“Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.” MenWorldFirstsSoulSelfStatesGovernmentLastsEvilLostNationsNaturalChanceAbilityPleasureLibertyMoralHonestThis WorldKingsDisciplineLimitsWeightBoundsCorruptionBoundariesGenuineRelaxEmpiresGoodsDividedDecayCommerceSelf DisciplineLicenseCompulsionDespotismProminentHamperMoral DecayHonest Government Author:Russell Kirk
“The downfall of civilized states tends to come not from the direct assaults of foes, but from internal decay combined with the consequences of exhaustion in war.” WarStatesMilitaryConsequenceDirectInternalsCivilizedDecayAssaultFoeExhaustionDownfall Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism. The distinguishing characteristic of small republics is stability: the character of large republics is mutability.” ShouldStatesCharacterGovernmentFallPrinciplesVirtueTyrannyPreservesCharacteristicsExpensiveRepublicStabilityTransformedDecayDisregardDespotismDegeneratesDependencyFree GovernmentMutability Author:Simon Bolivar
“From this new point of view, the universe I had inhabited became an object I could perceive in its entirety. It was a hypersphere embedded in a cloud of alternative states - the sum of all possible quantum trajectories from the big bang to the decay of matter. "Reality" - history as we had known or inferred it - was only the most likely of these possible trajectories. There were countless others, real in a different sense: a vast but finite set of paths not taken, a ghostly forest of quantum alternatives, the shores of an unknown sea.” DifferentRealMatterStatesBigsRealityUniverseViewsKnownPathTakenSeaObjectsCloudsPoint Of ViewForestsAlternativesPerceiveShoreDecayQuantumFiniteBangsEmbeddedTrajectoryEntirety Author:Robert Charles Wilson