#nation

Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. ↗

— Abraham Flexner

#cannot #choice #civilization #enough #make

Quite frankly, I think nothing could do more to immediately bolster national security then enabling us to produce more oil and gas here at home at a price consumers could afford. ↗

— Phil Gramm

#bolster #consumers #could #enabling #frankly

It has been said that a nation reveals its character by the values it upholds. ↗

— Kay Granger

#character #nation #reveals #said #values

Circumstances can have a motive force by which they bring about events without aid of human imagination or apprehension. On such occasions you yourself keep in touch with what is going on by attentively following it from moment to moment, like a blind person who is being led, and who places one foot in front of the other cautiously but unwittingly. Things are happening to you, and you feel them happening, but except for this one fact, you have no connection with them, and no key to the cause or meaning of them. [...] - a passage outside the range of imagination, but within the range of experience. ↗

— Karen Blixen

#experience #imagination #life #experience

I belonged to the generation that grew up under National Socialism, and was blinded and led astray - and allowed itself to be led astray. ↗

— Gunter Grass

#astray #belonged #blinded #generation #grew

I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers: are you willing to enslave your children? You stare back with horror and indignation at such questions. But why, if slavery is not wrong to those upon whom it is imposed? ↗

— Angelina Grimke

#back #children #enslave #friends #horror

Look, people need to conform the external reality they face daily with this subjective feeling they likewise experience constantly. To do this they have two options. First, they can achieve what passes for great things. Now the external reality matches their feeling; they really are better than the rest and maybe they'll even be remembered as such. These are the ambitious people, the overachievers. These are also, however, the people who go on these abominable talk shows where they can trade their psychoses for exposure on that box, modernity's ultimate achievement. Not that this tact, being ambitious, is not the preferred course of action. The reason is it's the equivalent of sticking your neck out which we all know is dangerous. Instead many act like they have no ambition whatsoever. Their necks come back in and they're safe. Only problem is now they're at everyone else's level, which we've seen is untenable. The remedy of course is that everyone else needs to be sunk. This helps explain racism's enduring popularity. If I myself don't appear to be markedly superior to everyone else at least I'm part of the better race, country, religion et cetera. This in turn reflects well on my individual worth. There are other options, of course. For example, you can constantly bemoan others' lack of moral worth by extension elevating yourself. Think of the average person's reaction to our clients. Do these people strike you as so truly righteous that they are viscerally pained by our clients' misdeeds or are they similarly flawed people looking for anything to hang their hat on? The latter obviously, they're vermin. ↗

— Sergio De La Pava

#domination #oppression #people #racism #reality

That certainly is one approach to take. My own is to acknowledge the inner child and try to work with my first fascination with science fiction. I have tried to build on its idea content and narrative drive rather than to discard them. ↗

— James Gunn

#approach #build #certainly #child #content

The Hussein regime's support for terrorism, within and outside of its borders, its appetite for the world's most dangerous weapons, and its openly declared hostility to the United States were a combination that was a gathering and growing danger to our country. ↗

— Jim Gerlach

#borders #combination #country #danger #dangerous

The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy. ↗

— Laurell K. Hamilton

#american indians #autonomy #country #even #fey