#isms

How easy is murder when one calls it by a different name? How much easier is it for the conscience to condone “reaping” than “killing”—and when one knows that death isn’t the end, does it stop the killing hand for fear of retribution, or does it simply make it easier to kill, because, if life continues, how can murder be murder at all? ↗

— Neal Shusterman

#euphemisms #killing #responsibility #death

The true basis and propaedeutic for all knowledge of human nature is the persuasion that a man's actions are, essentially and as a whole, not directed by his reason and its designs; so that no one becomes this or that because he wants to, though he want to never so much, but that his conduct proceeds from his inborn and inalterable character, is narrowly and in particulars determined by motivation, and is thus necessarily the product of these two factors. ↗

— Arthur Schopenhauer

#existentialism #maxims #schopenhauer #design

The last dictator will finally prove the phrase, 'love conquers all.' Our savior is an erotocrat with an expansionist policy. When we are equalized through hierarchy, we will languish in joy. ↗

— Bauvard

#funny #love #salvation #truisms #war

Euphemisms persist because lying is an indispensable part of making life tolerable. ↗

— Bergen Evans

#euphemisms #language-awareness #life #lying #life

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. ↗

— George Eliot

#true-friends #love

..."stupidity: a process, not a state. A human being takes in far more information that he or she can put out. 'Stupidity' is a process or strategy by which a human, in response to social denigration of the information [they] put[] out, commits [themself] to taking in no more information than [they] can put out. (Not to be confused with ignorance, or lack of data.) Since such a situation is impossible to achieve because of the nature of mind.perception itself in its relation to the functioning body, a continuing downward spiral of functionality and/or informative dissemination results." and he understood why! "The process, however, can be reversed," the voice continued," at any time... ↗

— Samuel R. Delany

#edited-for-gender-binaryisms #ignorance #knowledge #stupidity #nature

God's will has to be done, in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that. ↗

— Sarah Palin

#environmental-degradation #god #industry #palinisms #prayer

Beyond the queues, the vacancy screens listed jobs in a multitude of languages. Invariably, they were low-paid and short-term dead-ends. Nearby, people in headphones sat at a bank of machines: the blind and the illiterate force-fed with ‘opportunities’ by soothing machine voices. On the far wall, in large print, a poster declared: BEGGARS CANNOT BE CHOOSERS. ↗

— Mark Cantrell

#science-fiction #social-justice #totalitarian-system-mechanisms #unemployment #welfare

Too many of Disney animators, and a lot try to emulate Disney, are trying to hit what they call quality levels. They're boring mannerisms. ↗

— Ralph Bakshi

#boring #call #disney #emulate #hit

So, to prepare for the role, I had to take music lessons, talk to wives who had husbands overseas, and carefully study the reactions and mannerisms of a friend who was expecting. ↗

— June Allyson

#expecting #friend #had #husbands #i