Philip Pullman Quotes

You have been having our rights so long, that you think, like a slave-holder, that you own us. I know that it is hard for one who has held the reins for so long to give up; it cuts like a knife. It will feel all the better when it closes up again.

The radios are going to dictate. That's another fight. That's another story there. I wish they just let it be.

Patriotism ... for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish submission to those in power. ... Patriotism is slavery.

Whether the institution to be defended is slavery, political absolutism, or the absolutism of the head of a family, we are always expected to judge of it from its best instances; and we are presented with pictures of loving exercise of authority on one side, loving submission to it on the other

That which is given in submission becomes a medium of defiance.

He who saith “thou shalt” to me is my mortal foe.

You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.

If you are not their slaves, you are rebels.

Kill if you will, but command me nothing!

We all have a tendency to want order in our lives. But order presupposes authority, and authority presupposes, sooner or later, that we'll all need hooves. It's going to happen sooner or later, isn't it? You know it is.

People are difficult to rule, because of their knowledge.

The strong man wants to be allowed to DO; the little man wants to stop him.

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

Power never turns power down, ever, unless institutionally demanded.

It's a great feeling to know that 100 cops want to stop you doing something and they can't.

I love someone who tries to boss me around.

I'm no one's lap dog, you can't put me on a leash.

I can't imagine people telling me what to do - I just can't imagine it.

Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

Every time you touch those who have power over the media, they seek to stop you.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things.

Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.

I think there is an instinct out there to rid us of our masters.

I can never consent to being dictated to.