1 decade ago in Quotes
I never joined the army because at ease was never that easy to me. Seemed rather uptight still. I don't relax by parting my legs slightly and putting my hands behind my back. That does not equal ease. At ease was not being in the military. I am at ease, bro, because I am not in the military.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Only the free have disposition to be truthful, 

Only the truthful have the interest to be just,
Only the just possess the will-power to be free.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Those who really have power in this society tolerate democracy only so long as it doesn't infringe on their power. If, through the parliamentary system, we ever began to expropriate industry, then the people who have wealth and power would destroy the parliamentary system. In this respect there probably wouldn't be any way within the system. But any revolutionary I've ever heard of must prefer peaceful non-violent means if these are possible. But it's rarely been possible because of the resistance by those who want to preserve their privileges.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
It's true that I detest organised, bigtime, major league religions... but I love spiritual individuals, you can see the universe in their eyes, if you're really looking... I love people, I hate crowds, groups, organisations... soon they become zealots, then they start wearing hats... then they have fight songs and come and visit you at 3 am in the morning...
 1 decade ago in Quotes
My life's work is not what I've made, it's who I am when I sit in front of a blank file. If I lost everything, I would have lost nothing.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life, which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
What can one say about a country where a museum of science in a great city can feature an exhibit in which people fire machine guns from a helicopter at Vietnamese huts, with a light flashing when a hit is scored? What can one say about a country where such an idea can even be considered? You have to weep for this country.
"American Power and the New Mandarins" (1969)
 1 decade ago in Quotes
The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
 1 decade ago in Quotes
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.