Notable Quotable 278

May 23, 2024

The U.S. has had a massive biological (and chemical) warfare program since at least the early 1940s and has used toxic agents against its own population and others going back to the 1860s. By 1999, the U.S. government had deployed its chemical and biological weapons arsenal against the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, China, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, the Haitian boat people, and even our neighbor, Canada.

Keep in mind that this is a short list, as the U.S. is well known for also using proxies to spread its toxic chemicals and germ agents, such as what happened in Iraq and Syria in recent decades.

- Gary D. Barnett, “When China Sneezes”, Chapter 12

Rebellion is as much of a cage as obedience is. They both mean living in reaction to someone else's way instead of forging your own.

- Glennon Doyle

Any society that you build will have its limits. And outside the limits of any society the unruly and heroic tramps will wander, with their wild & virgin thoughts - they who cannot live without planning ever new and dreadful outbursts of rebellion! I shall be among them!

- Renzo Novatore

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

- Henry David Thoreau

There can be no criminal intent in resisting injustice.

- Lysander Spooner

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If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.

- Bayard Rustin

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

- John Adams

Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

- JFK, Yale University (1962)

At no point in history has the active and informed involvement of the People, all of them, been more absolutely required.

- William Rivers Pitt

The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.

- Arundhati Roy