The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria.
We accept too damned many things on the explanations of people who could have good reasons for lying.
Why is it that foolishness repeats itself with such monotonous precision?
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.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.
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 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.
Beware! The mind of the believer stagnates. It fails to grow outward into an unlimited, infinite universe.
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.
Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself.
It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.
The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown.
When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's execution that counts.
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.
Most believe that a satisfactory future requires a return to an idealized past, a past which never in fact existed.
If you want immortality, then deny form. Whatever has form has mortality. Beyond form is the formless, the immortal.
When politics and religion are intermingled, a people is suffused with a sense of invulnerability, and gathering speed in their forward charge, they fail to see the cliff ahead of them
If all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief.
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
Nature does not make mistakes. Right and wrong are human categories.
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