Rick O'Keefe

“I have a foreboding of America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time–when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all of the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; with our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

And when the dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites now down to 10 seconds or less, lowest-common-denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“This mere political Priesthood are the agents of Satan to enslave mankind; the most wicked and remorseless Tyrants of the Earth have found it impossible to enslave man by any other means but by uniting with such Priests—with their aid the most sacred rights of man have been easily seized. These men have wickedly instructed their dupes that God required of man passive obedience to the most bloody and savage Tyrants, thus have they profaned Religion, (which is intended to bless mankind, both here & hereafter) to the vile purpose of Slavery and Misery. A union of Church with State is more destructive to the happiness of man than any other conspiracy since the first Apostacy and union of fallen Angels. True Christians have but one opinion of those Priests who wickedly prate about a union of Church and State—they believe them to be only wolves in sheep’s clothing; they are mere Hirelings; they have no call to preach the Gospel except what they fancy they derive from a College education”
― Chris Rodda, From Theocracy To Religious Liberty: Connecticut’s Journey from Thomas Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation” Letter to a State Constitution, as Told Through the Newspapers of the Time

“Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.”
― Oscar Levant

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.”
― Alan Alda