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Michael Parenti Quotes

1933–2026 United States

Michael Parenti (September 30, 1933 – January 24, 2026) was an American political scientist, historian and media critic.

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Random Michael Parenti quote

104 quotes

Even though the crime rate has dropped in recent years, the United States has more police per capita than any other nation in the world.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

The peculiar danger of executive power is that it executes.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

When change threatens to rule, then the rules are changed.

Dirty truths (1996)

Conservatives have nothing against incumbency when it is their people who are filling the slots.

Dirty truths (1996)

Countries with ostensibly democratic governments often manifest a markedly undemocratic state power.

Against Empire (1995)

Twelve states in the Great Plains have a wind energy potential greater than the electric use of our entire nation.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

The two party electoral system performs the essential function of helping to legitimate the existing social order.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

Our fear that Communism might someday take over most of the world blinds us to the fact that anti-communism already has.

The Anti-Communist Impulse (1970)

Economically deprived groups are seen as a threat because they want more, and more for the have-nots might mean less for the haves.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

One mechanism of repression is the grand jury.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

Profits are what you make when not working.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

It is ironic that people of modest means sometimes become conservative out of a scarcity fear bred by the very capitalist system they support.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

Democracy is something more than a set of political procedures. To be worthy of its name, democracy should produce outcomes that advance the well-being of the people.

Contrary Notions (2007)

In their eagerness to neutralize themselves, scholars tend to neutralize the subject matter. But history is never neutral. And relatively little of it is purely stochastic and accidental.

History as Mystery (1999)

You will have no sensation of a leash around your neck if you sit by the peg. It is only when you stray that you feel the restraining tug.

Dirty truths (1996)

Conservative pundits have a remarkable amount of free speech.

Dirty truths (1996)

History has many enemies, including some who profess to serve its cause. The struggle to define the past is part of the struggle to control society itself.

Contrary Notions (2007)

History has many unanswered questions, but it is no mystery as such—except for those who make it so.

History as Mystery (1999)

The struggle against plutocracy and the striving for peace and democracy are forever reborn.

Contrary Notions (2007)

It is not Socialism that subverts democracy, but democracy that subverts capitalism.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Parenti (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.