The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
—Steve Biko, 1971
Archive
Quotes
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made—through disobedience and through rebellion.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Let my epitaph be, “Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook.”
—Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, 1790Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957I would delight in music, but the music is discordant.
—Xie Lingyun, c. 425It is a greater advantage to be honestly educated than honorably born.
—Erasmus, 1518What keeps the democracy alive at all but the hatred of excellence, the desire of the base to see no head higher than their own?
—Mary Renault, 1956A jest breaks no bones.
—Samuel Johnson, 1781A functioning police state needs no police.
—William S. Burroughs, 1959I imagine that one of the first forms of behavior, like one of the first signals, may be reduced to this: “Keep me warm.”
—Michel Serres, 1982For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BCEveryone lives by selling something.
—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1892If you are truly serious about preparing your child for the future, don’t teach him to subtract—teach him to deduct.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981