“Society Doesn’t Have Values” – Quote by Milton Friedman
“Society doesn’t have values. People have values.”
Milton Friedman
Author Archive for: Jan
Entries by Jan
Lafayette on the Common Good and Freedom
“Do not calculate what I have done, for I shall accept no recompense. Calculate the public advantage, the welfare and liberty of my country, and believe that I shall refuse no burden, no danger, provided that, at the hour of tranquillity, I may return to private life, for there now remains but one step for my ambition – that of arriving at zero.”
Lafayette
Anarchy and Social Order – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
“The notion of anarchy …means that once industrial functions have taken over from political functions, then business transactions and exchange alone produce the social order.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Umberto Eco on National Identity and Hatred
“National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same.”
Umberto Eco
The World as an Enigma – Quote by Umberto Eco
“I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”
Umberto Eco
“To survive, you must tell stories” – Umberto Eco
“To survive, you must tell stories.”
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco on the Internet and Public Opinions
“Given that there are seven billion people living on this earth, there is a consistent quantity of imbecile or idiot, okay. Previously, these people could express themselves only with their friends or at the bar after two or three glasses of something, and they said every silliness, and people laughed. Now they have the possibility to show up on the internet. And so, on the internet, along with the messages of a lot of interesting and important people – even the Pope is writing on Twitter – we have a great quantity of idiots.”
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco on Fools, Conversation and Diplomacy
“Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation. In their positive form, they become diplomats.”
Umberto Eco
Neil Postman: Voting is the next-to-last refuge of the politically impotent
“Voting is the next-to-last refuge of the politically impotent. The last refuge, of course, is giving your opinion to a pollster.”
Neil Postman
Reading and Adulthood – Quote by Neil Postman
“Reading is the scourge of childhood because, in a sense, it creates adulthood.”
Neil Postman