Mean quotes
28K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"With the conception that the Revolution was only a means of securing political power, it was inevitable that all revolutionary values should be subordinated to the needs of the Socialist State; indeed, exploited to further the security of the newly acquired governmental power."
"So-called Individualism is the social and economic laissez-faire: the exploitation of the masses by the classes by means of legal trickery, spiritual debasement and systematic indoctrination of the servile spirit, which process is known as 'education'."
"Yes, authority, coercion, and dependence rest on the mass, but never freedom or the free unfoldment of the individual, never the birth of a free society. The Socialist demagogues know that as well as I, but they maintain the myth of the virtues of the majority, because their very scheme of life means the perpetuation of power."
"Our institutions and conditions rest upon deep-seated ideas. To change those conditions and at the same time leave the underlying ideas and values intact means only a superficial transformation, one that cannot be permanent or bring real betterment. It is a change of form only, not of substance, as so tragically proven by Russia."
"Success achieved by the most contemptible means cannot but destroy the soul. ... It helps to cover up the inner corruption and gradually dulls one's scruples, so that those who begin with some high ambition cannot, even if they would, create anything out of themselves."
"Just never really got into cars and flossin' or never really cared, like I was always the type of person that felt like as long as I make enough money to support my family with this music that's all I really care about. You know what I mean so I don't really buy, I'm just not into like that many material possessions and stuff like that, because at the end of the day, it's just not that important."
"Concentrate on comfort - even if that means wearing the same thing over and over, because when I feel comfortable, I feel so much more relaxed and have a much better time."
"My stylist has really great taste - Petra Flannery has really great taste. I mean, I am opinionated, and as time goes on, as I've gotten to see more dresses or more clothes, it's easier to say, 'I like that' or 'I don't like that,' but it's nothing I would ever, you know, design."
"Yeah, it was horrible! I mean really horrible. I felt incredibly awkward. It was not something I was [looking forward to]. I don't know, but it looked good. We somehow managed to make it look realistic. I was proud of myself that I managed to power through and be professional."
"I would love to not date someone in the same industry as me. Otherwise it becomes what it means to everyone else."
"To a longer and worse life, a shorter and better is by all means to be preferred."
"Knowing means to penetrate through the surface, in order to arrive at the roots, and hence the causes; knowing means to "see" reality in its nakedness. Knowing does not mean to be in the possession of the truth; it means to penetrate the surface and to strive critically and actively in order to approach truth ever more closely."
"Fairness means not to use fraud and trickery in the exchange of commodities and services and the exchange of feelings."
"I am a socialist. However, I have to add that what I understand by socialism is exactly the opposite of what many people, or most people, today mean by socialism."
"In our enthusiasm to dominate nature and to produce more material good - goods - we have transformed means into ends."
"I understand by socialism a society in which the aim of production is not profit, but the use. In which the individual citizen participates responsibly in his work, and in the whole social organization, and in which he is not a means who is employed by capital."
"Everybody has strange things that mean things to them. You couldn't help it."
"The English talked with inflected phrases. One phrase to mean everything."
"To invent out of knowledge means to produce inventions that are true. Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him. It also should have a manual drill and a crank handle in case the machine breaks down. If you're going to write, you have to find out what's bad for you. Part of that you learn fast, and then you learn what's good for you."
"If you have to go away,' she said,'is it absolutely necessary to kill off everything you leave behind? I mean do you have to take away everything?"
