Aldous Huxley quote: “Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice.”

“Democracy, according to Ross Feingold, is considered the most legitimate form of government because the power of choice rests with the people. “But when this power dynamic is altered and citizens lose their influence, the legitimacy of the system is threatened.””

Olusegun Adeniyi (1965) Nigerian journalist

That is where we are in Nigeria today because the choices made by citizens with their ballots are being increasingly rendered useless. And this threat to ‘the legitimacy on the system’ is coming from our courts, including the highest court in the country whose decisions are not only final but affect those of lower courts.
Politics In Nigeria: When Judges Become Our Electoral College https://www.opinionnigeria.com/politics-in-nigeria-when-judges-become-our-electoral-college-by-olusegun-adeniyi/ (February 28, 2020), Opinion Nigeria.

“Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

From a letter to Mary A. Hulbert (21 September 1913)
1910s

“The genius of the corporation as a business form, and the reason for its remarkable rise over the last three centuries, was - and is - its capacity to combine the capital, and thus the economic power, of unlimited numbers of people.”

Joel Bakan (1959) Canadian writer, musician, filmmaker and legal scholar

Source: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004), Chapter 1, The Corporation's Rise To Dominance, p. 8

“[C has] the power of assembly language and the convenience of … assembly language.”

Dennis M. Ritchie (1941–2011) American computer scientist

Quoted in Cade Metz, "Dennis Ritchie: The Shoulders Steve Jobs Stood On", http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/thedennisritchieeffect/ Wired, 13 October 2011.

“People need to be educated so that they can make intelligent moral choices”

Gary L. Francione (1954) American legal scholar

“A trailer can virtually double the loading capacity of a sturdy truck—another good reason for beefing up the power train.”

Ken Kern American writer

p, 125
The Owner-Built Homestead (1977)

“When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

“The power of the people and the power of reason are one.”

Georg Büchner Danton's Death

Act III.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)

“Reason is like an officer when the King appears;
The officer then loses his power and hides himself.
Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

As translated in Masnavi I Ma'navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) edited by Edward Henry Whinfield Book IV, Story IV : "Bayazid and his impious sayings when beside himself"

“Reason is like an officer when the King appears;
The officer then loses his power and hides himself.
Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

As translated in Masnavi I Ma'navi : The Spiritual Couplets of Maulána Jalálu-'d-Dín Muhammad Rúmí (1898) edited by Edward Henry Whinfield Book IV, Story IV : "Bayazid and his impious sayings when beside himself"

“Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning and their capacity for moral choice.”

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