Sophie Hannah Quotes

Jim Bakker came along. He said, Jessica Hahn, listen. You're a virgin. As God as my witness. He said, We need a girl that we can trust.

Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.

When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick.

I warn you that when the princes of this world start loving you it means they are going to grind you up into battle sausage.

The American way is to seduce a man by bribery and make a prostitute of him. Or else to ignore him, starve him into submission and make a hack out of him.

Once a person insists on how you are to think he immediately begins to insist on how you are to behave.

there are some people of a timid or very opportunists mind who press on us the necessity of leading people on by little and little, concealing the object they have in view, until people are so far committed to the steps to be taken towards it that they cannot draw back again

We lead them to believe that we are in complete control over every aspect of their lives.

Deals, flattery, threats and promises are part of the process, certainly; do not flinch from any opportunity to scheme and plot, however sordid and demeaning it may appear.

After taking advantage of the weakness, the credulity and the ignorance of the weakest and the most ignorant of the people, those sly, cunning politicians easily had them believe whatever they wanted. Consequently, they made them accept with respect and submission, willingly or not, all the laws they wanted to establish.

The word "education" has an evil sound in politics; there is a pretense of education, when the real purpose is coercion without the use of force.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are just putting us on [and acting stupid], or by imbeciles who really mean it.

Ambition fortifies the will of man to become ruler over other men: it operates with deception, cajolery, and violence, it is the action of impurity upon impurity.

I've met my share of guys who have insulted and assaulted my intelligence with their stories and games. I say hello and goodbye!

I hated how Sam Rothstein got manipulated by Sharon Stone's character in 'Casino.' I mean, I just hate how he gets manipulated; that just gets ridiculous to me. I know it's historic, but I hated that.

Jayalalitha is a performing monkey in the hands of Sasikala.

I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it.

Governments are composed of human beings, and all of the frailties that humans possess are absorbed into these governments and become active within these governments. Hatred, anger, jealousy, fear, greed, distrust and the whole host of afflictions that humans must bear, lurk just beneath the surface of civility displayed by 'government.'

The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.

Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.

The only way to stop gaslighting is to shine the light of reality onto a situation. That makes it imperative for the perpetrator to keep victims in the dark.

As the plot of 'Condor' unfolds, you'll understand that nothing is sacred in the pharmacy world or in the behind-the-scenes workings of the CIA and FBI.

When it comes to politics today, the devils' not in the details; the devil's in the big picture, more often than not just hiding in plain sight.

Exploiters and manipulators have always used religion self-righteously to further their own selfish ends.

A lot of directors tend to manipulate actors' vulnerability to get what they want, and that can work.