Take something you really don't think about: Plastics in the ocean. I mean plastics in the ocean have an enormous ecological effect.

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.

It's often only in the lies we refuse to speak that any truth can be heard at all.

If you really want to grow great, you need to avoid costly pleasures and preserve your future treasures.

Every hour, stop and ask: Am I really present in this moment? If not, what are my thoughts focused on? Doing this often will help you return to the present moment.

As a writer, I've always been interested in others.

Ultimately the Force is the larger mystery of the universe. And to trust your feelings is your way into that.

If a man is to lose his fortune, it is a good thing if he were poor before he acquired it, for poverty requires aptitude.

I'm a calm person who wants to talk about things and think things through.

Never mind, love, it's not the end of the world.

While a book has got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the reader it's got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the writer as well.