“Life seems so vulgar, so easily content with the commonplace things of every day, and yet it always nurses and cherishes certain higher claims in secret, and looks about for the means of satisfying them.” LifeLooksMeanSeemsCertainSecretHigherClaimsCherishSatisfyingNurseVulgarCommonplace Book:Maxims and Reflections Source: Maxims and Reflections
“We all end up living secret lives. We create what we are willing to admire and admiring what we shouldn't confess to the secret ofour own sin, our own insufficiency, our own sadness. We all end up taking our secrets into the world and handing them over to strangers, only to realize it's often too late to claim them back. The very nature of time passing is sad beyond words. Memories mean they're gone.” WorldMeanEndsTimeRealizingMemoriesSinSecretGoneSadnessWillingLateClaimsStrangerPassingAdmirePassingsToo LateTime PassingTime PassesSecret LifeAdmiringInsufficiency Author:Alexander Theroux
“I like poems that immediately claim my attention, instead of taking my attention for granted. At first read, I want to feel compelled to pick up the poem again; I want to be curious about its byways and secret corners.” WantFeelsFirstsSecretAttentionPicksClaimsCornersCuriousGrantedCompelled Author:James Arthur
“Science ... looks skeptically at all claims to knowledge, old and new. It teaches not blind obedience to those in authority but to vigorous debate, and in many respects that's the secret of its success.” LooksSecretTeachAuthorityClaimsBlindDebateObedienceVigorousOld And NewBlind Obedience Author:Carl Sagan
“[N]othing is less reliable than unchecked claims from political officials that their secret conduct is justified by National Security Threats and the desire to Keep Us Safe.” PoliticalDesireSecretSecuritySafeClaimsThreatOfficialsNational SecurityJustified Author:Glenn Greenwald
“My assessment of Julian Assange is a professional one, really, of what he's managed to achieve, and the idea that he came up with, which set the world alight and continues to inspire others like Snowden [NSA leaker Edward Snowden], about the secret goings-on that are done in our name with our tax dollars on behalf of big business or politics. He launched the revolutionary idea that citizens can start to claim back a paradigm for questioning power structures and those in authority through an anonymous, whistle-blowing website.” WorldIdeasDoneBigsNamesSecretAchieveInspireCitizensTaxesAuthorityClaimsStructureDollarsRevolutionaryQuestioningBehalfWebsiteParadigmAssessmentNsaBig BusinessInspire OthersSnowdenTax DollarsRevolutionary IdeasAssange Author:Benedict Cumberbatch
“The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the pre-revolutionary period. Their goal was as they said; it wasn't a big secret. They regarded the Soviet Union as sort a backwater. They were orthodox Marxists, expecting a revolution in Germany. They moved toward what they themselves called "state capitalism," then they moved on to Stalinism. They called it democracy and called it socialism. The one claim was as ludicrous as the other.” FirstsSaidStatesBigsMovingGoalSecretDemocracyRevolutionPeriodsCapitalismClaimsMovedUnionsSocialismTendenciesRevolutionaryGermanyOrthodoxSovietExpectingSocialistThey SaidSoviet UnionMarxistMoved OnStalinismBolsheviks Author:Noam Chomsky
“After a short period of time in Pakistan, it's clear that drones are not a security solution. If you believe in drones, the original idea was to go after so-called high-value targets, which according to the NYU-Stanford study 2% of the people killed by drones are high-value targets - now, who are all the rest of the people? Well, it's a secret program, so therefore the CIA doesn't have to tell us anything, yet they claim that with each attack they're getting militants. Now we have people coming forward, saying, actually, no we're not terrorists.” PeopleIfsBelieveWellsIdeasValuesSecretStudyClearSecurityPeriodsSolutionsProgramClaimsOriginalsTerroristTargetPakistanIf You BelieveCiaDronesOriginal IdeasStanfordNyu Author:Robert Greenwald
“The man smiled at him a sly smile. As if they knew a secret between them, these two. Something of age and youth and their claims and the justice of those claims. And of their claims upon them. The world past, the world to come. Their common transciencies. Above all a knowing deep in the bone that beauty and loss are one.” IfsMenWorldTwoAgePastJusticeLossCommonSecretKnowingYouthClaimsBonesSlyAge And Youth Book:Cities of the Plain: Book 3 of Border Trilogy Source: Cities of the Plain: Book 3 of Border Trilogy
“I will tell you a little secret about archaeologists, dear Reader. They all pretend t be very high-minded. They claim that their sole aim in excavation is to uncover the mysteries of the past and add to the store of human knowledge. They lie. What they really want is a spectacular discovery, so they can get their names in the newspapers and inspire envy and hatred in the hearts of their rivals.” WantHumansHeartLittlesPastLyingNamesSecretMysteryInspireReaderDiscoveryHatredClaimsAimAddDearEnvyStoresNewspapersSoleRivalsSpectacularHuman KnowledgeArchaeologists Author:Barbara Mertz
“I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit.” Has BeensUniverseSecretAtheismPrideClaimsAtheistCreatorTitlesMy TimeArrogantConceit Book:Letters to a Young Contrarian Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian
“But because me and myself, as you no doubt are well aware, we are going to die, my relation—and yours too—to the event of this text, which otherwise never quite makes it, our relation is that of a structurally posthumous necessity. Suppose, in that case, that I am not alone in my claim to know the idiomatic code (whose notion itself is already contradictory) of this event. What if somewhere, here or there, there are shares in this non-secret’s secret? Even so the scene would not be changed. The accomplices, as you are once again well aware, are also bound to die.” IfsKnowsWellsDiesSecretCasesDoubtShareEventsChangedSceneClaimsRelationNotionBoundsCodeNo DoubtWhat IfNot AloneContradictoryAccomplicesPosthumous Author:Jacques Derrida
“He claims he has never known fatigue while obeying the law, but when he does break it he feels a sense of guilt in discovering the slightest evidence of fatigue which tells him that he has broken it.” FeelsDoeLightLawSecretKnownBreakBrokenEvidenceClaimsGuiltDiscoveringFatigueObeyingObeying The Law Author:Walter Russell
“We who claim to love peace and justice must always be careful that we do not use our righteousness to provoke the violent, and in this way bring about the conflict for which we, too, like other men, are hungering in secret, and with suppressed barbarity.” MenWayUseJusticeSecretIgnoranceConflictClaimsCarefulViolentRighteousnessBe CarefulProvokingPeace And JusticeBarbarity Author:Thomas Merton
“"Godling? Demigod?" Lysis nearly howled. "You'd be beaten black and blue in Thebes, and staked out overnight for claims like that. In Sparta, the secret police would ambush you, violate you, skin you alive and use your skull for a drinking cup."” GodUseBlackSecretAliveSkinsClaimsPoliceBlueDrinkingCupsBeatenSkullsDemigodsAmbushSecret PoliceSparta Author:Janet Morris