Bread And Circuses Quotes

• Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt

  Juvenal

  Giving, Circus, Bread

  102 Copy quote

• What I may call the messages of Brave New World, but it is possible to make people contented with their servitude. I think this can be done. I think it has been done in the past. I think it could be done even more effectively now because you can provide them with bread and circuses and you can provide them with endless amounts of distractions and propaganda.

  Aldous Huxley

  Past, Brave New World, Thinking

  114 Copy quote

• Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

  Juvenal

  Military, Men, Long Ago

  40 Copy quote

• What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it... which for the majority translates as 'Bread and Circuses'.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Self, Safety, Democracy

  48 Copy quote

• The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!

  Juvenal

  Two, People, Circus

  28 Copy quote

• Panem et Circenses" translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.

  Suzanne Collins

  Responsibility, People, Political

  Suzanne Collins (2010). “Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3)”, p.223, Scholastic Inc.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Two things only the people actually desire: bread and circuses.

  Juvenal

  Art, Philosophy, Food

  28 Copy quote

• That's a Roman concept where the government can do anything, as long as you give the people "bread and circuses." And I'd say this culture right now is similar, as long as people have money, fun, and food, our government can do heinous, heinous things.

  Ian MacKaye

  Fun, Thinking, Government

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. "We have a single system," he wrote, and "in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses."

  Gore Vidal

  Party, Wings, Two

  Gore Vidal (2004). “Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia”, p.50, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

  39 Copy quote

  Show source

• The purpose of bread and circuses is, as Neil Postman said in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, to distract, to divert emotional energy towards the absurd and the trivial and the spectacle while you are ruthlessly stripped of power.

  Chris Hedges

  Book, Emotional, Energy

  Interview with David Barsamian, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. July 14, 2011.

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; for the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses.

  Juvenal

  Two, Long, People

  Juvenal (1940). “Juvenal and Persius”

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hear an almost inaudible but pervasive discontent with the price we pay for our current materialism. And I hear a fluttering of hope that there might be more to life than bread and circuses.

  Bill Moyers

  Strength, Might, Pay

  23 Copy quote

• That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of 'bread and circuses' can compensate for the damage done-these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence-because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Silence, Soul, Humanity

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I read the Romans had bread and circuses. We had home relief and boxing.

  Jake LaMotta

  Home, Boxing, Relief

  12 Copy quote

• We love against the night, burning like stars against the darkness of bread and circuses.

  David Paul

  Stars, Night, Darkness

  6 Copy quote

• The Romans always wanted bread and circuses-food and entertainement! As we destroy their city, I will offer them both. Behold, a sample!" Someething dropped from the ceiling and landed at Percy's feet: a loaf of sandwich bread in a white plastic wrapper with red and yellow dots. Percy picked it up. "Wonder bread?" "Magnificent, isn't it?" Ephialtes eyes danced with crazy excitement.

  Rick Riordan

  Crazy, Eye, Cities

  5 Copy quote