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Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems read more
Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach. A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. De Tocqueville in his researches into the state of society in France before the revolution was struck by the discovery that "in no one of the periods which have followed the Revolution of 1789 has the national prosperity of France augmented more rapidly than it did in the twenty years preceding that event." He is forced to conclude that "the French found their position the more intolerable the better it became.
We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may read more
We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause read more
A good cause can become bad if we fight for it with means that are indiscriminately murderous. A bad cause can become good if enough people fight for it in a spirit of comradeship and self-sacrifice. In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.
Our elections are free -- it's in the results where eventually we pay.
Our elections are free -- it's in the results where eventually we pay.
Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking read more
Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich.
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which read more
It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
Blood alone moves the wheels of history.
Blood alone moves the wheels of history.
A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money.
A billion here and a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money.
The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought.
The world of politics is always twenty years behind the world of thought.