#brutality

Social systems proceed by (usually) covering up the brutalities upon which they are based. The doctor doesn't let you get to his door and then turn you away, rather his home address is hard to find. The government handcuffs you so they don't have to shoot you trying to escape. And so on. ↗

— Tyler Cowen

#coercion #social-systems #home

The most altruistic and sustainable philosophies fail before the brute brain stem imperative of self-interest. ↗

— Peter Watts

#brutality #life-philosophy #self-interest #life

I see myself capable of arrogance and brutality... That's a fierce thing, to discover within yourself that which you despise the most in others. ↗

— George Stevens

#brutality #capable #despise #discover #fierce

I stood up as best I could to their disgusting stupidity and brutality, but I did not, of course, manage to beat them at their own game. It was a fight to the bitter end, one in which I was not defending ideals or beliefs but simply my own self. ↗

— George Grosz

#beliefs #best #bitter #bitter end #brutality

We became convinced that, regardless of Stalin's awful brutality and his reign of terror, he was a great war leader. Without Stalin, they never would have held. ↗

— W. Averell Harriman

#became #brutality #convinced #great #great war

One could laugh at the world better if it didn't mix tender kindliness with its brutality. ↗

— David Herbert Lawrence

#brutality #could #kindliness #laugh #mix

Don't shrink from natures brutal perfection. Take joy in it. Embrace it. Understand it and revel in it. Respect it's strength, it's wisdom, it's brutality and it's all-encompassing power. The highest law has always been, and shall be, nature; and the greatest wisdom forever lives in and through nature's eternal Fascism. ↗

— Boyd Rice

#brutality #fascism #law #might-is-right #natural-law