I’ve been collecting things that seem to me to be of the moment, or for the moment. Here are fifteen quotes that you’ve probably seen around. I think they do a good job of describing or explaining our time, and I thought it might be a good idea if someone like me put them all in the same place.
They’re in alphabetical order. Please let me know if you have others to suggest.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” – Crooked Timber blog comment, classical music composer Frank Wilhoit
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” – Martin Niemoller
“I told them to fix their hearts or die.” – Twin Peaks, David Lynch
“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” – No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – I, Candidate for Governor; Upton Sinclair
“Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti-Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.” – Anti-Semite and Jew, Jean-Paul Sartre
“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” – One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, Omar el Akkad
“Shit is fucked up and bullshit” – Occupy Wall Street protest sign
“Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things.” – Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett
“That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.” – Seeker’s Mask, P.C. Hodgell
“The cruelty is the point.” – The Atlantic, Adam Serwer
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters” – Antonio Gramsci
“The purpose of a system is what it does.” The Heart of Enterprise, Stafford Beer
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. – “The Second Coming”, William Butler Yeats
“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.” – New Yorker cartoon, Tom Toro
