Quotes that make you say hmmm....

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
{Hermann Goring at the Nuremberg Trials}

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
{Aristotle}

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
{Aristotle}

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.
{Aristotle}

"Our suicidal poets (Plath, Berryman...et al.) spent too much of their lives inside rooms and classrooms when they should have been trudging up mountains, slogging through swamps, rowing down rivers. The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial."
{Edward Abbey}