The Great Quotes thread

[Ewan]

We are far more united by what we care about and understand than by whatever we might temporarily disagree about.

Bill Ryan here.

[Eva2]

Quote by Edward Bernays (1928):
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

[Raskolnikov]

"It is noteworthy that I usually thought of “the sublime and the beautiful” during my dissipation, often just when I hit the rock-bottom of abjection. These thoughts came in little flashes, as if to remind me of the existence of “the sublime and the beautiful”; but they didn’t interfere with my dissipation. Just the opposite, in fact. They seemed to spice it up by contrast and, like a good sauce, helped bring out the taste. This sauce, concocted of contradictions and suffering, contained painful self-analysis, and the resulting agonies and torments added piquancy and even meaning to my dissipation—in short, it was what a good sauce is meant to be."

Dostoyevsky

[Raskolnikov]

"It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people but care more about their opinions than our own."

Marcus Aurelius

[Bluegreen]

"Ya chooses ya ticket and ya pays ya price."

– Popeye

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
"Ya chooses ya ticket and ya pays ya price."

– Popeye

So funny, my friends and I would skateboard to the local laundromat that had the best pinball machine that always said, "Ya pay ya money, ya take ya chances."

[Tintin]

“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right & wrong, truth & error, virtue & evil, Christ & chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded” - Fulton J. Sheen

[Isserley]

“There are beings in the spiritual realms for whom anxiety and fear emanating from human beings offer welcome food. If fear and anxiety radiate from people and they break out in panic, then these creatures find welcome nutrition and they become more and more powerful. These beings are hostile towards humanity.”

– Rudolf Steiner

[Bill Ryan]

They make a desert, and call it peace.

Tacitus (Roman Historian, 56—120 AD)

[Bill Ryan]

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953

[Tintin]

Brilliant, from whoever ABNDESIGNS may be (courtesy of Olga Bazova)

[Ewan]

For those that can't see Twitter links...

"America so de-industrialized we don't even manufacture our own consent."

[gini]

" If It's the truth you seek,look into the dark"...

[norman]

If Every Country Is in Debt… Who's the Money Owed To? - [ youtube chanel 'invisible hand' ]

[Eva2]

'The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.'
Terence McKenna

[Kryztian]

For existential philosophers, AI does not pose an existential threat to humanity because it might exterminate all humans. It poses an existential threat because it offers answers faster than humans can ask the questions that help them contemplate their existence. And when humans stop asking existential questions, they stop being human.

– Pia Lauritzen

[Kryztian]

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?"

Job 38:4-7

[grapevine]

Posted by Kryztian (here)
For existential philosophers, AI does not pose an existential threat to humanity because it might exterminate all humans. It poses an existential threat because it offers answers faster than humans can ask the questions that help them contemplate their existence. And when humans stop asking existential questions, they stop being human.

– Pia Lauritzen

A case in question . . .

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=N5VPBeSysHw

[Bill Ryan]

The consequences of machines thinking would be too dreadful. Let us hope and believe that they cannot do so.

Alan Turing, 1950

Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don't know.

Stephen Hawking, 2017

AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.

Elon Musk, 2025

Is it not plain that the machines are gaining ground upon us?

Samuel Butler ('Erewhon'), 1872

[Raskolnikov]

"Free people make free choices. Free choices mean you get unequal outcomes. You can have freedom, or you can have equal outcomes. You can't have both."

Naval Ravikant