#ow

The last time that I consciously wrote anything to 'save the honor of the Left', as I rather pompously put it, was my little book on the crookedness and cowardice and corruption (to put it no higher) of Clinton. I used leftist categories to measure him, in other words, and to show how idiotic was the belief that he was a liberal's champion. Again, more leftists than you might think were on my side or in my corner, and the book was published by Verso, which is the publishing arm of the New Left Review. However, if a near-majority of leftists and liberals choose to think that Clinton was the target of a witch-hunt and the victim of 'sexual McCarthyism', an Arkansan Alger Hiss in other words, you become weary of debating on their terms and leave them to make the best of it. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#arkansas #bill-clinton #corruption #cowardice #debate

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#conflict #government #history #politics #power

Wine gives one 'ideas,' whereas champagne gives one 'strategies. ↗

— Roman Payne

#champage #idea #ideas #power #roman-payne

Do not repeat after me words that you do not understand. Do not merely put on a mask of my ideas, for it will be an illusion and you will thereby deceive yourself. ↗

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

#imitation #knowledge #illusion

She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. ↗

— Jane Austen

#women #sorrow

Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths. ↗

— Charles H. Spurgeon

#sorrow

Although it may not seem like it, this isn’t a story about darkness. It’s about light. Kahlil Gibran says Your joy can fill you only as deeply your sorrow has carved you. If you’ve never tasted bitterness, sweet is just another pleasant flavor on your tongue. One day I’m going to hold a lot of joy. ↗

— Karen Marie Moning

#mac #sorrow

All sorrows can be born if you put them in a story or tell a story about them. ↗

— Isak Dinesen

#stories #storytelling #storytelling

There is strong shadow where there is much light. ↗

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#enlightenment #shadow #enlightenment

To hold power has always meant to manipulate idiots and circumstances; and those circumstances and those idiots, tossed together, bring about those coincidences to which even the greatest men confess they owe most of their fame ↗

— Alfred de Vigny

#idiocy #power #fame