Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“The most favorable moment to seize a man and influence him is when he is alone in the mass.”
Vintage, p. 9
Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (1965)
Context: The most favorable moment to seize a man and influence him is when he is alone in the mass. It is at this point that propaganda can be most effective.
As quoted in Charting the Candidates '72 (1972) by Ronald Van Doren, p. 7
1940s–present
Context: The state — or, to make the matter more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”
“What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.”
The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
Context: ... education should try to lessen the obstacles, diminish the friction, invigorate the energy, and should train minds to react, not at haphazard, but by choice, on the lines of force that attract their world. What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn. Throughout human history the waste of mind has been appalling, and, as this story is meant to show, society has conspired to promote it. No doubt the teacher is the worst criminal, but the world stands behind him and drags the student from his course. The moral is stentorian. Only the most energetic, the most highly fitted, and the most favored have overcome the friction or the viscosity of inertia, and these were compelled to waste three-fourths of their energy in doing it.
“Fortune seized at the right moment gives victory.”
"Political Affairs" - Page 1005 by Earl Browder.
