33 quotes
It is the considered opinion of most members of our rational élites that, in any given difference of opinion with reality, reality is wrong.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
In all earlier civilizations, it should be remembered, commerce was treated as a narrow activity and by no means the senior sector in society.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
It is undoubtedly easier to believe in absolutes, follow blindly, mouth received wisdom. But that is self-betrayal.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
Which is ideology? Which not? You shall know them by their assertion of truth, their contempt for considered reflection, and their fear of debate.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
There is something silly about grown men and women striving to reduce their vision of themselves and of civilization to bean counting.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.
Voltaire's Bastards (1992)
Societies either roll on blindly to disaster or they find the inner strength to stop themselves long enough to find ways for reform from within.
Voltaire's Bastards (1992)
Freud, Sigmund: A man so dissatisfied with his own mother and father that he devoted his life to convincing everyone who would listen — or better still, talk — that their parents were just as bad.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
Realism isn't pessimism. And though the anti-reform interests have won an unconscionable number of battles over the last decade, the war is by no means over.
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997)
If Marx were functioning today, he would have been hard put to avoid saying that imaginary sex is the opiate of the people.
Voltaire's Bastards (1992)
Freedom: An occupied space which must be reoccupied every day.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
There is absolutely no reason why we have to deal with the mid-life crisis of our social policies by putting a bullet through their heads.
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997)
[C]ontent [is] an obstacle to the exercise of power.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
"The recession is over." This phrase has been used twice a year since 1973 by government leaders throughout the West. Its meaning is unclear. See: Depression.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
Canada is either an idea or it does not exist. It is either an intellectual undertaking or it is little more than a resource-rich vacuum lying in the buffer zone just north of a great empire.
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997)
Because the managerial élites are now so large and have such a dominant effect on our educational system, we are actually teaching most people to manage, not to think. Not only do we not reward thought, we punish it as unprofessional.
The Unconscious Civilization (1995)
Myrmecophaga jubata: The anteater. The existence of this predator demonstrates that thinking 71 percent of the time, as ants do, won't prevent you from being eaten. Thinking less than that, as humans do, will almost guarantee it.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
Faith: The opposite of dogmatism.
The Doubter's Companion (1994)
From Venus, the goddess of love, this word [Venereal] refers to the reality of desire. With the rise of Protestantism and science the word “disease” was tacked on in a revealing combination of categorization and moralizing.
All the lessons of psychiatry, psychology, social work, indeed culture, have taught us over the last hundred years that it is the acceptance of differences, not the search for similarities which enables people to relate to each other in their personal or family lives.
Reflections of a Siamese Twin (1997)