Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

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.

I can talk to fish!" Angel said happily, water dripping off her long, skinny body. "Ask one over for dinner, " Fang said, joining us.

There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.

The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help.

We must teach our girls that if they speak their mind, they can create the world they want to see. (145)

Jealousy is an inner consciousness of one's own inferiority. It is a mental cancer.

I've got all my life to live and I've got all my love to give

If I close my eyes, I see things better than with my eyes open.

Why should we be startled by death? Life is a constant putting off of the mortal coil - coat, cuticle, flesh and bones, all old clothes.

The thing about Christmas music is the recognizability. It's great.

A country needs to be able to feed itself, fuel itself, and fight for itself.