Notable Quotable #40

Dec 05, 2022

"The search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty."

- Anne Louise Germaine de Stael

"America's entire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don't like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America's legions of soldiers, spooks and special forces straddling the globe?"

- Michael Ignatieff

"It is yet another Civilized Power, with its banner of the Prince of Peace in one hand and its loot-basket and its butcher-knife in the other. Is there no salvation for us but to adopt Civilization and lift ourselves down to its level?"

- Mark Twain

"I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism."

- Paul Robeson

"I count myself as a spiritual sister to those the US government has murdered, and I am angry at my powerlessness."

- Karen Kwiatkowski

"When you look deeply enough into the heart of another, what you will find is yourself."

- Max Igan

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

- Thomas Jefferson

". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them."

- Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery

- Mark Twain

"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery."

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader.

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget."

- Arundhati Roy

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."

- Thomas Paine