Today, I ran into one of my favorite quotes:

Television is more interesting than people. If it were not, we would have people standing in the corners of our rooms.

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.

Mike Baker is one of our repeated visitors here at DI. He kindly sent me his long list of quotations he has been gathering. I published part of Mike's collection here. In this post, I'm published a second set of quotes Mike has gathered. I must admit many of these quotes regarding the role and power of government leave me in a dark and uneasy mood. It was oftentimes surprising when I saw the names of the well-known people who uttered these ominous but thought-provoking words. It's better to know than not know, right? With that in mind, here they are: “Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.” ~ William E. Gladstone The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out, the conservative adopts them. ~ Mark Twain The real rulers of Washington are Invisible and exercise power from behind the scenes. - Justice Felix Frankfurter - US Supreme Court Justice "The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences." -- Quote from Caroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope, Chapter 20 "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world - no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men." --Woodrow Wilson, 28th President ... the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. ~Australian social scientist Alex Carey “The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.” [1941] Edward Dowling A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. ~ Edward R. Murrow When the Government fears the people, there is Liberty . When the people fear the Government there is Tyranny. – Unknown We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstanding and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy." ~ Ramsey Clark , former U.S. Attorney General The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complaceny to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage. Sir Alex Fraser Tyler: (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian [More . . . ]

A reader named Mike Baker kindly sent me a huge batch of terrific quotes that he has been gathering. Here's a sampling, the first of several, from Mike's collection: There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, "I disagree." We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President. - The Nation (15 July 1991) "Americans are the best entertained and the least informed people in the world." --Neil Postman, author, and from Amusing Ourselves to Death, Penguin Books, 1985 "It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper." - Rod Serling "By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy - indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction" ~ William Osler (Canadian Physician, 1849-1919) "Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand." ~ Bodie Thoene “How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday” – Anonymous The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. ~ Charles DuBois “We must become the change we want to see in the world” ~ Mohatma Gandhi Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961) Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. ~Albert Einstein The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment. ~ Robert M. Hutchins "Your failure to be informed, does not make me a wacko." --John Loeffler, host Steel on Steel radio program It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from his government. —Thomas Paine The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. ~ Plato "Most Americans aren't the sort of citizens the Founding Fathers expected; they are contented serfs. Far from being active critics of government, they assume that its might makes it right." Joseph Sobran (1946- ) Columnist It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is not an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. ~ Elie Wiesel