“Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires”

— Blaise Pascal

Discourses on the Condition of the Great
Context: It is not your strength and your natural power that subjects all these people to you. Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires; alleviate their necessities; let your pleasure consist in being beneficent; advance them as much as you can, and you will act like the true king of desire.

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Blaise Pascal144

French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Chri… 1623–1662

Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

“It was a melancholy secret that reality can arouse desires but never satisfy them.”

Erich Maria Remarque book Three Comrades

Source: Three Comrades

“Faith is not Desire. Faith is Will. Desires are things that need to be satisfied, whereas Will is a force. Will changes the space around us,…”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

“Sufficiently rich to satisfy all my desires and the reasonable desires of all those about me.”

David Ricardo (1772–1823) British political economist, broker and politician

Letter to James Mill, 1815, quoted in Newschool biography http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/ricardo.htm

“I wonder what it feels like to have no desires left because you have satisfied them all, smothered them with money even before they are born. Is an existence without desire very desirable? And is the poverty of desire better than rank poverty itself?”

Vikas Swarup book Q & A

Source: Q & A

“I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Interview in Playboy (November 1999)
Context: Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business. I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.