It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think.

The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know.

That's the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don't work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.

Jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you're trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them.

There's a good reason why nobody studies history, it just teaches you too much.

The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.

Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.

Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.

If you want to control a population... give them a God to worship.

A language is not just words. It's a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It's all embodied in a language.

The problem with patience and discipline is that it requires both of them to develop each of them.

They're terrified of us Firefly, all of them are.""Well, good, " I replied, forming a tiny ball of flames in my fingertips, which were curled round the handle on the back of the bike. "They should be.

It is often laziness and timidity that keep us within our duty while virtue gets all the credit.

Who sows fear, reaps weapons.

The wit of a family is usually best received among strangers.

I am very confident that we will be able to convince all the stakeholders - the shareholders, the governments and the employees, that this is in their best interests.

I don't want to do anything to embarrass my family or my church because the town that I come from is so small. There are certain things that I just can't be part of because of my foundation.

My first single I was nominated for a Grammy with 'Crank That,' and I lost a Grammy to Kanye West, but it was still such a big deal for me to be nominated anyway.

The difference between a white man and an Indian is this- A white man wants to leave money to his children. An Indian wants to leave forests.

English, as a subject, never really got over its upstart nature. It tries to bulk itself up with hopeless jargon and specious complexity, tries to imitate subjects it can never be.