Quotes about state
page 92

Marcus Aurelius photo
James Madison photo

“The United States while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none, it being a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, so war is better than tribute.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

A paraphrased variant of this seems to have arisen on the internet around 2007: It is ... a settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute. The United States, while they wish for war with no nation, will buy peace with none.
1810s
Source: Message delivered to Dey Omar Agha, by Isaac Chauncey and William Shaler , summarizing the Treaty with Algiers (1815) http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/bar1815t.asp, and U.S attitudes and actions in the Barbary Wars, in refusing to pay ransom or tribute to pirates of the Barbary States, as quoted in History and Present Condition of Tripoli: With Some Accounts of the Other Barbary States http://books.google.com/books?id=YMwRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA46 (1835) by Robert Greenhow, p. 46

Michael McFaul photo

“I speak in general. I think that Putin does not understand that criticizing power can help this power. How do we fight corruption in the United States? There are two forces - independent media and powerful opposition party.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Izvestia Interview with Michael McFaul" in Carnegie Endowment for World Peace https://carnegieendowment.org/2002/05/15/izvestia-interview-with-michael-mcfaul-pub-984 (15 May 2002)

Michael McFaul photo

“Today, however, Russia and China are united as autocracies. They do have this ideological connection. Both countries have tense relations with the United States and the liberal democratic world, and that brings them together.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Toward a “Grander Strategy of Containing Putin’s Russia”: Ambassador Michael McFaul on Engagement and Containment in a New Era of Great Power Competition" in The Yale Review of International Studies http://yris.yira.org/comments/5314 (June 2021)

Michael McFaul photo

“I hope that from crisis and tragedy comes engagement. Don’t just complain about [an issue], do something about it! Don’t just lament about the current state of affairs, vote!”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"An Interview with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul" in LA Times High School Insider https://highschool.latimes.com/carnegie-mellon-university/an-interview-with-former-u-s-ambassador-to-russia-michael-mcfaul/ (30 August 2019)

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde photo

“You can’t define success in one sentence, a lot of people have tried to do that. Success is relative. What is success to you might not be success to me but I think generally its a state of peace of mind. A state of acceptance and a state of joy.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

https://naijagists.com/omotola-jalade-ekeinde-wisdom-quotes-top-20-motivational-quotes-sayings-omosexy/ Omotola Jalade Ekehinde speaking on Success.

“At least in the initial phases, legitimacy will be demonstrated not by the holding of a plebiscite or by the support of organized and broadly representative groups but simply by the ability of the intervening state to win compliance from key actors and get the job done.”

Bruce Gilley (1966) researcher

Source: The Case for Colonialism: A Response to My Critics, Page 29 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352039835_The_Case_for_Colonialism_A_Response_to_My_Critics The case for colonialism, Gilley, 2017

Viktor Yanukovych photo

“The United States and a number of other countries have been stressing that I have allegedly lost my legitimacy because I fled the country. Let me say again: I never fled anywhere.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: "Transcript: Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych on the situation in his country" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DGoGVKRGNYMJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/transcript-ukraines-viktor-yanukovych-on-the-situation-in-his-country/2014/03/11/ffb8fefe-a942-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (11 March 2014)

Michael Moorcock photo
Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki photo

“The spiritual state of nearness of God is a sign of true saintliness. This ultimately results in the experience of love and longing for early union.”

Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (1173–1235) Indian Sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 264

Alejandro Giammattei photo

“We consider ourselves an ally and friend (of the United States), although some officials in this government don't understand this in its true dimension.”

Alejandro Giammattei (1956) President of Guatemala

Source: Alejandro Giammattei (2021) cited in: " Guatemala backs Taipei: president https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2021/12/08/2003769213" in Taipei Times, 8 December 2021.

Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki photo

“The saint enjoys real attachment to God when he experiences states of contentment and satisfaction.”

Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (1173–1235) Indian Sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 263

Naruhito photo

“I pledge hereby that I shall act according to the Constitution and fulfill my responsibility as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people of Japan, while always wishing for the happiness of the people and the peace of the world, turning my thoughts to the people and standing by them.”

Naruhito (1960) Emperor of Japan since 2019

Source: "Naruhito: Japan’s emperor formally proclaims enthronement in centuries-old ceremony" in CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/asia/japan-enthronement-emperor-intl-hnk/index.html (22 October 2019)

Andrew R. Wheeler photo

“If another country wants to buy fossil fuel on the open market, they should look to the United States; we do everything in a much more environmentally conscious manner than anyone else.”

Andrew R. Wheeler (1964) 15th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Source: Exclusive—EPA’s Andrew Wheeler: Green New Deal Activists Don’t Want American ‘Energy Domination’ https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/02/exclusive-epa-administrator-andrew-wheeler-green-new-deal-activists-dont-want-american-energy-domination/ (2 March 2019)

Joe Biden photo

“220,000 deaths.
If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this:
Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain President of the United States.”

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

2020, October 2020
Source: 22 October 2020 tweet https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1319446692236791814 about Donald Trump as of December 2021 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59645307 the death toll under Biden's administration surpassed 800,000

Danny Tarkanian photo

“We spent three trillion dollars in the Middle East, right now, where that money could have been used to take care of our veterans, first and foremost, who've been over there fighting, but also take care of the people that need help here in the United States instead of wasting it overseas.”

Danny Tarkanian (1961) American businessman, attorney, and perennial candidate

Source: Danny Tarkanian on MAGA: ‘Secure Our Borders’ and ‘Build a Wall’ https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2018/10/19/danny-tarkanian-on-maga-secure-our-borders-and-build-a-wall/ (19 October 2018)

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo

“Feminism is not that men and women are the same. If men and women are the same, we won't have sexism. We are just stating the differences and people should stop giving negative value to all the attributes that women have. It's not that men and women are the same but they've equally human.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie (1977) Nigerian writer

Source: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I want to say what I think’ https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-59568638 chimamanda ngozi adichie speaking on her speech of 2012 on feminism on (9th December 2021)

Carlos Agostinho do Rosário photo

“We are convinced that success for the transformation of food systems requires involvement, coordination and interconnectivity among different state and non-state stakeholders at domestic and international level.”

Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (1954) Prime Minister of Mozambique (2015-present)

Source: Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (2021) cited in: " Mozambique Seeks to Build Resilient Food Security https://allafrica.com/stories/202107020735.html" in All Africa, 2 July 2021.

Phill Kline photo
Joe Biden photo

“Look, there is no federal solution. This gets solved at a state level.”

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

2021, December 2021
Source: Remarks by President Biden at COVID-⁠19 Response Team’s Regular Call With the National Governors Association https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/12/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-covid-19-response-teams-regular-call-with-the-national-governors-association/ (27 December 2021)

Laurence Tribe photo
Laurence Tribe photo

“The state shapes the society as much as the society shapes the state...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Constitutional Choices (1985), The Nature of the Enterprise, The Futile Search for Legitimacy

Prevale photo

“Being happy, a state of mind of inner well-being that terribly disturbs those who are not.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) L'esser felice, uno stato d'animo di benessere interiore che disturba terribilmente chi non lo è.
Source: prevale.net

Christian Drosten photo

“We have already gone a long way along this path through vaccination. We must now complete this process so that we can reach the endemic phase in the course of 2022 and declare the pandemic state to be over.”

Christian Drosten (1972) German virologist and university teacher

Source: Christian Drosten (2022) cited in " End is in sight for pandemic in Germany, says top virologist https://www.thelocal.de/20220117/end-is-in-sight-for-pandemic-in-germany-says-top-virologist/" on The Local de, 17 January 2022.

Bisher Al-Khasawneh photo

“We are partners in this country, and partners in the development process of the state. Christmas is observed as a national holiday.”

Bisher Al-Khasawneh (1969) Prime Minister of Jordan

Source: Bisher Al-Khasawneh (2021) cited in: " PM greets Christians on Christmas https://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/pm-greets-christians-christmas" in The Jordan Times, 26 December 2021.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Mike Lindell photo
Albert Bryan photo

“We had cruise ships tell us that they wouldn't come in (to United States Virgin Islands) if we had (COVID-19) positivity rates over 3%. And now we have a 20% positivity rate and they still want to come in. We are more of a danger to them than they are to us.”

Albert Bryan (1968) Governor of the United States Virgin Islands

Source: Albert Bryan (2022) cited in: " Diverted cruise ships means loss of revenue for V.I. businesses http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/diverted-cruise-ships-means-loss-of-revenue-for-v-i-businesses/article_2127974d-4e20-5b00-a104-704d85c93c34.html" in The Virgin Islands Daily News, 11 January 2022.

Greg Walden photo

“I'm not going to put the validity of America's general election on the line by thinking every state is as good as Oregon, when it comes to elections.”

Greg Walden (1957) American politician

Source: Walden On COVID-19, Reopening Eastern Oregon And National Vote-By-Mail https://www.opb.org/news/article/reopen-eastern-oregon-covid-19-coronavirus-greg-walden/ (24 April 2020)

Chaim Weizmann photo

“There is no official anti-Semitism in Russia; anti-Semitism in Russia is a crime against the State.”

Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952) Zionist leader, 1st president of Israel

Source: The Jewish People and Palestine. London: Zionist Organization, 1939. p. 7

Winston S. Churchill photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Ken Paxton photo

“Philosophy is the attempt to formulate principles or categories which the philosopher already possesses, in common with everyone else, but in an unformulated state.”

Otis Hamilton Lee (1902–1948) American philosopher

Source: [10.1086/286600, Philosophy and Science, Philosophy of Science, 7, 7–17, 1940, Lee, Otis]

Roger Scruton photo
Andrei Vyshinsky photo

“In bringing forward this plan, the United States Government apparently counted on the cooperation of the Governments of the United Kingdom and France to confront the European countries in need of relief with the necessity of renouncing their inalienable right to dispose of their economic resources and to plan their national economy in their own way.”

Andrei Vyshinsky (1883–1954) Soviet politician

I covered it here but the above source is the official home of the speech. https://quotesexplained.com/necessity-of-renouncing-their-inalienable-right-andrei-vyshinsky/
Source: https://sites.temple.edu/immerman/vyshinsky-speech-to-u-n-general-assembly-2/

Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo

“Abortion prohibition by the State, however, controls women and denies them full autonomy and full equality with men. That was the idea I tried to express in the lecture to which you referred.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

When Sen. Hank Brown (R-CO) asked about her remarks during her 1993 Senate confirmation hearing about the above quoted lecture, Ginsburg clarified her stance with the quoted sentences. As quoted in: Olivia Waxman (August 2, 2018): Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wishes This Case Had Legalized Abortion Instead of Roe v. Wade. In: Time Magazine. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20220527151841/https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/ from the original https://time.com/5354490/ruth-bader-ginsburg-roe-v-wade/ on May 27, 2022.
1990s

Chris Hedges photo

“Democrat or Republican. It does not matter. War is the raison d’état of the state. Extravagant military expenditures are justified in the name of “national security.””

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

The nearly $40 billion allocated for Ukraine, most of it going into the hands of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon Technologies, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, is only the beginning. Military strategists, who say the war will be long and protracted, are talking about infusions of $4 or $5 billion in military aid a month to Ukraine. We face existential threats. But these do not count. The proposed budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in fiscal year 2023 is $10.675 billion. The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is $11.881 billion. Ukraine alone gets more than double that amount. Pandemics and the climate emergency are afterthoughts. War is all that matters. This is a recipe for collective suicide.
2022, "No Way Out but War" (May 23, 2022)

Michael Hudson (economist) photo
Ahmed Ben Bella photo

“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)

James Howard Kunstler photo
Susan Cain photo
Dmitry Muratov photo
Joe Biden photo

“All of those empty storefronts aren’t just shattered dreams, they’re warning lights that are going off and state and local budgets that are being stretched because of the lack of tax revenue.”

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

2021, March 2021, Remarks by President Biden Before Economic Briefing with Treasury Secretary Yellen

Enoch Powell photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Susan Cain photo
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi photo

“Flow: a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934) Hungarian American psychologist

The Psychology of optimal experience, Harper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224927532_Flow_The_Psychology_of_Optimal_ExperienceFlow (1990)

Gary Locke photo
Emmanuel Macron photo

“Our country, our nation is built by two institutions, the state and the language. A language whose epicenter today is no longer on these banks of the Seine, but probably much more towards the Congo River basin.”

Emmanuel Macron (1977) 25th President of the French Republic

Macron lashes out at Zemmour: “Our identity is not built on narrow-mindedness" https://palnws.be/2021/09/macron-haalt-uit-naar-zemmour-onze-identiteit-is-niet-gebouwd-op-bekrompenheid/
2017, 2021

Trường Chinh photo

“If we strive only for national reconstruction but neglect to struggle for sovereignty and territorial integrity, national independence will certainly not be recognized and our country will be reduced to an autonomous state.”

Trường Chinh (1907–1988) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (1907-1988)

Source: The August Revolution (1946) (excerpts), p.68

Oliver Burkeman photo

“A life spent chasing the mythical state of being able to do everything is less meaningful than a life of focusing on a few things that count.”

Oliver Burkeman (1975) British journalist

"The Best Time-Management Advice Is Depressing But Liberating" (2021 August 11)

Dmitry Peskov photo

“Ukraine is a very difficult country, very difficult for us. In its current state it is hostile towards us.”

Dmitry Peskov (1967) Russian politician

"Kremlin says peace talks should continue, lashes 'hostile' Ukraine" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-says-talks-with-ukraine-not-easy-important-that-they-continue-ria-2022-04-02/, Reuters, 2 April 2022
CNN Interview (March 2022)

Sergey Lavrov photo
Jordan Peterson photo
Errico Malatesta photo
Elizabeth Martinez photo
Sergey Lavrov photo

“Congress is a very special group of people. More than 80 percent of them [have] never left the United States. They live in their own walls. So I’m not amazed about this Russophobia which is being displayed by the Congress at the moment.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

"Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says 80% of U.S. lawmakers have never traveled abroad" https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/dec/17/sergey-lavrov/russian-foreign-minister-sergey-lavrov-says-80-us-/, Politfact, 17 December 2014

Cherríe Moraga photo
Kim Stanley Robinson photo
Nguyễn Tấn Dũng photo

“As a state, a nation and a citizen, no one will forget our nation’s painful suffering.”

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng (1949) Prime Minister of Vietnam

"PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng’s online talk to Vietnamese people at home and abroad" https://en.baochinhphu.vn/print/pm-nguyen-tan-dungs-online-talk-to-vietnamese-people-at-home-and-abroad-1114491.htm (9 February 2007)

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng photo
Leonid Kuchma photo
Dolores Huerta photo

“The workers are on the rise. There will be strikes all over the state and throughout the country because Delano has shown what can be done, and the workers know now they are no longer alone.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1966 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Joe Biden photo
Deng Xiaoping photo

“Our people are undertaking the historic mission of modernizing our agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology within the present century, in order to transform China into a modern and powerful socialist state.”

Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) Chinese politician, Paramount leader of China

Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the National Conference on Science (March 1978) (exerpts)

André Breton photo

“More to the point, one cannot understand The Holocaust without understanding the intentions, ideology, and mechanisms that were put in place in 1933. The eugenics movement may have come to a catastrophic crescendo with the Hitler regime, but the political movement, the world-view, the ideology, and the science that aspired to breed humans like prized horses began almost 100 years earlier. More poignantly, the ideology and those legal and governmental mechanisms of a eugenic world-view inevitably lead back to the British and American counterparts that Hitler’s scientists collaborated with. Posterity must gain understanding of the players that made eugenics a respectable scientific and political movement, as Hitler’s regime was able to evade wholesale condemnation in those critical years between 1933 and 1943 precisely because eugenics had gained international acceptance. As this book will evidence, Hitler’s infamous 1933 laws mimicked those already in place in the United States, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Canada.
So what is this scientific and political movement that for 100 years aspired to breed humans like dogs or horses? Eugenics is quite literally, as defined by its principal proponents, an attempt at “directing evolution” by controlling any aspect of human existence that affects human heredity. From its onset, Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and the man credited with the creation of the science of eugenics, knew that the cause of eugenics had to be observed with religious fervor and dedication. As the quote on the opening pages of this book illustrates, a eugenicist must “intrude, intrude, intrude.” A vigilant control over anything and everything that affects the gene pool is essential to eugenics. The policies could not allow for the individual to enjoy self-government or self-determination any more than a horse breeder can allow the animals to determine whom to breed with. One simply cannot breed humans like horses without imbuing the state with the level of control a farmer has over its livestock, not only controlling procreation, but also the diet, access to medical services, and living conditions.”

Source: H.H. LAUGHLIN: American Scientist. American Progressive. Nazi Collaborator.

Bertolt Brecht photo
Prevale photo

“In life, anyone who suffers suffering, in which the psychic state is involved, needs help and respect: be kind, delicate and moderate.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nella vita, chiunque subisca sofferenze, in cui venga coinvolto lo stato psichico, ha bisogno di aiuto e rispetto: siate gentili, delicati e moderati.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The main emotional state, to start creating any work of art, is enthusiasm.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il principale stato emotivo, per iniziare a creare qualsiasi opera d'arte, è l'entusiasmo.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“In any kind of work, professionalism is demonstrated by seriousness. A true professional will never allow his private life to interfere with his work life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: In qualsiasi tipo di lavoro, la professionalità si dimostra con la serietà. Un vero professionista non permetterà mai che la sua vita privata interferisca con quella lavorativa.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“The main emotional state in order to achieve something beautiful, is enthusiasm.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Il principale stato emotivo per realizzare qualcosa di bello, è l'entusiasmo.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“True intelligence is not about accumulating knowledge, but remaining in a state of constant learning and growth.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La vera intelligenza non consiste nell'accumulare conoscenze, ma nel rimanere in uno stato di costante apprendimento e crescita.
Source: prevale.net