“Die Gesamtheit dieser Produktionsverhältnisse bildet die ökonomische Struktur der Gesellschaft, die reale Basis, worauf sich ein juristischer und politischer Überbau erhebt und welcher bestimmte gesellschaftliche Bewußtseinsformen entsprechen. Die Produktionsweise des materiellen Lebens bedingt den sozialen, politischen und geistigen Lebensprozeß überhaupt. Es ist nicht das Bewußtsein der Menschen, das ihr Sein, sondern umgekehrt ihr gesellschaftliches Sein, das ihr Bewußtsein bestimmt. Auf einer gewissen Stufe ihrer Entwicklung geraten die materiellen Produktivkräfte der Gesellschaft in Widerspruch mit den vorhandenen Produktionsverhältnissen oder, was nur ein juristischer Ausdruck dafür ist, mit den Eigentumsverhältnissen, innerhalb deren sie sich bisher bewegt hatten.”
Source: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
“Die wichtigste Lehre für die Politikanalyse und -gestaltung, die sich aus der hier skizzierten intellektuellen Reise ableiten lässt, lautet, dass Menschen komplexere Motivationsstrukturen und mehr Fähigkeiten zur Lösung sozialer Dilemmas mitbringen als die Theorie der rationalen Wahl annimmt.”
Source: Jenseits von Markt und Staat. Über das Potential gemeinsamen Handelns: [Was bedeutet das alles?] – Ostrom, Elinor – Erläuterungen – Analyse (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek)
“The world believes it was built by love but reading Shah Jahan’s own words on the Taj, one could say it was grief that built the Taj Mahal and it was sorrow that saw it through sixteen years till completion.”
Source: The Opposite of Indifference: A Collection of Commentaries
“No dust from her behavior ever settled on the mirror of the Emperor's mind.
(Court Poet)”
Source: Royal Love Stories: The tales behind the real-life romances of Europe's kings and queens
“Their mohabbat drifted through rays dancing in fluids through the fresh springs, as they walked hand in hand through the Himalayan mountains”
Source: A Piece of My Heart
“Given Loreti's position in society, the press had followed, panting. But they were to be disappointed by the police's failure to find any sign of what the English call "foul play," and so the investigation had been downsized to "missing person," whereupon the articles began to grow shorter and the pages on which they were printed further to the back of the newspapers. After a month or two, the articles followed the person into obscurity. Brunetti, who often saw things in a literary way, thought of this as a transposed simile. In the first days, the Loreti case was compared to some crime from the past. After a year, a new crime was compared to the Loreti disappearance. Over the years and generations, it had drifted into the distant past, Brunetti realized: from sensation to footnote.”
Source: So Shall You Reap
“Elections became an occasion to wage war, an opportunity for both groups and individuals to settle scores.
Anyone could change his party at will. Anyone could desert any party at any time and re-enter it later, at his convenience.
Candidates in some northern states captured polling booths like enemy military posts in war.
The true spirit of democracy became a tattered illusion and a pathetic shadow of autocratic ambience that had existed in the country for centuries.”
Source: The insider
“There are only two directions when you're starting from scratch. It's either you're going upwards or downwards ...right into the grave. The choice is yours.”
“To paraphrase Descartes again: "I think; therefore I have no access to the level where I sum.”
Source: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“The great rationalist Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” The religious mystic the Buddha said, “I think, therefore I am not.” Why is the Buddha much more popular than Descartes? Because the average person barely thinks at all.”
Source: The Sheldrake Shift: A Critical Evaluation of Morphic Resonance