#lis

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#capitalism #corruption #government #history #oppression

Why is it that when you don't want to think about something, you can't stop thinking about it? ↗

— Stella Lennon

#teens #teen

Even the most ardent environmentalist doesn't really want to stop pollution. If he thinks about it, and doesn't just talk about it, he wants to have the right amount of pollution. We can't really afford to eliminate it - not without abandoning all the benefits of technology that we not only enjoy but on which we depend. ↗

— Milton Friedman

#technology

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. ↗

— Omar Nelson Bradley

#humanism #humanity #imperialism #nuclear-weapons #peace

Industry, technology, and commerce can thrive only as long as an idealistic national community offers the necessary preconditions. And these do not lie in material egoism, but in a spirit of sacrifice and joyful renunciation. ↗

— Adolf Hitler

#principle #renunciation #sacrifice #spirit #thriving

America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes. They did not starve the people to pay for America's industrialization. They gave the people better jobs, higher wages, and cheaper goods with every new machine they invented, with every scientific discovery or technological advance- and thus the whole country was moving forward and profiting, not suffering, every step of the way. ↗

— Ayn Rand

#capitalism #money #philosophy #profit #men

Adrian opened his mouth, undoubtedly ready with some inappropriate and mocking comment. Lissa gave him a sharp headshake that kept him quiet. "Aren't there any, I don't know, sleeveless options?" The saleswoman's eyes widened. "No one has ever worn straps to a funeral. It wouldn't be right." "What about shorts?" asked Adrian. "Are they okay if they're with a tie? Because that's what I was gonna go with." The woman looked horrified. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#last-sacrifice #lissa-dragomir #richelle-mead #vampire-academy #sacrifice

If you have a good idea, use it so that you will not only accomplish something, but so that you can make room for new ones to flow into you. ↗

— Deng Ming-Dao

#flow #ideas #spirituality #taoism #harmony

Armageddon was yesterday, today we have a serious problem. ↗

— Stieg Larsson

#larsson #lisabeth #millenium #problems

Who’s she? Just another Ivashkov. There are tons of them. Probably because all the guys like Adrian and have all sorts of illegitimate children." "Adrian doesn’t have any children." "That we know of. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#rose #vampire-academy #children