I particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war. The policies-determiniung who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live-qwew and antidemocratic disgrace. I can never forgive a leadership that said, in effect: These young men-poorer, less educated, less privileged-are expendable (someone described them as "economic cannon fodder"), but the rest are too good to risk. I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well-placed and so many professional athletes (who were probably healthier than any of us) managed to wangle slots in reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe an equal allegiance to their country.

Colin Powell, My American Journey,   p. 148

Alexander Solzenitsyn

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Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
from Strength to Love, 1963

One comes across certain wild animals, male and female, scattered over the countryside, who cling to the soil, dig into it, and turn it over with tireless persistence. They have a sort of articulate voice, and when they stand up one sees a human face. They are in fact men. At night they huddle in their lair, where they live on bread and water and roots. They spare other men the trouble of working for a living and thus they ought not to lack the bread they have worked for.
Jean de La Bruyere, Caractères (1688)
plus ça change...

The inhabitants of the United States have been repeatedly and constantly told that they are the only religious,
enlightened, and free people.  They have an immensely high opinion of themselves and are not far from
believing that they form a species apart from the rest of the human race.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Diaries

War is God's way of teaching Americans geography
Ambrose Bierce

Buildings should not awe and impress, but rather, serve as a thoughtful background for the activities of contemporary man.
Minoru Yamasaki
chief architect of the World Trade Center

There is nothing hip or slick about being ignorant.  
And there is nothing hip or slick about going around killing each other for no good reason.
Al Sharpton
October 1992
in a speech at John Marshall High School in Rochester, New York
At moments like these, when the leadership potential of this man can be seen, something else can be seen clearly as well; how unfortunate it is that he has so often and so needlessly squandered his credibility.

Since the end of the Cold War the United States has become more assertive, more convinced in its
righteousness and more determined that other countries accept its point of view. In a desire to achieve security for themselves, Americans are now putting world stability and security at risk.
Malcolm Fraser
former prime minister of Australia
commenting American missile defense plans for the International Herald Tribune
July 28, 2000

You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.
Jessica Mitford

We know W. was born on third base. The question now is, can he steal home?
Paul Begala
...and the answer is...(unfortunately)...yes...

If you're being beaten, remember, it only gets worse.
Rudy Giuliani
from a radio public service radio ad ostensibly urging victims of domestic violence to seek help
The mayor is actually using this opportunity to further intimidate and torment victims of his abusiveness.

To recognize knowledge as ignorance is noble, but to regard ignorance as knowledge is evil.
Buddha
Remember this the next time some conservative tries to tell you that it didn't matter that Ronald Reagan got the facts wrong because he had an understanding of core principles or an intuitive grasp of the big picture.

It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.
Gore Vidal

To say that people have an equal right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, means that if, in fact, there is inequality in those things, society has a responsibility to correct the situation and to ensure that equality.
Howard Zinn,
Declarations of Inedpendence

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Nothing succeeds like the appearance of success.
Christopher Lasch

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Every woman adores a fascist,
The boot in the face, the brute
Brute heart of a brute like you.
Sylvia Plath
as quoted by Erica Jong in Fear of Flying

If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have nerve enough to be homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives."
Barry Goldwater
1981 speech.

Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term...to the general prey of the rich upon the poor.
Thomas Jefferson  
letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787

Powerlessness corrupts and absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.- Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.
Abraham Lincoln-
message to Congress, December 3, 1861

George F. Kennan described as "intrinsically silly and childish" claims that
policies of the Reagan administration brought down the Soviet Union.