A belief is not true because it is useful.
ANACHARSIS
(fl. c. 600 B.C.)
Scythian philosopher
The market-place is a place set aside where men may deceive and overreach each other.
ANONYMOUS
(fl. always)
Stateless philosopher
Click on ANONYMOUS to visit link.
ANTISTHENES
(c. 445-365 B.C.)
Founder, Cynic School of Philosophy
The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.
JEREMY BENTHAM
(1748-1832)
English philosopher
Every law is an infraction of liberty.
BERNARD BERENSON
(1865-1959)
American art critic
Except as its clown and jester, society does not encourage individuality, and the State abhors it.
HENRI BERGSON
(1859-1941)
French philosopher, Nobel Prize 1927
Intelligence is characterized by a natural incomprehension of life.
WILLIAM BLAKE
(1757-1827)
English poet, artist
To generalize is to be an idiot.
MARTIN BORMANN
(1900-1945)
German Nazi/Leader
Education is a danger. . . . At best an education which produces useful coolies for us is admissible. Every educated person is a future enemy.
(Note for knee-jerk censors: This quote is included here not to disparage education, but rather a common attitude towards education by leaders and other Nazis.)
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN
(1750-1817)
Irish statesman
Assassinate me you may; intimidate me you cannot.
EUGENE V(ictor) DEBS
(1855-1926)
American Socialist leader, convict #9653, Atlanta penitentiary
Capitalism needs and must have the prison to protect itself from the criminals it has created.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI (Earl of Beaconsfield)
(1804-1881)
English statesman, novelist
It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyrrany in the nursery.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
HENRY FIELDING
(1707-1754)
English writer
There is perhaps no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct natural infirmities of those we love.
F(rancis) SCOTT (Key) FITZGERALD
(1896-1940)
American writer
You can take your choice between God and Sex. If you choose both you're a hypocrite; if neither, you get nothing.
ABRAHAM FLEXNER
(1866-1959)
American educator
Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and education.
GERALD R(udolph) FORD
(1913- )
American auto-maker, 38th President of the United States, Masonic conspirator
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
EMMA GOLDMAN
(1869-1940)
Russian-born American feminist, writer, revolutionary
Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism.
The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity.
ALFRED WHITNEY GRISWOLD
(1906-1963)
President of Yale University
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail.
ERWIN N. GRISWOLD
(1904- )
Dean, Harvard Law School
The right to be let alone is the underlying principle of the [U.S.] Constitution's Bill of Rights.
KENKO HOSHI
(fl. 14th century A.D.)
Japanese Buddhist
So long as people, being ill-governed, suffer from hunger, criminals will never disappear. It is extremely unkind to punish those who, being sufferers from hunger, are compelled to violate laws.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
(1743-1826)
3rd President of the United States
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
ELLEN KEY
(1849-1926)
Swedish feminist, writer
Love has been in perpetual strife with monogamy.
JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES
(1883-1946)
British economist
CAPITALISM. . . is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous - and it doesn't deliver the goods.
HENRY KISSINGER
(1923- )
U.S. Secretary of State
Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
(1790-1869)
French writer
God is but a word invoked to explain the world.
JOHN LOCKE
(1632-1704)
English philosopher
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
H(enry) L(ouis) MENCKEN
(1880-1956)
American Editor, critic, lexicographer
The worshipper is the father of the gods.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
JOHN STUART MILL
(1806-1873)
English political economist, philosopher
If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
ARTHUR MILLER
(1915- )
American playwright
When any creativity becomes useful, it is sucked into the vortex of commercialism, and when a thing becomes commercial, it becomes the enemy of man.
HENRY MILLER
(1891-1980)
American writer
There are two paths to take: one back toward comfort and security of death, the other forward to nowhere.
RICHARD M(ilhous) NIXON
(1913-1985)
37th President of the United States
When a president does it then it is not illegal.
THOMAS PYNCHON
(1937- )
American writer, hermit
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.
(from Gravity's Rainbow)
FRANCOIS RABELAIS
(c. 1494-1553)
French satirist
Speak the truth and shame the devil.
HONORE GABRIEL RIQUETTI, COMTE DE MIRABEAU
(1749-1791)
French statesman
The freedom of conscience is a right so sacred that even the name of tolerance involves a species of tyranny.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER (Sr.)
(1839-1937)
American capitalist, philanthropist
The good Lord gave me my money.
RICHARD RUMBOLD
(1622-hanged and quartered 1685)
English rebel
I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred, to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.
(Spoken on the scaffold)
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
Sex and obscenity are not synonymous.
Roth case (1957)
GORE VIDAL
(1925- )
American writer
By the time a man (sic) gets to be Presidential material he's been bought ten times over.
VOLTAIRE (FRANCOIS-MARIE AROUET)
(1694-1778)
French philosopher
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and to give it to the other.
When truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to arise. There never has been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon.
Needless to say; since Christ's expiation not one single Christian has been known to sin, or die.
