An Ever-Accumulating Collection of VARIOUS INSIGHTFUL, FUN, AND VEXING QUOTATIONS Assembled by Alexander Carpenter for the Edification and Consternation of Himself, his Friends, and Innocent Bystanders THE STATE, particularly CHINA...............................................................................................3 EDUCATION and RELIGION...................................................................................................14 BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, and POLITICS..............................................................................40 CORPORATIONS......................................................................................................................123 POLITY.......................................................................................................................................154 SELF.............................................................................................................................................210 SCIENCE and GNOSIS.............................................................................................................243 ENVIRONMENT.......................................................................................................................293 HEYOKA.....................................................................................................................................315 TRAVEL......................................................................................................................................344 LANGUAGE and SPEECH......................................................................................................347 PROHIBITION...........................................................................................................................365 LIBERTY and RESTRAINT OF THE STATE..........................................................................371 THE GOLDEN RULE...............................................................................................................405 IT'S LIKE¼................................................................................................................................409 POLITY LISTS............................................................................................................................415 UNPLACED...............................................................................................................................421 QUOTABLE...............................................................................................................................444 Control/Command-F to Search on Keywords of your choice¼ Other Categories for Future Organization (or search): HISTORY PROBLEM ART REALPOLITIK LAW WEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS TIME WRITING LOVE LIGHT & DARKNESS COURAGE BODY TRUTH & ETHICS POWER POPULATION SECURITY REALITY MODELING PROOF SANITY WIT FEAR WISDOM BEAUTY HUMOR ACTION TYRANNY HEALTH Nota bene, ªapocryphalº means I think somebody made it up, over-summarized it, took it out of context, or projected his own interpretations into it. This is distinguished from re-attribution, mis- attribution, or outright appropriation (aka plagiarism). Alexander Carpenter Compilation and Original-Creation Copyright © 1984-2013 All Rights Reserved In All Media All copyrighted material included under Fair Use [email protected] 1 January 2013 2 page THE STATE, particularly CHINA People have friends; nations have interests. Charles de Gaulle Governments have interests, not principles. (paraphrased) Cardinal Richelieu (also attributed to Henry Kissinger) One learns soon enough that only a fool understands the Chinese quickly. Arthur Miller, American Playwright, in The Atlantic Monthly Generally speaking, Chinese hate Buddhist monks and nuns; they hate Moslems, and they hate Christians. But they do not hate Taoist priests. Whoever understands the reason for this has understood half of China. Lu Xun, Chinese Writer The principal function of modern government is to keep people apart. or Keeping citizens apart has become the first maxim of modern politics. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) The more laws, the less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Officiis, 44 B.C. Corruptissima republicae, plurimae leges. (The more corrupt the state, the more laws it has.) Cornelius Tacitus (55-117 AD), ______________ An old Chinese said he had heard that when empires were doomed they had many laws. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power (Posthumous Notebooks), 1901 When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws. 3 page G.K. Chesterton That government governs best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (resonant of Jefferson?) The more restrictions and prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become. The sharper the people's weapons are, the more national confusion increases. The more skill artisans require, the more bizarre their products are. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching `The People' is that part of the State that doesn't know what it wants. ¼ The people's movement and action would be elemental, void of reason, violent and terrible, if not regulated. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Elements of a Philosophy of Right, 1821, §§ 301 and 303 `The People' is a great beast. Alexander Hamilton, American Statesman How can you govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese? Countries can cope with a surprising amount of bad government. Charles de Gaulle Many of us [Chinese] who have been to foreign countries to study and work agree that we can perform much more efficiently and productively abroad than in China... Foreigners are no more intelligent than we Chinese. Why, then, can't we produce first-rate work? The reasons for our inability to develop our potential lie within our social system... Chinese intellectual life, material civilization, moral fiber, and government are in dire straits... The truth is that every aspect of the Chinese world needs to be modernized... Chinese culture is not just backward in a particular respect but primitive in an overall sense... Fang Lizhi, Chinese Scientist, in The Atlantic Monthly, May 1988 Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the laws of the State always change with them. The leaders of the State...may be allowed to lie for the good of the State. 4 page Plato (428-347 B.C.) There are three kinds of intelligence Ð human, animal, and military. Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point A inveja e a arma dos incompetentes. (Jealousy is the weapon of the incompetent.) Brazilian Saying Quem tem dois, sempre tem um. Quem tem um, nao tem ningem. (He who has two [women], always has one. He who has one, has none.) Another Brazilian Saying The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. Jacques Anatole Francois, Le Lys Rouge Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed and well-fed. Herman Melville Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle-sized are alone entangled in. William Shenstone (1714-1763), Essays on Men, Manners, and Things; On Politics Laws are spider webs; they hold the weak and delicate who are caught in their meshes, but are torn in pieces by the rich and powerful. Anacharsis, 1st-Century B.C. Scythian Philosopher John Stuart Mill said that tyranny makes people cynical. He didn't realize that there would be republics to make them silent. Lu Xun, Chinese Writer 5 page Authoritarian government, required to speak, is silent. Representative government, required to speak, lies with impunity. Napoleon Bonaparte In a dictatorship, censorship is used; in a democracy, manipulation. Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist, Le Monde diplomatique (Paris), August 1999 No tyrant's power can compare with that of a poor wretch ready to kill himself. Emil Cioran, Romanian political philosopher (1911-1995) A joke is an epitaph for a hope that has died. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900) History never repeats itself; man always does. Voltaire ...it comes to pass that the same evils and inconveniences take place in all ages of history. Niccolo Machiavelli (1569-1527), Discourses (II?) He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. Francis Bacon, Of Innovations Of course, whether we are massacred by our own people or are massacred by foreigners does not amount exactly to the same thing. Thus, for instance, if a man slaps his own face he will not feel insulted; whereas if someone else slaps him he will feel angry. However, when a man is so cretinous that he will slap his own face, he fully deserves to be slapped by any passerby. Lu Xun, Chinese Writer ªI don't know what you mean by `glory',º Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ªOf course you don't Ð till I tell you. I meant `there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'º ªBut `glory' doesn't mean `a nice knock-down argument',º Alice objected. ªWhen I use a word,º Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ªit means just what I choose it to mean Ð neither more nor less.º ªThe question is,º said Alice, ªwhether you can make words mean so many different things.º ªThe question is,º said Humpty Dumpty, ªwhich is to be master Ð that's all.º 6 page Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass When clever fellows begin to praise