Quotes about point
page 59

“At this point, we can see that Jesus has been raised by Luke from zero to a hero.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Doctors and nurses will never understand your romantic feelings. Because for them the heart is only there to pump blood throughout the body, they cannot see anything beyond their nose. They also cannot point to the source of love in the body.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Feeling, Understanding, Heart

“Morality has got nothing to do with the politicians. Simply, because the straight line is considered by them as the longest distance between the two points.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Sunrise and sunset are all the same from an observer's point of view. As life is the same at birth and at death. The true Self continues.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life, Death, Birth

“The concept of heaven is so beautiful to the point where imagination rules the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

World, Beauty, Imagination

“The power of love is so strong; to the point where you want to do something after knowing it won't be good for you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Strong

“Ideas and opinions, like living organisms, have a normal rate of growth which cannot be either checked or forced beyond a certain point. They can be held in check more safely than they can be hurried. They can also be killed; and one of the surest ways to kill them is to try to hurry them.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

The Art of Propagating Opinion
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part X - The Position of a HomoUnius Libri

Way, Idea

“Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Religion
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality

Men, People, Religion

“Theological perspective is characterized extrinsically by its concern with defending conceptual and moral interests, whereas pure metaphysics sets forth the nature of things, while being aware of aspects and points of view.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2019, Esoterism as Principle and as Way, World Wisdom, 12, 978-1-93659765-9]
Miscellaneous, Theology

Nature

“Metaphysics intends to furnish dialectically only reference points; it offers − and this is its entire reason for being − a system of perfectly sufficient keys, through a language that cannot be other than indicative and elliptical.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[1991, Roots of the Human Condition, World Wisdom, 21, 0-941532-11-9]
Spiritual path, Metaphysics

“We've been conditioned to think that only politicians can solve our problems. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was the politicians who created our problems.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Said in a Fox Business interview https://www.facebook.com/FoxBusiness/posts/weve-been-conditioned-to-think-that-only-politicians-can-solve-our-problems-but-/10153892947535238/ (February 9, 2016)

Problem, Thinking

“Beyond a given point man is not helped by more "knowing", but only by living and doing in a partly self-forgetful way.”

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

The Denial of Death (1973), The Present Outcome of Psychoanalysis

Way, Help, Forgetting

“My job as an actor is to just tell the story as best I can from my character's point of view and let the audience decide.”

Sebastian Stan (1982) Romanian-American actor

Quote

“Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.”

Knute Rockne (1888–1931) American college football player and college football coach (1888-1931)

As quoted in Knute Rockne: Man Builder (1940) by Harry Augustus Stuhldreher, p. 53

Strong

“The point I wish to emphasize is not an economic one, but a human one: if you try to say too many things, you don’t say anything at all.”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Journal Articles

“Ask yourself what is the point of advertising prescription drugs... Clearly they... expect we will... demand that our doctors write the prescriptions.”

Barry Schwartz book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

The Paradox of Choice (2004)

“Unlike women, who always think of themselves as unimportant, men always think of themselves as the center of the universe. Every single sentence from men carries utmost importance, and points out the right direction in which the world should advance.”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "“Average-yet-confident”: A comedian coined a Chinese equivalent to “mansplaining”" in Quartz https://qz.com/1956642/female-comedian-yang-li-coins-chinas-version-of-mansplaining/ (23 January 2021)

Women, Men, World, Thinking

“There are several different meanings of the words "religion" and "spirituality", all of which are important. The whole point about an integral or comprehensive approach is that it must find a way to believably include all of those important meanings in a coherent whole.”

Ken Wilber (1949) American writer and public speaker

Source: Which Level of God Do You Believe In? (2004)

Religion, Way

“The growth of the creator economy has accelerated much faster than I ever could have dreamed of when we began this journey eight years ago. We are at a critical inflection point and I’m excited to partner closely with Tiffany to scale our teams to power our next phase of growth.”

Jack Conte (1984) American musician and entrepreneur

Source: Patreon chief: IPO “on the table” but not all creators will benefit https://www.verdict.co.uk/patreon-ipo/ (October 22, 2021)

Dreams

“I'm still working, but we have to start by putting forward a diplomatic arrangement. This point obtained, we would have a good chance of success. For the moment, the Belgian shipping word in China should not be used at any price.”

Pierre Emmanuel Félix Chazal (1808–1892) Belgian politician (1808-1892)

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Minister Chazal, who had little ambition in an almost impossible Chinese adventure, Confronting the French practicalities and the British stubbornness of that expedition was most likely the last thing on his mind. Even the experienced king had already given up all hope. The enthusiastic young Leopold did not give up and started to advise the minister himself. KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 111/13, the Duke of Brabant to Chazal, October 4, 1859.

Chance, Success

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Quotes related to the Belgian Colonial Empire <br class="br">Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Minister Chazal, who had little ambition in an almost impossible Chinese adventure, Confronting the French practicalities and the British stubbornness of that expedition was most likely the last thing on his mind. Even the experienced king had already given up all hope. The enthusiastic young Leopold did not give up and started to advise the minister himself. KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 111/13, the Duke of Brabant to Chazal, October 4, 1859.

Chance, Success

“I very much lament for what has happened to the groves in Madhura. The coconut trees have all been cut and in their place are to be seen rows of iron spikes with human skulls dangling at the points.”

Gangadevi Indian princess and Sanskrit poetess

Source: Gangadevi. On the condition of Madurai under the Muslim rule. Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal (2006), Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts and Historical Issues, Anthem Press, ISBN 978-1-84331-132-4

Tree

“There wasn’t a lot of substance, and I think at some point we got to get to substance in the most significant political position in the world.”

Mark Sanford (1960) 115th Governor of South Carolina

Source: Talking about Trump’s lack of knowledge of how many articles exist according to" Trump Manages To Give Some House GOPers More Heartburn In Hill Meeting http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-changes-few-minds-with-meeting-on-the-hill" (July 7, 2016)

World, Thinking

“There's literally no difference between a physician recognizing a disease from a "facial expression", and a little child pointing to something and saying "doggie."”

Daniel Kahneman (1934) Israeli-American psychologist

Source: Talks at Google - Nov 10, 2011

Disease

“It is quite bizarre that scholars trying to prove a point discredit their own case by using a proven forgery without any comment.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

Source: 2000s, Ayodhya: The Case Against the Temple (2002)

“Unfortunately, good stories are so compelling to us when we take the role of psychologist or social analyst that we do not realize that at best they constitute just a starting point for analysis.”

Robyn Dawes (1936–2010) American psychologist

Source: Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us Systematically Fail to Think Rationally (2001), Chapter 7, “Good Stories” (p. 138)

“Surprise becomes effective when we suddenly face the enemy at one point with far more troops than he expected. This type of numerical superiority is quite distinct from numerical superiority in general: it is the most powerful medium in the art of war.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

Source: On War (1832), Book 6, Chapter 1.

War, Art

“Man reaches the highest point of his knowledge about God when he knows that he knows him not, inasmuch as he knows that that which is God transcends whatsoever he conceives of him.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Source: De potentia (c. 1265–1266) q. 7, art. 5, ad 14

God, Knowledge

“The point being that the influence of dharmic philosophy on Western culture runs deep and yet consistently goes unacknowledged.”

Rajiv Malhotra book Being Different

Source: Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism (2011)

“A universal refusal to propagate the human species would be the greatest of conceivable crimes from a Utilitarian point of view.”

Henry Sidgwick book The Methods of Ethics

Source: The Methods of Ethics (1874), Book 4, chapter 5, section 3 (7th ed., 1907)

Universe

“Some asteroids are made of an iron-nickel-cobalt alloy. Others contain carbon. Combine those and you have steel alloy. A solar furnace can heat the mix to the point you can cast or roll it to shape. So structural parts are about the easiest thing to do.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

Parting

“[T]he basic decisions are... about aims... what is desirable... the greater good or the lesser evil in the case of conflicting aims... what sacrifice we are willing to make for a certain achievement, and at what point the sacrifice outweighs the advantages.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The Future of Industrial Man (1942), p. 120

Decision, Evil

“Story of my life. I wasted nearly a decade before I realized that life is not a game and there are no save points or second chances.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Labyrinth Index (2018), Chapter 1, “God Save the King” (p. 40)

Life, Game, Chance

“A story with no moral isn't worth writing; a story with no plot isn't worth reading. And if people get your point before they get your story, you are to hire a soapbox instead.”

Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930–1999) Novelist, editor

Source: Introduction to Hawk’s Hill in Marion Zimmer Bradley (ed.), Sword and Sorceress 7 (1990), p. 183

People, Reading

“What's the point of being the greatest, most powerful nation in the world and not having an imperial role?”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

Quoted in The Reactionary Mind
2000s

World

“Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not any one with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VIII, 21

World, Parting

“I respect the institution of marriage as my parents were married until death literally parted them and they had a beautiful relationship. The problem is at some point, it begins to annoy you because of how much importance people have placed on it.”

Rita Dominic (1975) Nigerian actress

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/04/i-wont-rush-into-marriage-to-please-the-public-rita-dominic/amp/ Rita Dominic on marriage.

Death, Marriage, People, Beauty

“Resist until you are tortured, but do not take torture to the point where you lose the permanent use of your limbs.”

James Robinson Risner (1925–2013) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: "Robinson Risner, Ace Fighter Pilot, Dies at 88" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/us/robinson-risner-ace-fighter-pilot-dies-at-88.html (27 October 2013)

“Korea was probably the high point of my whole career as far as real gratification is concerned.”

James Robinson Risner (1925–2013) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: "Nine Feet Tall" in Air Force Magazine https://www.airforcemag.com/article/0212tall/ (1 February 2012)

“I think to some degree, all politics is personal. It would be naïve of me to say I wrote a book just about immigrants and there's nothing political about it. As has been pointed out to me in the past, it's political to have the last name that I have. There's nothing that's not political…”

Cristina Henríquez (1977) American writer

Source: On the indirect relationship between literature and politics in “Cristina Henriquez Talks 'The Book of Unknown Americans,' POC vs. MFA, and Compassion” https://www.bustle.com/articles/27838-cristina-henriquez-talks-the-book-of-unknown-americans-poc-vs-mfa-and-compassion in Bustle (2014 Jun 13)

Books, Thinking, Past, Personality

“I ask anyone to point to any territorial change we made in respect to Germany in Europe which is in the least an injustice, judged by any principle of fairness.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Prime Minister <br class="br">Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1919/jul/03/territorial-adjustments#column_1215 in the House of Commons on the Treaty of Versailles (3 July 1919)

Change

“First law of gossip—there’s no point knowing something if somebody else doesn’t know you know it.”

Ben Aaronovitch book Moon Over Soho

Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 11, “Those Foolish Things” (p. 239)

Law

“The only time I've ever been moderately successful is in combat was in the bottom of my class at West Point because of a goat mind. And a goat is the bottom of the bottom.”

Robert Lee Scott Jr. (1908–2006) Brigadier General in the United States Air Force

Source: "Gen. Robert L. Scott" in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2006/03/01/gen-robert-l-scott/b5a0d04e-7d3b-4189-9490-92489a10a78d/ (1 March 2006)

Time, Success

“We have no idea what waits for us out there. We did not choose this situation, and whatever manner of creature or accident has stranded us here did not take much notice of our welfare. I would say nice moral questions are beside the point, and that pragmatism is the order of the day.”

Arthur C. Clarke A Time Odyssey

Source: 2000s and posthumous publications, A Time Odyssey, Time's Eye (2003), Chapter 21, “Return to Jamrud” (p. 181)

Idea, Question, Waiting

“I am not implying that our entire Government is corrupt. I am saying that it is corrupt to the point that no-one is untouched by it.”

John McAfee (1945) American computer programmer and businessman

Source: on Twitter, 10 Jun 2019

“The most treasured resource is our people and, if their health deteriorates, productivity and excellence will become mere talking points and not achievable objectives.”

Linah Mohohlo (1952–2021) Botswana banker

Source: PRODUCTIVITY WEEK DINNER DANCE ADDRESS https://www.bankofbotswana.bw/sites/default/files/speech-documents/productivity-week-dance-october-25-2001.pdf (October 25, 2001)

People, Health

“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return ... The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation ... the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Source: Exploration of Space (1952)

History, Past, Childhood

“Democracy is confronted by serious challenges, to the point that we could say there is a war declared against democracy. A war which we need us all to confront with more political will and determination, consensus and solidarity.”

Salome Zourabichvili (1952) Georgian politician and former French diplomat

Salome Zourabichvili (2021) cited in: " Georgia greets 2022 with prospects of a ‘murky national accord’ https://oc-media.org/features/georgia-greets-2022-with-prospects-of-a-murky-national-accord/" in OC Media, 30 December 2021.

War, Democracy

“We have been clever, and on occasion we have been foolish. For smart monkeys, we can, when the mood takes us, be exceedingly stupid. But it was cleverness that brought us to this point, and it is only cleverness that will serve us from now on.
We have no time for anything else.”

Alastair Reynolds book Blue Remembered Earth

Source: Blue Remembered Earth (2012), Epilogue (p. 562; closing words)

Stupidity, Mood, Time

“Military men, when confronted with the mutterings of disaffected taxpayers, always pointed out how good these government military expenditures were for business.”

John Thomas Flynn (1882–1964) American journalist

Source: As We Go Marching (1944), p. 104

Men, Business

“It is known that very distant nebulae, probably galactic systems like our own, show remarkably high receding velocities whose magnitude increases with the distance. This curious phenomenon promises to provide some important clues for the future development of our cosmological views. It maybe of advantage, therefore, to point out some of the principal facts which any cosmological theory will have to account for. Then a brief discussion will be given of different theoretical suggestions related to the above effect. Finally, a new effect of masses upon light will be suggested which is a sort of gravitational analogue of the Compton effect.”

Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974) Swiss astronomer

Source: Fritz Zwicky, [On the redshift of spectral lines through interstellar space, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 15, 10, 1929, 773–779, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC522555/] (quote from p. 773)

Light, Distant, Future

“I do not intend to ask whether Christianity is “true” or “false,” or to establish, for example, the former hypothesis. Rather, what will be in question here is what Christianity considers as truth – what kind of truth it offers to people, what it endeavors to communicate to them, not as a theoretical and indifferent truth but as the essential truth that by some mysterious affinity is suitable for them, to the point that it alone is capable of assuring them salvation. We are trying to understand the form of truth that circumscribes the domain of Christianity, the milieu in which it spreads, the air that it breaths, one might say – because there are many sorts of truths, many ways of being true or false. And we are also perhaps trying to get away from the concept of truth that dominates modern thought and that, as much in and of itself as in its multiple implications, determines the world in which we live.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 1

People, Truth, World, Way

“Mountain climbing is an analogue of the research process in theoretical physics. In working on a problem in physics one is never assured of a solution, because there are many false leads and pitfalls. Likewise in climbing there is no certainty of attaining the summit; the route is often unknown, or sometimes one attains a false summit. But the important point is that if you reach the top, the view is enormous. There is no comparison between what you see from just below the summit and what you can see from the top. Similarly with finally solving an important problem in physics the view you get is enormous.”

Heinz R. Pagels (1939–1988) American physicist

Source: The Cosmic Code (1982), p. 272

Mountain, Problem, Falseness

“I don’t know how long I sat there reading about it, but at some point I’d read enough. I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. I suppose I was in shock, but whether it was the shock of learning about something horrific, or the shock of learning about my own ignorance, I’m not sure.”

Tara Westover book Educated

Source: Educated (2018), Chapter 17, “To Keep it Holy” (p. 157; the reference is to the Holocaust)

Learning, Reading

“And all of this controversy circles me
And it seems like the media immediately points a finger at me
So I point one back at 'em, but not the index or pinky or the ring or the thumb
It's the one you put up when you don't give a fuck
When you won't just put up with the bullshit they pull”

Eminem book The Way I Am

"The Way I Am"
2000s, The Marshall Mathers L.P. (2000)

“There is no doubt in my mind that, from the third-person point of view, monarchy is the most reasonable form of government. By embodying the state in a fragile human person, it captures the arbitrariness and the givenness of political allegiance, and so transforms allegiance into affection.”

Roger Scruton (1944–2020) English philosopher

The Meaning of Conservatism (2001), p. 193

Personality

“An aphorism can be considered a logically completed thought, accepted from the point of view of its meaning for the expression of new sensations, knowledge and meanings.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Knowledge

“In fact, anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without reference point, experiences groundlessness.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

“The West has declared war on us, on the whole Russian world. The culture of canceling Russia and everything connected with our country is already reaching the point of absurdity.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

About the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022

War, World, Country

“[D]epression… can be usefully seen, from one point of view, as the inability to see or construct a future.”

Rollo May book Love and Will

Source: Love and Will (1969), Ch. 9 : Intentionality, p. 243

Future

“It is good to see a romance story getting the respect it deserves — people can relate because everyone gets the chance to fall in love at some point. Hopefully.”

Jonathan Bailey (1988) British actor

"Jonathan Bailey: Jonathan Bailey: ‘Sex scenes? They’re less exposing for men’" in The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bridgertons-jonathan-bailey-sex-scenes-theyre-less-exposing-for-men-s6m7db68j (13 March 2022)

Love, People, Chance

“The one-party state is a marvelous instrument for a war of liberation but as a government system, in every country at every latitude, it has revealed the same defects; it represents only one point of view.”

Ahmed Ben Bella (1916–2012) First President of Algeria

"Ahmed Ben Bella: Revolutionary Internationalist " in CounterCurrents https://countercurrents.org/2020/11/ahmed-ben-bella-revolutionary-internationalist/ (11 March 2020)

War, Country

“From the Christian point of view, we have an obligation to inform our people that God heals. But at the same time, He heals us through our understanding that we can protect ourselves from such illnesses.”

Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo (1956) Kenyan Roman Catholic archbishop

Bishops in Africa Call for Appropriate Measures as Cases of COVID-19 are Confirmed https://www.aciafrica.org/news/925/bishops-in-africa-call-for-appropriate-measures-as-cases-of-covid-19-are-confirmed (5 March 2020)

God, People, Understanding, Time

“Instead of elaborating on accepted principles, let us simply point out that for the last hundred years the natural sciences have abandoned completely the Aristotelian principles of intuition, inspiration, and dogmatism.”

Santiago Ramón y Cajal book Advice for a Young Investigator

Advice for a Young Investigator (1897)

Nature, Science

“When your income passes a certain point you lose touch. All of a sudden the other people look like geeks or gooks, expendables.”

Ross Macdonald (1915–1983) Novelist

The Goodbye Look (1969)

People

“When the Bible was the only book people knew, they naturally thought it embodied all that is true; but when their reading expanded, and with it the world, and a sense of other times, other voices, other possibilities and points of view, that authority could not last.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 20, “Intellectuals” (p. 86)

People, Books, World, Nature

“There are even more general points to be made about “cultural politics.””

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Despite appearances in the absurd and often comic debate about “political correctness”, the concept of high culture is not the possession of the political Right, nor does rejection of “post-modernism” and its essence, relativism (rejection of which is required for defence not just of the notion but of the value of high culture), amount to rejection of a progressive political perspective. Political resistance against hegemonies of wealth, class, race and sex in the late-twentieth-century Western world has mistakenly included rejection of the idea that there are cultural and intellectual values which transcend accidental boundaries in human experience, and thereby constitute a possession for the species as a whole. It has been a cheap source of reputation for “theorists” to claim that “reality is the product of discourse”, which means that different discourses constitute different realities, and therefore the truth and value are relative. Those who mistake the politics of resentment for the politics of justice find such views useful, because they equate “high culture” with “culture of the politically and economically dominant class, race or sex”, and therefore take it that attacks on the former are attacks on the latter. One disastrous consequence is that it allows the political Right to present itself as the defender of art, literature and free intellectual speculation, whereas historically yet has it has been the right—from Plato onwards—which has sought to repress the best human endeavours in these respects, on the grounds that art, literature and the unrestricted play of reason threaten to set people free and make them equal.
Rather than attacking the idea of a culture, therefore, reflective progressives (that is or should be a pleonasm) should assert their right to the high cultural terrain, and disentangle themselves from those aspects of movements, particularly in ethnic and sexual politics, whose tendency is not to promote the realisation of a just society but satisfaction of the petty appetite for revenge on groups perceived as historical oppressors.
A better aim for progressives would be to free high culture from the citadel of inaccessibility—mainly financial—into which dominant groups have kidnapped it. They should not commit all their attention to promoting counter-culture or “mass” culture, for the excellent reason that—especially in respect of this latter—much of which passes for “mass” culture is a means of manipulating majorities into quiescence and uncritical acceptance of political and economic conditions favorable to dominant groups. This is notably the case with escapist entertainment and sports.
Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 17, “Cultures” (pp. 74-75)

“The new "humour", if you can call it that, is pure malicious gossip. Instead of making a genuine point, it's now good enough to repeat any ribald story without a thought for whether it's even true.”

Lindsey Davis book Last Act in Palmyra

Last Act in Palmyra (1994)

“There’s something about writing books that gives us the permission to discuss things that aren’t as easy to talk about in everyday life. To me, the whole point of writing books is to look at the unexamined, the unspeakable, and the unarticulated.”

Susan Cain (1968) self-help writer

Mineo, Liz (interviewer), "That feeling you get when listening to sad music? It's humanity", The Harvard Gazette, May 11, 2022.

Life, Books

“Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

1970s

Children

“We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. … All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 2
Year unknown, published in 2004

“See, everybody looks at the world from his own point of view. I call it the ground state of the resting mind. And your brain does the same thing, left alone it returns to and thinks about what it’s really interested in.”

Charles Sheffield book Proteus In The Underworld

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Proteus In The Underworld (1995), Chapter 17 (p. 227)

World, Thinking

“You tried to love me I know you did,
you racked your brain trying,
to the point of lying,
but matters of the heart
can't be arranged,
and nothing I do can bring a change.”

Marian Renta

Music lyrics, Candy-coated Pill (2022) —"Shot in the Dark"

Love, Lying, Change, Heart

“...the profit system, by its necessary nature, operated to stop limit and cripple production at the point where it began to be efficient.”

Edward Bellamy book Equality

Equality (1897)

Nature

“We are more connected in more ways to more people than we ever have been at any point in human history. This is changing everything, and it would be deeply strange if it didn’t change money too.”

John Lanchester (1962) British writer

When Bitcoin Grows Up https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v38/n08/john-lanchester/when-bitcoin-grows-up (April 21, 2016), The London Review of Books

Money, People, Way, History

“I decided to start with the reproductive system, not only because of its prurient interest but also because it seemed like the point of departure for all things.”

James Matisoff (1937) linguist

Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman (2003) (p.x)

Departure

“Fiction film is really different from documentary in this aspect. It is less objective, because the director expresses a subjective point of view with the movie. I would like the movie to look like a documentary, look real.”

Zhang Yimou (1950) Chinese actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer

"No one to be Missed" in Off Screen https://offscreen.com/view/zhang_yimou (April 1999)

“If enough data points trouble the theory, the theory may be wrong. If the theory is basic, the paradigm may have to change.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 8, “Social Engineering” (p. 410)

Change

“Even if you want no state, or a minimal state, then you still have to argue it point by point. Especially since most minimalists want to keep exactly the economic and police system that keeps them privileged. That’s libertarians for you—anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 7, “What Is to Be Done?” (p. 370)

“We need it badly from a purely – purely economic point of view .. constant, unrelenting stream of immigrants .. not dribbling, significant flows.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

10 June 2014 comments to National Association of Manufacturers, reported later that day https://thehill.com/regulation/business/208857-biden-hails-constant-unrelenting-stream-of-immigrants by Benjamin Goad of The Hill <br class="br">2010s, 2014