#cal

They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another, one group or another, political bias, religious prejudice, union pressure; there was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#chain-reactions #control #fear #political-bias #religious-prejudice

Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests with my creative interests. ↗

— Jeffrey Wright

#bluegrass #blues #classical #creative #i

In conclusion, the arms of others either fall from your back, or they weigh you down, or they bind you fast. ↗

— Niccolò Machiavelli

#politics #strategy #warfare #science

Having to face him at a competency hearing is like getting to hell and finding out that the only food available is raw liver-insult added to injury. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#jodi-picoult #moral #perfect-match #ran #food

Saint Augustine … insisted that scripture taught nothing but charity. Whatever the biblical author may have intended, any passage that seemed to preach hatred and was not conducive to love must be interpreted allegorically and made to speak of charity. ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#charity #christianity #saint-augustine #scripture #life

One needs to properly possess only a couple of great thoughts--they shed light on many stretches whose illumination one would never have believed in. ↗

— Georg Simmel

#sociology #life

I remember that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea, time flowed past indifferently above us, hours and days had no meaning. In the beginning our life held a joy and amazement which was newborn every day. Beneath the joy, of course, was anguish and beneath the amazement was fear; but they did not work themselves to the beginning until our high beginning was aloes on our tongues. By then anguish and fear had become the surface on which we slipped and slid, losing balance, dignity, and pride. ↗

— James Baldwin

#psychological #life

Evangelicalism has taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme...If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; it must be displayed publicly. ↗

— Susan Cain

#extroverts #introverts #love

You know what? Fuck it. Just fuck it. The Rising didn't manage to wipe out the human race, it just made us turn into even bigger assholes than we were before. Hear that, mad science? You failed. You were supposed to kill us all, and instead you turned us into monsters. ↗

— Mira Grant

#people-suck #science

Circumstances give in reality to every political principle, its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind. ↗

— David Trimble

#circumstances #civil #colour #discriminating #distinguishing