Mohammed Bourdi > Mohammed's Quotes

“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

“Knock, And He'll open the door
Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun
Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.”
― Jalal Ad-Din Rumi

“It's not radical Islam that worries the US -- it's independence”
― Noam Chomsky

“Knowledge exists potentially in the human soul like the seed in the soil; by learning the potential becomes actual.”
― Imam Al-Ghazali

“ضع في يدي القيد ألهب أضلعي
بالسوط ضع عنقي على السكين

لن تستطيع حصار فكري ساعة
أو محو إيماني و نور يقيني

فالنور في قلبي و قلبي في يدي
ربي و ربي ناصري و معنيني”
― يوسف القرضاوى

“We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”
― Noam Chomsky

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.”
― Noam Chomsky

“Almost all people are hypnotics. The proper authority saw to it that the proper belief should be induced, and the people believed properly.”
― Charles Fort

“The most dramatic instances of directed behavior change and "mind control" are not the consequence of exotic forms of influence, such as hypnosis, psychotropic drugs, or "brainwashing," but rather the systematic manipulation of the most mundane aspects of human nature over time in confining settings.”
― Philip G. Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

“Our minds have been poisoned and our accepted beliefs are unnatural and artificial.”
― Bryant McGill

“Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game.”
― Evita Ochel

“I am lost! Someone has taken over my mind and is controlling it! Someone is in command of all my actions, movements, and thoughts. I am nothing inside, merely a spectator enslaved and terrified by everything I do.”
― Guy de Maupassant, A Day in the Country and Other Stories

“The reflection of the current social paradigm tells us we are largely determined by conditioning and conditions.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“One way or another, we spend our whole lives being conditioned into accepting some line or order, some position of domination or subjection. It’s hard to unlearn such hierarchy, to undo such control. It’s implicit.”
― Cliff James, Of Bodies Changed

“The meaning of life in western secular society is to be successful. So many people are success mad and they are encouraged to reach for something and have so called "worthwhile goals". Money, fame, power, good looks, possessions are the indicators of success and the media and advertising companies exploit this. People are conditioned to believe that they can only feel happy or good about themselves if they have these things. This of course is not true.”
― Tim Crawshaw, So, You Want to Be Rich... But Jesus Doesn't.

“No matter how awakened you are, the conditioning roots are deep; very deep. Reclamation is a constant process.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.”
― Idries Shah, Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way

“Remember that many "negative" people were conditioned by people with smaller minds and hearts, so forgive them.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“Deeply-rooted conditioning has perverted us. We ARE the culture of violence. We must look at ourselves.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“First one must understand conditioning - only then can we speak of choice”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?”
― Peter Hitchens

“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation.

Now, it's long been understood very well that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited: that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage-can. At this stage of history, either one of two things is possible: either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community-interests, guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others; or, alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control.

As long as some specialized class is in a position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole and, by now, that means the global community. The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass-communication, and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely, to impose necessary illusions, manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena. The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival.”
― Noam Chomsky