All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class -- whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it ... We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase that reluctance.
When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.
The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.
The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria.
The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself.
Each life creates endless ripples.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and thousands of years of humanity's dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made.
Never attempt to reason with people who know they are right!
Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.
The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.
Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?
When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles
Every civilization depends upon the quality of the individuals it produces.
The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.
Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
When you think you know something: that is a most perfect barrier against learning.
Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible.
Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.
This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.
I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Some people never observe anything, Life just happens to them. They get by on little more than a kind of dumb persistence, and they resist with anger and resentment anything that might lift them out of that false serenity.
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