Brian Bera > Brian's Quotes

“[T]he useful idiots, the leftists who are idealistically believing in the beauty of the Soviet socialist or Communist or whatever system, when they get disillusioned, they become the worst enemies. That’s why my KGB instructors specifically made the point: never bother with leftists. Forget about these political prostitutes. Aim higher. [...] They serve a purpose only at the stage of destabilization of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States: all these professors and all these beautiful civil rights defenders. They are instrumental in the process of the subversion only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed any more. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninists come to power—obviously they get offended—they think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against the wall and shot.”
― Yuri Bezmenov

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

“Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I'll sleep more easily by night.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”
― Sun Tzu

“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”
― Oscar Wilde

“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition.”
― Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

“If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity. It is the glory of Abraham Lincoln that he never abused power only on the side of mercy”
― Robert Ingersoll

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“I wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us.”
― Veronica Roth, Allegiant

“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve 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’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

“Keep your best wishes, close to your heart and watch what happens”
― Tony DeLiso, Legacy: The Power Within: The Power Within

“Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

“How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms, the weakest and most vulnerable of people - girls, women - went unarmed and were taught nothing of fighting, while the strong were trained to the highest reaches of their skill.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.”
― Siddhārtha Gautama, The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha

“True love is born from understanding.”
― The Buddha

“Purity or impurity depends on oneself,
No one can purify another.”
― Tipitaka. Suttapitaka. Khuddakanikaya. Dhammapada. English & Pali

“Nothing is forever except change.”
― Gautama Buddha

“The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There's only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment”
― Buddha

“As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.”
― Siddhārtha Gautama

“The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.”
― Buddha

“As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgements but rain your kindness equally on all. ”
― Buddha

“Attachment leads to suffering.”
― Buddha

“With our thoughts we make the world.”
― Buddha

“Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.”
― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni

“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.”
― Buddha, The Dhammapada

“A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”
― Buddha

“Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.”
― Siddhārtha Gautama