Quotes from history or the present are presented here. Quotes from scientists, publicists, politicians, philosophers and other thinkers explain contexts in a vivid way or open our eyes. And it occasionally becomes clear that much of what we consider to be a phenomenon or difficulty of our time is not so new after all...
In order to be able to clearly distinguish the quotations from explanations, these are Italics-font.
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You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
- Abraham Lincoln. (USA) Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Hardin County (today: LaRue County, Kentucky), died 15 April 1865 in Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the USA from 1861 to 1865.
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When fascism returns, it will not say: 'I am fascism'. No, he will say: 'I am anti-fascism'.
– Ignazio Silone. (Italy/Switzerland) Silione was a politically active Italian writer and was born 'Secondino Tranquilli' on 1 May 1900 in Pescina, Abruzzo. He later took the name Ignazio Silione. After an earthquake in which he lost his family and his parents' house, he was active in agricultural labour struggles in his youth. He then worked as a writer for the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), and from around 1917 he lived in Rome and, as a member of a trade union, was responsible for its newspaper. Around 1919 he became a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). On the communist side, Silione was involved in the resistance against the emerging and strengthening fascism and went into exile in Switzerland around 1930. Due to great disappointment, he broke with communism shortly afterwards and left the party, although he remained attached to socialist views. He wrote numerous books and worked for various newspapers. Silione died in Geneva in August 1978.
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Trust is a delicate plant; if it is destroyed, it will not come back as soon as possible.
- Otto von Bismarck. (Germany) Otto von Bismarckborn on 1 April 1815 in Schönhausen near Stendal (in present-day Saxony-Anhalt), died on 30 July 1898 in Friedrichsruh near Hamburg; Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890; Otto von Bismarck is regarded as the architect or blacksmith of the German Empire of 1871, and he was known as the "Iron Chancellor". He is still regarded as one of the most important politicians and the most outstanding and influential personality in Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm on Otto von Bismarck: Bismarck is more important for the Reich than I am. It is not easy to be emperor under this chancellor.
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Your map of Africa is very nice, but my map of Africa is here in Europe. Here is Russia, and here is France, and we are in the centre; this is my map of Africa.
– Otto von Bismark. (Germany) Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890, to Eugen Wolf, Africa traveller and advocate of German colonies in Africa, in December 1888. Bismarck rejected German colony acquisition and regarded the supporters of these ideas and the colonial associations as his opponents. He considered the German Empire to be "saturated". It was only after Bismarck's forced resignation in 1890 that the German Empire undertook the conquest of colonies on a large scale, as other European countries had done for a long time. This was never profitable for the state and entailed considerable disadvantages. Bismarck was proved right in his scepticism towards colonies.
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And is it not also natural and necessary, after what has been said so far, that neither the uneducated and those ignorant of the truth will properly preside over the state, nor those who are constantly allowed to occupy themselves with the sciences?
– Plato. (Greek philosopher, ca. 428 to ca. 348 BC) From Plato's allegory of the cavepart of the Politeia.
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But if the hungry and the poor take up public affairs, in the opinion that they must seize good things from there, that will not do. For if the administration becomes something to be fought over, such a domestic and internal war must spoil the belligerents themselves and the rest of the state.
– Plato. (Greek philosopher, ca. 428 to ca. 348 BC) From Plato's allegory of the cavepart of the Politeia.
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We decide something, put it in the room and wait a while to see what happens. If there is no big clamour and no riots because most people don't understand what has been decided, then we carry on - step by step, until there is no turning back.
– Jean-Claude Juncker. (Luxembourg). Juncker was President of the European Commission from 1994 to 2019 and is a member of Luxembourg's Christian Social People's Party (CSV/PCS). Before 1994, he was Finance Minister and Prime Minister in Luxembourg. The quote comes from the German political weekly magazine "Der Spiegel", 1999. The EU Commission uses this method to advance projects that are unpopular with governments and citizens. Source: Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (Editorial Network Germany - RND), 22/10/2019 - https://www.rnd.de/politik/jean-claude-juncker-in-sieben-zitaten-YFQ6AJPGQFCIPCIZU4KQS5CU6A.html
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Washington and its allies keep to the well-established principle that democracy is acceptable only insofar as it conforms to strategic and economic objectives: fine in enemy territory (up to a point), but not in our backyard, please, unless properly tamed.
– Noam Chomsky. (USA) Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author, born in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) in 1928. Since the beginning of the Vietnam War, he has been a staunch critic of US foreign and war policy and is regarded as a pioneer of the anti-globalisation movement. Source of the quote should be: The Guardian, February 4, 2011
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I mean the biggest international terror operations that are known are the ones that are run out of Washington.
– Noam Chomsky. (USA) Professor of linguistics and author. The quote comes from the film "Manufacturing Consent", based on the book of the same name. The film documents the life's work and views of Noam Chomsky. In particular, he criticises the USA's quest for world power as well as various forms of influence on the media and media censorship.
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Enlightenment is man's exit from his self-inflicted immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's intellect without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-inflicted if the cause of it is not a lack of understanding, but a lack of resolution and courage to make use of it without the guidance of another.
– Immanuel Kant. German philosopher, Königsberg (East Prussia); 1724 to 1804
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"Democracy also includes the ability to allow others to live with you and alongside you, not as subordinates, but as co-exists in competition. Otherwise it is not a democracy, but a sham democracy."
– Herbert Wehner. German politician, born 1906 in Dresden, died 1990 in Bonn; (Communist Party of Germany, KPD until 1942 and Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD from 1946), member of the EU Parliament in the 1950s and member of the Bundestag, Federal Minister for All-German Affairs from 1966 to 1969
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"Tyrannies, when they are strong, and democracies, when they are too weak, cannot tolerate criticism."
– Joxe Azurmendi. Basque writer, philosopher, essayist and poet, 1941 in "Sokratesen Defentsa". Donostia 1999, p. 57.
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"The European Parliament is not a parliament. You cannot give rights to a parliament, the parliament gives rights. A parliament that has to beg the Commission for its own budget, that cannot levy taxes, that cannot appoint or dismiss a government, does not deserve the name and will never develop into an instrument of democracy."
– Ralf Dahrendorf. 1929-2009, German-British sociologist, university lecturer, politician (party: FDP), member of the Landtag, member of the Bundestag and publicist; in an interview with Thomas Darnstädt and Romain Leick "All eggs in one basket" in response to the question "Should the European Parliament be given more rights?" DER SPIEGEL 50/1995 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9247341.html
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"Indoctrination is by no means incompatible with democracy. Rather [...] its essence. [...] Without truncheons, without control by force [...] one must control thought. To do this, one resorts to what in more honest times was called propaganda."
– Noam Chomsky. (USA) Professor of linguistics and author.
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The greatest enemy of the new order is those who took advantage of the old one.
– Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469 - 1527) was an Italian diplomat, historian and philosopher of the Renaissance.
Mainly due to his work Il Principe (The Prince), he is considered one of the most important philosophers of state in modern times. Machiavelli was concerned here - in a neutral approach - with analysing power analytically rather than taking a normative approach and establishing the difference between what should be and what is. In his analysis, he orientated himself on what he considered to be empirically ascertainable. His main political-philosophical work Discorsi has faded into the background.
The term "Machiavellianism", coined later, is often used as a pejorative description of behaviour that, although sophisticated, sees its own power and well-being as the goal without the ethical influences of morals and morality. His name is therefore often associated today with ruthless power politics utilising all means. However, this is a misinterpretation of his work and does not do him justice in this simplicity.
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Act in such a way that the maxim of your will could at any time be regarded as the principle of a general law.
Also cited as:
Act in such a way that the premise of your will could also be regarded as the principle of a general law.
– Immanuel Kant. German philosopher, Königsberg (East Prussia); 1724 to 1804.
Also known as the "categorical imperative" and a fundamental principle of ethics. The term is used in Immanuel Kant's "Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals" (GMS) and presented in the "Critique of practical reason" (KpV) was developed in detail.
This principle, also known as the "Golden Rule", is found in many religious, cultural and philosophical systems, including Confucius.
It is also known in common parlance as a proverb in Germany due to its negation: Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself.
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We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
- Abraham Lincoln. (USA) Abraham Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 near Hodgenville, Hardin County (today: LaRue County, Kentucky), died 15 April 1865 in Washington, D.C. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the USA from 1861 to 1865.
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I also always regard a victorious war as an evil in itself, which statesmanship must endeavour to spare the peoples.
– Otto von Bismark. (Germany) Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890