THE STATE, particularly CHINA
People have friends; nations have interests.Charles de GaulleGovernments have interests, not principles. (paraphrased)Cardinal Richelieu (also attributed to Henry Kissinger)One learns soon enough that only a fool understands the Chinese quickly.Arthur Miller, American Playwright, in
The Atlantic Monthly
Generally speaking, Chinese hate Buddhist monks and nuns; they hate Moslems, and they hateChristians. But they do not hate Taoist priests. Whoever understands the reason for this hasunderstood half of China.Lu Xun, Chinese WriterThe principal function of modern government is to keep people apart.
or
Keeping citizens apart has become the first maxim of modern politics. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)The more laws, the less justice.Marcus Tullius Cicero,
De Officiis
, 44 B.C.
Corruptissima republicae, plurimae leges.
(The more corrupt the state, the more laws it has.)Cornelius Tacitus (55-117 AD), ______________An old Chinese said he had heard that when empires were doomed they had many laws.Friedrich Nietzsche,
The Will to Power
(Posthumous Notebooks), 1901When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get thesmall laws.
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