“We are only puppets, our strings are being pulled by unknown forces.”
Act II.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
“It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”
As quoted in The Social Dimensions Of Law And Justice In Contemporary India (1979) by V. R. Krishna Iyer
Context: It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation. The fact that obedience is often a necessity in human society does not diminish our responsibility as citizens. Rather, it confers on us a special obligation to place in positions of authority those most likely to use it humanely. And people are inventive. The variety of political forms we have seen in history are only several of many possible political arrangements. Perhaps the next step is to invent and to explore political forms that will give conscience a better chance to resist errant authority.
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Stanley Milgram 11
Social psychologist 1933–1984Related quotes
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“Money is the string with which a sardonic destiny directs the motions of its puppets.”
W. Somerset Maugham
(1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer
Quoted in Somerset Maugham (1980) by Ted Morgan
Julie Taymor
(1952) American film and theatre director
As quoted in "New York at Work; Puppeteer Creates Shows for Grown-Ups" by N. R. Kleinfield The New York Times (2 July 1991)
Arthur Koestler
(1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist
Epilogue
The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959)
Context: The uomo universale of the Renaissance, who was artist and craftsman, philosopher and inventor, humanist and scientist, astronomer and monk, all in one, split up into his component parts. Art lost its mythical, science its mystical inspiration; man became again deaf to the harmony of the spheres. The Philosophy of Nature became ethically neutral, and "blind" became the favourite adjective for the working of natural law. The space-spirit hierarchy was replaced by the space-time continuum.... man's destiny was no longer determined from "above" by a super-human wisdom and will, but from "below" by the sub-human agencies of glands, genes, atoms, or waves of probability.... they could determine his fate, but could provide him with no moral guidance, no values and meaning. A puppet of the Gods is a tragic figure, a puppet suspended on his chromosomes is merely grotesque.
Julie Taymor
(1952) American film and theatre director
Academy of Achievement interview (2006)
Context: You know, we still hear the word "puppet" and we get this nauseating image of some kind of Muppet or something. Puppets really are the origin of theater. Even the shadow on the wall of Plato's cave was a puppet. The very first actor was some kind of hand creating some kind of animal.
“We use puppets because they can get away with more.”
Jimmy Kimmel
(1967) American talk show host and comedian
On the concept of the program Crank Yankers — reported in Walt Belcher (May 31, 2002) "From The Remote Bergs To The Well-Heeled Burbs, Singles Seek Love", The Tampa Tribune, p. 4.