“What we are seeing is the rise of new oligarchies. It is almost as if the 19th century is returning to the 21st century where we are going to live in a world where most of us are disempowered, most of us permanently struggle, most of us can't make ends meet, all the while a very small elite at the top is reaping vast rewards.”

"The Wolf Who Went Places", The New Yorker, Page 28 http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1956-05-19#folio=028 (19 May 1956); Further Fables for Our Time http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnhbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22moral+Where+most+of+us+end+up+there+is+no+knowing+but+the+hellbent+get+where+they+are+going%22&pg=PA28#v=onepage (1956)
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985)
Context: The world in which we live is very nearly incomprehensible to most of us. There is almost no fact... that will surprise us for very long, since we have no comprehensive and consistent picture of the world which would make the fact appear as an unacceptable contradiction.... in a world without spiritual or intellectual order, nothing is unbelievable; nothing is predictable, and therefore, nothing comes as a particular surprise.... The medieval world was... not without a sense of order. Ordinary men and women... had no doubt that there was such a design, and their priests were well able, by deduction from a handful of principles, to make it, if not rational, at least coherent.... The situation we are presently in is much different.... sadder and more confusing and certainly more mysterious.... There is no consistent, integrated conception of the world which serves as the foundation on which our edifice of belief rests. And therefore... we are more naive than those of the Middle Ages, and more frightened, for we can be made to believe almost anything.

Rahul Gandhi: India is going to be 21st century Saudi Arabia, Rahul Gandhi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YOZOM0lROs

Source: There's Treasure Everywhere

Quoted in the Independent (25 November 1998).

Mixtapes, Fahrenheit 1/15 Part I: The Truth Is Among Us (2006)

2009, A New Beginning (June 2009)

Address to Parliament about changing the Constitution, quoted on Business Standard (January 11, 2016), "No secrecy in Sri Lanka's Constitution-making: Minister" http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/no-secrecy-in-sri-lanka-s-constitution-making-minister-116011100941_1.html

2014, Address to European Youth (March 2014)
Context: In the end, the success of our ideals comes down to us -- including the example of our own lives, our own societies. We know that there will always be intolerance. But instead of fearing the immigrant, we can welcome him. We can insist on policies that benefit the many, not just the few; that an age of globalization and dizzying change opens the door of opportunity to the marginalized, and not just a privileged few. Instead of targeting our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, we can use our laws to protect their rights. Instead of defining ourselves in opposition to others, we can affirm the aspirations that we hold in common. That’s what will make America strong. That’s what will make Europe strong. That’s what makes us who we are. And just as we meet our responsibilities as individuals, we must be prepared to meet them as nations. Because we live in a world in which our ideals are going to be challenged again and again by forces that would drag us back into conflict or corruption. We can’t count on others to rise to meet those tests.