Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister
MUNICH, February 10, 2007. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/02/a50c8a12-b6a8-44ad-92dd-58183e78a032.html <br class="br">2006- 2010
Quoted in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern Turkey, by Andrew Mango; "In a book published in 1928, Grace Ellison quotes [Atatürk], presumably in 1926-27", Grace Ellison Turkey Today (London: Hutchinson, 1928)
Context: I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him against the liberty of his fellow-men.
Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister
MUNICH, February 10, 2007. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/02/a50c8a12-b6a8-44ad-92dd-58183e78a032.html <br class="br">2006- 2010
Arthur Compton (1892–1962) American physicist
Banquet speech http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1927/compton-speech.html for his Nobel Prize, 1927.
Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) Historian
"Reasons to De-Test the Schools," New York Times (1988-10-11), later published in Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (1991)
“I teach the people correct principles and they govern themselves.”
Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805–1844) American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Quoted by John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 10:57-58 (18 May 1862)
When asked how he governed his followers in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr.
Hamid Karzai (1957) President of Afghanistan
Interview with Times magazine http://e-ariana.com/ariana/eariana.nsf/allDocs/cc7ab8451a21adbb872571ee0040fc07!OpenDocument&Click= (September 10, 2006) <br class="br">2006
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Chomsky on Miseducation, 1999 http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/rouge_forum/newspaper/fall2001/Chomsky.htm. <br class="br">Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999 <br class="br">Context: Because they don't teach the truth about the world, schools have to rely on beating students over the head with propaganda about democracy. If schools were, in reality, democratic, there would be no need to bombard students with platitudes about democracy. They would simply act and behave democratically, and we know this does not happen. The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.
“Learn knowledge and science from him who teaches it, even if he doesn't practice what he preaches.”
Muhammad al-Baqir (677–733) fifth of the Twelve Shia Imams
Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 299
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Charlie Rose: An Interview with Carl Sagan http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/4553, May 27, 1996. <br class="br">Context: We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it?
Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist and writer
Source: The Secret Oral Teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist Sects (1964)