To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

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.

Setting the intention to practice kindness toward one’s partner or family members or friends does not preclude getting angry or upset.

Do not focus on money, instead focus on a problem that needs to be solved for the world..money will follow you as a bi-product.

A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.

People compose poetry, novels, sitcoms - for love.

Rich widows are the only secondhand goods that sell at first-class prices.

A country is made not by policy alone, but by its music, its entertainment shows, all of it.

As an example, one of the schools I have been studying is too small to compete effectively in most sports, but participates with vigor each year in the state music contests.

I see myself as a flashlight in the dark. I'm not trying to be overlooked anymore.

We are trying to communicate a fulfilled ideal. Does anybody remember laughter?

Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.