Quotes · Skopia

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Political theory8 quotes

Politics is the art of the possible. — Otto von Bismarck · 1867 The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them. — George Orwell · 1945 In every political society, parties are unavoidable. A difference of interests, real or supposed is the most natural and fruitful source of them...the great art of politicians lies in making them checks and balances to each other. — James Madison · 1792 Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know-but besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded, and envied kind of knowledge. I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers. — John Adams · 1765 Gratitude, like love, is never a dependable international emotion. — Joseph Alsop · 1952 Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less. — John Major · 1993 All 8 quotes →

Politics7 quotes

Politics is the art of the possible. — Otto von Bismarck · 1867 Gratitude, like love, is never a dependable international emotion. — Joseph Alsop · 1952 Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear. — Naomi Klein · 2003 A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. — Michael Kinsley · 1992 We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run down. — Aneurin Bevan · 1953 A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a political leader. — Bernard Baruch All 7 quotes →

Art4 quotes

To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes. — Akira Kurosawa A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered. — Al Capp · 1963 My work is completed by the viewer. — Bridget Riley · 2008 Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus. — David Hockney · 1988

Books4 quotes

Sometimes I think of the books I'll never read that would have changed my life. — Jonathan Safran Foer · 2005 Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. — Barbara Tuchman · 1980 An accident of timing makes the book in question indelible. — Colson Whitehead · 2005 You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. — Ray Bradbury · 1993

Freedom4 quotes

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell · 1944 The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible to destroy, the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing. — John Adams · 1765 Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right... and a desire to know-but besides this they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded, and envied kind of knowledge. I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers. — John Adams · 1765 Discipline allows creative freedom. No discipline equals no freedom. — Jeanette Winterson · 2010

War4 quotes

You think you are dying for your country; you die for the industrialists. — Anatole France · 1922 I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I ain't a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks want to fight. Give them the guns. — Woody Guthrie · 1939 The war has used up words. — Henry James · 1915 We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide. — Ramsay MacDonald · 1930

Women's equality4 quotes

Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. — Susan B. Anthony · 1868 Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg · 2009 Join the union, girls, and together say, "Equal Pay for Equal Work!" — Susan B. Anthony · 1869 Feminism is the most revolutionary idea there has ever been. Equality for women demands a change in the human psyche more profound than anything Marx dreamed of. It means valuing parenthood as much as we value banking. — Polly Toynbee · 1987

American politics3 quotes

I have got such a bully pulpit! — Theodore Roosevelt · 1909 Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence. — Ronald Reagan · 1970 To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1918

Business3 quotes

The customer is always right. — Marshall Field · 1905 A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. — Henry Ford · 1919 Only the paranoid survive. — Andrew Grove · 1994

Freedom of speech and expression3 quotes

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell · 1944 That if all Printers were determin’d not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed. — Benjamin Franklin · 1731 The jaws of power are always opened to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible to destroy, the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing. — John Adams · 1765

Life3 quotes

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. — Oliver Sacks · 2015 Best advice I ever got was an old friend mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all. — James Baldwin · 1984 I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that. — Lauren Bacall · 1988

Media3 quotes

All the news that's fit to print. — Adolph S. Ochs · 1896 The power of the press is very great, but not so great as the power of suppress. — Alfred Harmsworth · 1918 Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America—not the battlefields of Vietnam. — Marshall McLuhan · 1975

Patriarchy3 quotes

A man has every season, while a woman has only the right to spring. — Jane Fonda · 1989 I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. — Rebecca West · 1913 The Catholic Church has never really come to terms with women. What I object to is being treated either as Madonnas or Mary Magdalenes. — Shirley Williams · 1981

Success3 quotes

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need. — Emily Dickinson · 1864 If A is a success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play; and Z is keeping your mouth shut. — Albert Einstein · 1950 The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. — Stubby Currence · 1935

Women3 quotes

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg · 2009 Women are the door to reconciliation with the world. — Octavio Paz · 1995 The Catholic Church has never really come to terms with women. What I object to is being treated either as Madonnas or Mary Magdalenes. — Shirley Williams · 1981

Writing3 quotes

Surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do. — Jhumpa Lahiri · 2012 Writing saved my life. — Slavoj Zizek · 2016 I've often fantasized I would get a lot of writing done if I were put in prison for a minor crime. Three to six months. — Amy Tan · 2013

American Presidency2 quotes

I have got such a bully pulpit! — Theodore Roosevelt · 1909 To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1918

Artist and audience2 quotes

The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience. — Lester Bangs · 1977 My work is completed by the viewer. — Bridget Riley · 2008

Boxing2 quotes

It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. — Muhammad Ali · 1977 Boxing's just show business with blood. — Frank Bruno · 1991

Capitalism2 quotes

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. — Henry Ford · 1919 For most of my life I refused to work at any problem unless its solution seemed to be capable of being put to commercial use. — Thomas Edison · 1917

Feminism2 quotes

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. — Rebecca West · 1913 Feminism is the most revolutionary idea there has ever been. Equality for women demands a change in the human psyche more profound than anything Marx dreamed of. It means valuing parenthood as much as we value banking. — Polly Toynbee · 1987

Happiness2 quotes

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. — Carl Jung · 1960 The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy. — James Madison · 1792

Innovation2 quotes

Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room. — Heywood Broun · 1928 For most of my life I refused to work at any problem unless its solution seemed to be capable of being put to commercial use. — Thomas Edison · 1917

International politics2 quotes

Gratitude, like love, is never a dependable international emotion. — Joseph Alsop · 1952 The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes. — Stanley Kubrick · 1963

Judging others2 quotes

Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less. — John Major · 1993 If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge? — Pope Francis · 2013

Love2 quotes

We loved with a love that was more than love. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849 I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love, I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. — Edgar Allan Poe · 1849

Men and women2 quotes

Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. — Susan B. Anthony · 1868 A man has every season, while a woman has only the right to spring. — Jane Fonda · 1989

Music2 quotes

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard no horse sing a song. — Louis Armstrong Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? — Michael Torke · 1990

Nature2 quotes

I'm not over-fond of animals. I am merely astounded by them. — David Attenborough · 1995 Mother Nature always bats last and she always bats 1000. — Rob Watson · 2010

Nuclear weapons2 quotes

At first it was a giant column that soon took the shape of a supramundane mushroom. — William L. Laurence · 1945 A great ball of fire about a mile in diameter, changing colors as it kept shooting upward, from deep purple to orange, expanding, growing bigger, rising as it was expanding, an elemental force freed from its bonds after being chained for billions of years. — William L. Laurence · 1945