O, the Lies
March 15th, 2009I recently ran across a list of quotes in a political brochure. Our politicians have fed us so much garbage for so long that we have trouble discerning truth from error – or even caring. It seems of late that the majority of Americans would believe just about anything. Consider the following quotes and see if you can see any contemporary similarities.
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please – you can never have both. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false. ~ Bertrand Russell
Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it. ~ Adolph Hitler
The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. ~ Adolph Hitler
It gives us a very special secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening. ~ Adolph Hitler
The great mass of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one. ~ Adolph Hitler
Great liars are like great magicians. ~ Adolph Hitler
Arguments must therefore be crude, clear, and forcible and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was important and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology. Hatred and contempt must be directed at particular individuals. ~ Joseph Goebbels
A lie told often enough becomes the truth. ~ Vladimir Lenin
The fundamental aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. ~ H. L. Menken
One of the saddest lessons in history is this: If we have been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge – even to ourselves – that we’ve been so credulous. ~ Carl Sagan
