This page contains all the random quotes displayed in the sidebar. Yes, some are probably attributed to the wrong author, but the message is the matter.
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself. If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery. Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic. I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former. My parents taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time. Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them. Big Brother is watching you. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. My heart is broken in the face of the stupidity of my species. Stubborn and ardent clinging to one’s opinion is the best proof of stupidity. People’s ignorance really pisses me off. Stupidity is when you can’t help it -ignorance is when you choose not to understand something. Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. I don’t like anything in the mainstream and they don’t like me. When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point. The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough? Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake. We need to think about encryption not as black magic but as something that works, It’s the defense against the dark arts in the digital realm. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. If you’re not pissing someone off, you probably aren’t doing anything important It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. Common sense is not so common. The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason. It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well. Conforming to other people’s anger is caving to the most stupid part of their nature. If you’re willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly. If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it’s the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves. Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent not a singular conception of ability Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure. If you say “I got nothing to hide”, remind me not to tell you any secrets Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen. Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. Think about how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.