"World history is nothing but an endless, dreary account of the rape of the weak by the strong . . . (It is) a race with time, a scramble for profit, for power, for treasures.."
~~ Nobel-laureate Hermann Hesse [1877-1962] - in the 1943 novel "The Glass Bead Game"
"I may be married, but I'm not a fanatic about it."
~~ entertainer Dean Martin [1917-95]
"The corporation has subverted law and honesty between individuals. It can and will, if unrestrained, subvert the basic ideal of American government, the happiness and welfare of unborn generations of American people."
~~ writer Robert R. Reed - in 1909
"Some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for. And democracy is worth dying for, because it is the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man."
~~ Ronald Reagan [1911-2004]
"I love [trump] as much as a straight man can love another man."
~~ gazillionaire Elon Musk - in March 2025
"The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy."
~~ Elon Musk - on the mega-popular Joe Rogan podcast
'Laissez les bons temps rouler' - 'Let the good times roll'
~~ the official holiday greeting for Mardi Gras
"Whenever you love anything a lot, you’re booked for grief."
~~ singer Lucy Dacus
"You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here."
~~ Max Ehrmann [1872-1945]
"Television is a 21-inch parking lot for used comedians."
~~ actor George Sanders [1906-72] - circa 1956
"The reason all of this is happening is that in his second term, Trump is free of any adult supervision."
~~ Tom Nichols, staff writer The Atlantic Magazine
"Poetry should surprise by a fine excess."
~~ British poet John Keats [1795-1821]
"All lives are uncertain, but actors know it."
~~ actress Meryl Streep
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"Speak to them quietly, and they will hear you."
~~ ancient Greek philosopher Atticus [2nd Century C.E.]
"When you're dealing with a man like Trump, reason is useless and appeasement is a guarantee of more abuse."
~~ opposition lawmaker Shinji Aguma of Japan’s House of Representatives
"We shouldn’t have to wait until May 2028 to end this tyranny."
~~ Whitney Curry Wimbish - in the AM Quickie newsletter
"This happens today: if the investments in the banks fall slightly… a tragedy… what can be done? But if people die of hunger, if they have nothing eat, if they have poor health, it does not matter! This is our crisis today!"
~~ Pope Francis [1936-2025]
"A poor life this if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare."
~~ Welsh poet W.H. Davies [1871-1940]
"Poetry is that / conversation we could not / otherwise have."
~~ American poet Cid Corman [1924-2004]
"[I call it] 'a hundred days of ineptitude'have."
~~ David Remnick, editor at The New Yorker Magazine
"The damage caused by pseudo-President Elon Musk and his teenage hackers crew should be given the name The Dork Ages."
~~ philosopher G.E. Nordell
"Don't give up hope. There's always a chance that Trump will show up in the obituaries tomorrow."
~~ Bel Air Viv, on Facebook
"If Hitler had married Satan they would have had Donald Trump."
~~ Nikki Giovanni [1943-2024]
"Marjorie Taylor Greene is self-inflicted damage."
~~ philosopher G.E. Nordell
"These are the times that try men's souls."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]– - in the pamphlet series "The American Crisis", December 1776
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"Donald Trump isn't a President. He's a motivational speaker for racists."
~~ John Pavlovitz, 2018
"The subjecting of men to punishment for things which, when they were done, were breaches of no law, and the practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny."
~~ Alexander Hamilton [1757-1804] - in "Federalist Paper #84", 1788
"We need a popular uprising and a general strike."
~~ TV producer-director Marshall Herskovitz in 2025
"Trump's ineptitude is matched only by his corruption."
~~ Sen. Brian Schatz [Dem-HI]
"People go to see what they already know is there. The only thing to record, the only possible source of surprise, is their own reaction."
~~ Daniel Boorstin [1914-2004] - in "The Image: A Guide To Pseudo-events In America" [1962]
"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all Mankind."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809] in 1776
"I realized that the true tyranny was not kings, or emperors - it was poverty."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]
"He who commands the sea has command of everything."
~~ ancient Athenian general Themistocles [524?-459? B.C.E.]
"Stay up and sleep late"
~~ New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde (song lyrics on her 2025 single)
"The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflexion.” ~~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809] - in "Common Sense" [1776]
"Nothing's a better cure for writer's block than to eat ice cream right out of the carton."
~~ writer Don Roff
"Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true."
~~ baseball great Yogi Berra [1925-2015]
"Menopause starts at the altar."
~~ comedian Jonathan Winters [1925-2013]
"We don’t rise to the level of our hopes. We fall to the level of our preparation."
~~ Ancient Greek lyric poet Archilochus [680?-645? B.C.E,]
"A great leader's courage to fulfill his visions comes from passion, not position."
~~ John C. Maxwell
"The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
~~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
"If a tree falls in the forest, and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?"
~~ philosopher Bishop George Berkeley [1685-1753]
"If a man speaks in the forest, and no woman is present, is he still wrong?"
~~ t-shirt quoted by L.A. Times columnist Al Martinez [1929-2015]
"It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves."
~~ Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."
~~ Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776]
"In America, you can get any law you want passed, as long as you promise [that] it will lower taxes."
~~ musician Frank Zappa [1940-93]
"The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated."
~~ Count Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910] of Russia
"Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant."
~~ writer Joan Didion [1934-2021] - in "The Year of Magical Thinking" [2005]
"Women are a lot like bacon, because they smell amazing, they taste fantastic, and they will kill you slowly."
~~ J. Chris Newberg, in 2011
"Anyone who cannot form a community with others, or who does not need to because he is self-sufficient, is no part of a city-state; he is either a beast or a god."
~~ Ancient Greek Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]
"If 'Star Wars' has taught us anything, it is that space is full of Nazis."
~~ Alexandra Petri, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
