#observation

Individuals are prey to institutions in modern mass societies... Individuals can struggle mightily against institutionalized conditions, but without changing the institutions themselves, those efforts will be largely for naught, since people tire, lose focus, forget, and, eventually, give up their ghosts, while institutions share no such limitations. ↗

— Brian Awehali

#politics #politics-observation #power #radicalism #change

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world." [Speech upon being awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt Book Fair, October 12, 2003] ↗

— Susan Sontag

#observation #perspicacity #writers #writing #observation

Both groups [of pundits] were critics, and that is the heart of the problem. If you are a pundit, you seem so smart when you are telling the President what he did wrong… This [is] mostly BS. ↗

— Jeffrey A. Miller

#democracy-fascism #democracy-freedom #democracy-voting #democrats #elections

I never forget things. I just don't observe them in the first place. ↗

— Bauvard

#funny #humor #observation #funny

As, however, the port in reality lies in thirty-two degrees thirty-four minutes, according to the observations that have been made, they went much beyond it, thus making the voyage much longer than was necessary. ↗

— Junipero Serra

#been #beyond #degrees #however #lies

We kings do develop a certain ability to recognize objects under our noses. ↗

— Robin McKinley

#observation #royalty #humor

observations often tell you more about the observer than the observed. ↗

— Chris Geiger

#observation #observed #observer #people #quote

If there is to be no ceiling on the amount of money a man can take out of our economy, then concomitantly there can be no foundation below which a human being cannot sink. What capitalists must realize is that you are fighting to make capitalism survive, not destroy it; you are fighting to eliminate the seeds of destruction inherent in the status quo." ~Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's letter to Don Matchan, 27 April 1947 ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#letters #political-observation #money

As music becomes less of a thing--a cylinder, a cassette, a disc--and more ephemeral, perhaps we will begin to assign an increasing value to live performances again. ↗

— David Byrne

#social-commentary #music

It was truly an abomination of nature that one always found the most comfortable spot in the bed five minutes before one had to leave it. ↗

— Mia Ryan

#observation #universal-truths #nature