Society and the World

It was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lessons that this long course in human wickedness had taught us—the lesson of the fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

‘But the Emperor has nothing on at all!’ cried a little child.

Written laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Written laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

If you can’t annoy somebody with what you write, I think there’s little point in writing.

on expanding universities

on expanding universities

We men have got love well weighed up; our stuff

On bisexuality: It immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night.

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong. refusing to be drafted to fight in Vietnam

I ain’t got no quarrel with the Viet Cong. refusing to be drafted to fight in Vietnam

Hell to ships, hell to men, hell to cities.

Sir Roger told them, with the air of a man who would not give his judgement rashly, that much might be said on both sides.

From hence, let fierce contending nations know

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

The jaws of power are always opened to devour.

The jaws of power are always opened to devour.

My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right … and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.