You would have to have no love whatever for your country, you would have to be hostile to it, to shoot the pride of the nation - its concentrated knowledge, energy and talent! And wasn't it exactly the same...in the case of Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov?
When you treat people like idiots, they’ll behave like idiots.
"The earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching."
- Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BC
For all its cruelties, civilization is precious, an experiment worth continuing. It is also precarious: as we climbed the ladder of progress, we kicked out the rungs below. There is no going back without catastrophe. Those who don’t like civilization, and can’t wait for it to fall on its arrogant face, should keep in mind that there is no other way to support humanity in anything like our present numbers or estate.
Another flaw in human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
Diversity of thought makes us stronger, not weaker. Without diversity, we die off as a species. We can no longer adapt to changes in the environment. We need each other to survive.
Ja lijepa vakta, ko obraza nema.
Society only leaves people in peace if they conform.