"The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force."

--

Source : "Literary and Historical Miscellanies". "The Office of the People in Art, Government and Religion", pp. 426-427. Book by George Bancroft, 1855.

George Bancroft

#Government Quotes #Civilization Quotes #Mind Quotes

“Exploitation is an abuse of power, an act of domination driven by basic insecurity. I think all hierarchies create opportunities for that. Donald Trump is an extreme illustration of an otherwise normal tendency. Institutions are supposed to have safeguards to prevent or mitigate the tendency. Instead they often become vehicles for abuse.”
“Madame Lily Devalier always asked "Where are you?" in a way that insinuated that there were only two places on earth one could be: New Orleans and somewhere ridiculous.”
“You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.”
“Don't expect too much from yourself. What I like to do when I have a day off is make various cookie doughs and freeze them. Then I always have that on hand if I need it.”
“Once, I was at a party...This was at a time when it seemed like I had everything. I was young. I was undefeated. I had money. I`d just moved into my own home. People at the party were laughing and having fun. And I missed my mother. I felt so lonely. I remember asking myself, `Why isn`t my mother here? Why are all these people around me? I don`t want these people around me.' I looked out the window and started crying.”
“You could raise the price of, say, a bottle of ketchup to $1.03 instead of $1, and no one would know. Raising prices just 3% per product would add 50% to your pretax income. Why not do it? It's like heroin: You do a little and you want a little bit more. Raising prices is the easy way.”
“They call them performance artists, but they shouldn't be making an album. They should just be dancers. I don't know, I'm a musical snob. I feel like if you're going to record music and you're going to be a singer, you have to be able to sing.”
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.”

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