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) From the 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 Jean-Claude 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 Minister of Finance and Prime Minister in Luxembourg.
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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„, nach dem gleichnamigen Buch. Der Film dokumentiert das Lebenswerk und Ansichten von Noam Chomsky. Er kritisiert darin vor allem das Weltmachtsteben der USA sowie verschiedene Formen von Einflussnahme auf Medien und Medienzensur.
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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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„Zur Demokratie gehört auch die Fähigkeit, andere mit sich und neben sich leben zu lassen, nicht als Untergeordnete, sondern als im Wettbewerb Nebeneinander-Stehende. Sonst ist das keine Demokratie, sondern eine Scheindemokratie.“
– Herbert Wehner. Deutscher Politiker, geboren 1906 in Dresden, gestorben 1990 in Bonn; (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, KPD bis 1942 und ab 1946 Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD), in den 1950er Jahren Mitglied des EU-Parlaments und Abgeordneter im Bundestag, 1966 bis 1969 Bundesminister für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen
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„Tyrannein, wenn sie stark sind, und Demokratien, wenn sie zu schwach sind, können sie keine Kritik vertragen.“
– Joxe Azurmendi. Baskischer Schriftsteller, Philosoph, Essayist und Dichter, 1941 in „Sokratesen Defentsa“. Donostia 1999, S. 57.
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„Das Europäische Parlament ist kein Parlament. Man kann einem Parlament keine Rechte geben, das Parlament gibt Rechte. Ein Parlament, das bei der Kommission um seinen eigenen Haushalt betteln muß, das keine Steuern erheben kann, das keine Regierung bestellt oder entläßt, verdient diesen Namen nicht und wird sich nie zu einem Instrument der Demokratie entwickeln.“
– Ralf Dahrendorf. 1929–2009, deutsch-britischer Soziologe, Hochschullehrer, Politiker (Partei: FDP), Mitglied des Landtages, Mitglied des Bundestages und Publizist; im Interview mit Thomas Darnstädt und Romain Leick „Alle Eier in einen Korb“ als Antwort auf die Frage „Müßte das Europäische Parlament mehr Rechte bekommen?“ DER SPIEGEL 50/1995 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9247341.html
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„Indoktrination ist keineswegs inkompatibel mit der Demokratie. Vielmehr […] ihre Essenz. […] Ohne Knüppel, ohne Kontrolle durch Gewalt […] muß man das Denken kontrollieren. Dazu greift man zu dem, was in ehrlicheren Zeiten Propaganda genannt wurde.“
– Noam Chomsky. (USA) Professor für Linguistik und Autor.