(1901)
Love of money is the root of all evil? (1 Timothy 6:10) Tell it to the billionaire!
(1902)
Capitalism and Christianity---a contradiction in terms?
(1903)
Where Greed is good, there Greed is God!
(1904)
Truth is a hypothesis.
(1905)
Where there is no room for the exceptional, the rule rules!
(1906)
Life is a contract between man and God, at the end of which we get our wages.
(1907)
The “pursuit of happiness” is a false pursuit, unless we first define “happiness” as something worthy of being pursued.
(1908)
Not by reason alone!
(1909)
Besides action and reaction, there is also interaction: a philosophical riddle.
(1910)
Unhappy Are The Free…
(1911)
The $64 Trillion Question: Who won the Cold War?
(1912)
Every society has its own fifth column.
(1913)
Excuses, excuses! Sic venit gloria victis…
(1914)
Our morality has committed suicide.
(1915)
Civilization does to nations what domestication does to cats. It makes them want the same: a rug by the fireplace where they can lie and purr. Yet, it is a terrible mistake to think that’s all they want.
Unique and feral, inside each cat there is a tiger. Among the nations it is called their national spirit. One cannot ignore the tiger, one cannot kill the tiger, one cannot tame the tiger. The only way to deal with the tiger is to make him like his life as a cat.
To understand the world, we must understand the tiger inside us, and not misunderstand him inside the others.
(1916)
Statesmanship, which is politics at its best, is the practice of enlightened nationalism.
(1917)
“Dual citizenship,” like “dual religion,” is a form of polygamy, and must be outlawed.
(1918)
The Doomsday Writing on the Wall has been Written, but alas, this culturally-illiterate generation cannot read!
(1919)
America must have humility as the sugar coating on the bitter pill of her strength, if she wants the world to swallow the pill. Arrogance is the self-defense of the weak, it is unbecoming a great nation.
(1920)
It is hard to be cheerful when senseless bloodshed is all around us, when people are sent to kill and to die without a compelling reason, when the putting down of the fires of hatred is entrusted to the arsonists…
(1921)
Perhaps our culture has lost its innocence to such an extent that even knowing that the Emperor has no clothes, it sees nothing wrong with it?
(1922)
Political science is notorious for making large marble pedestals for monuments made out of dust…
(1923)
All consistency is boring and the sign of an average mind. Brilliance is always inconsistent.
(1924)
Inconsistency is always preferable to consistency. The former often stumbles onto the right path, and then becomes synonymous with ingenuity. The latter usually boils down to persistence in error.
(1925)
The justice of the strong is peace; The justice of the weak is war. It follows, in part, that the war of the strong is an injustice.
(1926)
Does our mind, like our body, consist only of the food we have eaten, that is, of our digested life experiences?
(1927)
Today, like in the Dark Ages, they are still teaching school children that the earth is flat. This is called Euclid’s geometry.
(1928)
Come to think of it, all scientific discovery is made utterly impossible by the logic of multiple choice. The cultivation of the “multiple choice mindset” develops slave mentality.
(1929)
Here is what real genius is all about: Whether you agree with him or not, does not matter, as long as he makes you think!
(1930)
The Great Religions (such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) are fundamentally not so much about a religious doctrine per se, as about national culture, history, tradition; and they always ought to be seen in that light.
(1931)
‘Who are you?’ said the caterpillar. How many of us can answer this question with good conscience?
(1932)
Every good instructor teaches his class always one and the same subject: himself.
(1933)
“The most miserable animal can prevent the genesis of the mightiest oak by swallowing the acorn.” (Nietzsche). The most challenging and the most rewarding task of the political philosopher is to identify both the acorn and the predator and to offer his solution on how to save the one from the other.
(1934)
Charity begins at home? I’d say, everything begins at home!
(1935)
It is surprising how many people are at home in faraway places where they have never been and know nothing about, but completely homeless in their own back yard.
(1936)
Life needs a balance: the sick need laughter, the healthy need tears.
(1937)
Proselytizing makes mockery out of religion even when both sides are sincere, but especially, when they are not.
(1938)
An ideology is always a substitute for religion. Any government that professes both has to be mentally dysfunctional and fundamentally schizophrenic.
(1939)
A true thinker is always lonely, at least when he engages in thinking, because thinking is by nature an introverted activity.
(1940)
Insofar as aesthetic culture is concerned, ‘democracy’ is not a good, but an evil.
(1941)
I do not believe in the technical aspects of reincarnation, but the human mind is certainly capable of incorporeal transmigrations by virtue of its creativity.
(1942)
The common distinction between prose and poetry is that the one is mostly rational-intellectual, while the other is mostly irrational-intuitive. But rational prose can easily become poetry whenever its aesthetic value is on par with, or above, its intellectual content.
(1943)
Let the fish enjoy its water, but let it not convince us to abandon the high ground.
(1944)
“Death before dishonor” are empty words. The real dishonor is running away from life.
(1945)
Come to think of it, under the strongest armor and finest silk, every Emperor has no clothes.
(1946)
Alas, the good old Pax Americana has for some time now been steadily mutating into a Pox Americana…
(1947)
Freedom of speech is worthless when we don’t know what we are talking about.
(1948)
The greatest, yet the most elusive of all freedoms is the freedom of thought… Otherwise the term “free thinker” would not have been such a rare compliment.
(1949)
Nietzsche’s famous “Revaluation of All Values” does not sound at all iconoclastic to me. Considering the moral degradation of our Western Civilization, the only way perhaps to save our so-called “old values” is to start looking for “new values” and, in the process, to rediscover the old ones anew.
(1950)
American-style democracy is a luxury of the very rich and very lucky. It is an exception, rather than the rule. And the rule ought never to be measured with the yardstick of an exception.
(1951)
Totalitarianism is in its very nature the child of a nationalistically self-conscious democracy, begotten in self-defense to protect her against the real and potential enemies to her sovereignty.
(1952)
The higher strategy in a game ought not to be necessarily aimed at winning, which constitutes the lower strategy, but at being able to turn your opponent’s potential win to your utmost advantage.
(1953)
Propaganda is the opposite of free speech.
(1954)
You know that you are in a really bad shape when your enemies rally to your defense.
(1955)
I’ve been wondering for quite some time now whether we-the-people are still related to Uncle Sam…
(1956)
Many people prefer to see God as an Answer, while I see Him as a Question, addressed both to Him by us, and to us by Him.
(1957)
Censorship is like the hot rays of the sun that melted the wax of Icarus’ wings, turning his free flight into a freefall.
(1958)
Being ahead of the time does not mean that your watch is too fast, but that perhaps other watches are too slow.
(1959)
Carrots and Sticks may be a successful policy with donkeys, but humans and nations may not be quite as predictable as donkeys are.
(1960)
Impeachment of public officials is America’s best political means of making them accountable. Then, how on earth can this nation heal itself, if it is afraid of the most effective remedy?
(1961)
Playing the cynic, I may replace the Baconian gem ‘Knowledge is Power!’ with one of perhaps greater actuality for modern times: ‘Knowledge is Propaganda!’
(1962)
Life is a large refrigerator filled with food, which we open to find the food we are looking for, while the food which we ignore retaliates by taking control of our thoughts and dreams.
(1963)
It is so terribly humiliating when a great superpower tells others, “I want this!” …and does not get it.
(1964)
Rationalization of religion and, on the other hand, moralization of capitalism are tantamount to efforts to sell God to Caesar or to sell Caesar to God.
(1965)
America today is like a man whose house key is so well-made that he thinks it can open all doors.
(1966)
Loving others is like the sun that rises for the benefit of all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
(1967)
Leaders and followers are two different species of the same genus: the herd.
(1968)
A new political motto: “Lying lips save sinking ships.”
(1969)
America’s freedom-fighters are unlike any others, preferring to fight for other people’s freedom, rather than their own.
(1970)
(Courtesy of the Sphinx.) Patriotism is born in a trailer park, and dies in upward mobility.
(1971)
To A Regular Leader, Society Is His Milieu; To A Genius Leader, It Is His Métier.
(1972)
The Dry Wall of China. First there was the Great Wall of China, and now this?!
(My comment on the substandard quality of some Chinese exports to the United States, which include the infamous toxic dry wall which makes homeowners using it sick.)
(1973)
How often we admire couples who have stayed together for decades, without realizing that the only reason they have stayed together is that they have just hated the thought of dividing the property.
(1974)
The greatest patriot is an exceptional person who is capable of identifying himself with his unexceptional fellow countrymen more than with the members of his own international exceptional club, species una sumus, transcending all national borders.
(1975)
Actuality is unfulfilled potentiality, except in a genius, whose each single spark in actuality is already a complete fulfillment of potentiality, and each extra one is a generous bonus for the benefit of humanity.
(1976)
One of the million things America and Russia have in common, separating them from the rest of the world: for both of them World War II started in 1941.
(1977)
The Green Revolution is humanity’s revolt against the free market rule, keeping it on performance-enhancing drugs, to the only-recently realized great detriment to its physical survival.
(1978)
My quasi-Marxian (but by no means pseudo-Marxian) term reflecting a new evolving reality in the politico-economic condition of America: Pauperization of the Bourgeoisie.
(1979)
Borrowed opinion is cheap, and a passionate expression of it is nothing but a salesman’s pitch to bump up the price.
(1980)
(Courtesy of the Sphinx, mind you! So, think about the hidden message here!)
The best makeup artists in the world are the morticians…
(1981)
Checks and Balances sounds like some serious money talk. No wonder politics and economics are so intimately related in America!
(1982)
There is a better friend than a friend in need. It is one who can (wholeheartedly and unconditionally) experience your moment of happiness like it were his (or her) own.
(1983)
Patriotism is putting your nation’s interest above your own. In times of war these interests become indistinguishable. But how many are capable of this in times of peace?
(1984)
Some American politician’s toothless posturing against Russia can be best characterized as All Hate, No Cattle.
(1985)
All is vanity that we cannot leave behind us on our departure from this world, or else, take with us to the next.
(1986)
There is no objectivity in a security blanket…
(1987)
Objectivity means giving our subjective freshly cooked pastry a chance to cool down before we thrust our teeth into it.
(1988)
Talking is like driving: the more of it you do, the higher is the chance of an accident.
(1989)
“Fact” is something which we honestly believe to be true at the given time.
(1990)
All facts are made of pure subjectivity dressed up as pure objectivity.
(1991)
Secret kept is priceless; secret revealed is worthless.
(1992)
Vivat to the woman who reaches the age, when it is more flattering to add extra years, than to subtract them.
(1993)
Bumps in the road put a spring in the step.
(1994)
How come that it has not dawned on Washington yet that Bernie Madoff and his ilk are more dangerous to this country than Osama Bin Laden?!
(1995)
Too often being right is the exact opposite of being “on the money” …
(1996)
A riddle of the polyglot Sphinx: Opinionated people must have been raised among the gnomes.
(1997)
Does life begin at birth or at conception? This can be debated, but what is clear is that the act of creation happens at the conception, and not at the birth.
(1998)
Gestation and evolution are rational developments, but creation and conception are supremely irrational.
(1999)
“Facts are stubborn things,” except that many things which are known as “facts,” are not.
(19-100)
Mysticism is an infusion of irrationality into an otherwise rational philosophical contemplation.
(19-101)
One way of looking at it, objectivity is a multiplicity of subjectivities.
(19-102)
Hypocrisy is the hylos of politics.
(19-103)
My jocular name for Iran’s nuclear program: Enrichment of Iranium.
(19-104)
The modern paradox of American capitalism: To own means to owe!
(19-105)
Some people are selling their soul to the devil for enough money, they think, to be able to buy it back later on.
(19-106)
It is not wealth itself, but its existence alongside with poverty that introduces the anti-capitalist moral dimension into the picture.
(19-107)
A Riddle: The optimist says, “There is no such thing as an unwinnable game,” and as a result, loses the unlosable one.
(19-108)
“October Surprise” is letting skeletons out of American political closets for Halloween.
(19-109)
Error is often the name of the truth before her time has come.
(19-110)
The biggest difference between science and philosophy is that whereas scientific thought becomes quickly outdated, philosophical ideas are timeless, and are just as contemporary after three millennia as the best of what we can come up with today.
(19-111)
Everything has a cause. Even the most random event has a cause, whose name is chance.
(19-112)
The only advice the rich should give to the poor is cash, preferably, anonymous.
(19-113)
A gentle reminder: Speech for hire is not free speech.
(19-114)
1989 was the Year of the Horse in Europe… The Trojan Horse.
(19-115)
Who was Christ’s chief accountant? No, not Matthew, the repentant professional money changer. It was Judas Iscariot! This gives us an extra insight on the Scriptures’ censorious attitude to money.
(19-116)
If you wish to learn something about the herd, learn from the shepherds, not from the sheep.
(19-117)
The recent introduction of the Medal “For Victory In The Cold War” in the United States ought to be dubbed: “Mission Accomplished”! (Just as “accomplished” as the other Mission Accomplished!)
(19-118)
Looking at the political life in America, I wonder how oftentimes the fiercest enemies of socialism are exactly the ones in greatest need of it.
(19-119)
If knowledge were available, who would need the faith?
(19-120)
”Failure is not an Option.” (An erstwhile slogan of the Bush Administration)---- Pep talk for the kamikaze!
(19-121)
All philosophy is necessarily monotheistic, and so is authentic religion. Even atheism is monotheistic. Polytheism is not a religion, but a mythology.
(19-122)
Buy them or bomb them: How foreign is American foreign policy?
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