WIST

As to ecclesiastical parties; we may observe, that, in all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, historian, empiricist
“Of the Parties of Great Britain,” Essays, Political and Moral, vol. 1 (1741)
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Si l’Etat est fort, il nous ecrase, s’il est faible, nous perissons.

[If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish.]

Paul Valéry (1871-1945) French poet, critic, author, polymath
Reflections on the World Today [Regards sur le monde actuel], “Fluctuations sur la liberté” (1931)

Alt trans.:

• "If power is too strong, it overwhelms us, if it is too weak, we perish."
• "If the state is strong, we are annihilated; if it is weak, we perish."
• "When the state is strong it will crush us, when it is weak, we perish."

This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973) US President (1963-69)
State of the Union address (8 Jan 1964)

COSMO: There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think — it’s all about the information!

Phil Alden Robinson (b. 1950) American screenwriter, director, producer
Sneakers (1992) [with Lawrence Lasker, Walter Parkes]

Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor.

William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
Principles of Psychology, ch. 4 (1890)
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