is nothing that unfettered chief executives will not do to feather their own nests.
"Some things were never meant to be recycled.'" John Kenneth Galbraith bumper sticker with a picture of George Bush.

Old Quotes ;-)

One of the lessons that we have learned from this recent era is that cowardice comes in small pieces, concessions that might seem insignificant at the time, but that cumulatively have a devastating consequence. We believe, too, that courage also comes slowly at first, when individuals begin to stand up for what’s right -- and that courage, too, can gain a powerful momentum - The Consortium

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.

– Abraham Lincoln

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

James Madison, while a United States Congressman

Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief

KISS principle

How many things are there which I do not want. Socrates
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo DaVinci
Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Lao Tzu
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. E.F. Schumacker
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. Lin Yutang
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination. ~Elbert Hubbard
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap, 1993
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ~Albert Einstein
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. ~Confucius
Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. ~Elise Boulding
To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ~John Burroughs
The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn't simple. ~Doris Janzen Longacre
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results. ~Albert Einstein
Maybe a person's time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food. ~Frank A. Clark
Material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache. ~Philip Wylie
I like to walk about among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty. ~George Santayana, "The Irony of Liberalism"
Live simply is more difficult then simply live.
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. ~Henry David Thoreau
Our affluent society contains those of talent and insight who are driven to prefer poverty, to choose it, rather than submit to the desolation of an empty abundance. ~Michael Harrington
I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them. ~Sherwood Anderson
Remember that in giving any reason at all for refusing, you lay some foundation for a future request. ~Arthur Helps, Essays Written in Intervals of Business, 1841
The true Indian sets no price upon either his property or his labor. His generosity is limited only by his strength and ability. He regards it as an honor to be selected for difficult or dangerous service and would think it shameful to ask for any reward, saying rather: Let the person I serve express his thanks according to his own bringing up and his sense of honor. Ohiyesa of the Santee Sioux (Charles Alexander Eastman)
Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion. The Talmud
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. Vernon Howard
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. Henry David Thoreau
If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. ~Annie Dillard, "Seeing," Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974
Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. Lao Tzu
We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. Donald Horban
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. Edwin Way Teale

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand

Speech was given to man to disguise his thoughts.
Mistrust first impulses; they are nearly always good.
Talleyrand’s warning to his protégés, "Above all, not too much zeal!"
Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts.
Too much sensibility creates unhappiness and too much insensibility creates crime.
A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.
The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.
War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men
This is the beginning of the end (on the outcome of the battle of Borodino 1812)
One's reputation is like a shadow, it is gigantic when it precedes you, and a pigmy in proportion when it follows
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man.
To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discern who is a fool, than to discover who is a clever man.
She is such a good friend that she would throw all her acquaintances into the water for the pleasure of fishing them out again.

Authority

"Unthinkable respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth" Albert Einstein

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about other people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. Lao-Tse, Tao Te Ching

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Last modified: February 28, 2008