George Monbiot Quotes

People don't find the personal lives of people with much, much more power than any celebrity would have - don't find their personal lives interesting.

The spirit of the age, as it is revealed to each of us, is too often only the spirit of the group in which the accidents of birth or education or occupation or fellowship have given us a place.

Whatever is the strongest power in society will obtain the governing authority; and a change in the political constitution cannot be durable unless preceded or accompanied by an altered distribution of power in society itself

Are not Religion & Politics the Same Thing?

In Mexico, the perception of power is power.

In times not long gone by, the higher and richer classes were in complete possession of the government. Their power was the master grievance of the country. The habit of voting at the bidding of an employer, or of a landlord, was so firmly established, that hardly anything was capable of shaking it

We cannot isolate a human being from the circumstances of his condition

Senators will associate only with men of their own class; and thus become strangers to the condition of the common people.

For if from the vantage point of a particular class the totality of existing society is not visible; if a class thinks the thoughts imputable to it and which bear upon its interests right through to their logical conclusion and yet fails to strike at the heart of that totality, then such a class is doomed to play only a subordinate role.

Man makes his own history, but he does not make it out of the whole cloth; he does not make it out of conditions chosen by himself, but out of such as he finds close at hand.

Water does tend to flow up hill toward money and power.

The main reason western culture has been dominant is because Europeans have controlled political, economic and social power including educational policy for the last several centuries.

All great revolutions are led by aristocrats.

The class struggle, to which Marx has specially drawn attention, is a real factor, the tokens of which are to be found on every page of history. But the struggle is not confined only to two classes: the proletariat and the capitalist; it occurs between an infinite number of groups with different interests, and above all between the elites contending for power. The existence of these groups may vary in duration, they may be based on permanent or more or less temporary characteristics. In the most savage peoples, and perhaps in all, sex determines two of these groups.

In a superior civilization, as, for example, that of the Indo-Aryans, the being who is without a characteristic form or caste... would emerge as a pariah. In this respect America is a society of pariahs. There is a role for pariahs. It is to be subjected to beings whose form and internal laws are precisely defined. Instead the modern pariahs seek to become dominant themselves and to exercise their dominion over all the world.

It is society which, fashioning us in its image, fills us with religious, political, and moral beliefs that control our actions.

There are two great enemies of thought and progress, the aristocracy of royalty and the aristocracy of gold.

If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness.

Wealth is a form of power in our society. With great power comes great responsibility. If you have too much wealth, ipso facto, you have too much power -- therefore you have too much responsibility -- and you're a kind of dictator.

We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television.

Those who control the wealth of this society have an influence over political life far in excess of their number.

I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country

Power resides where men believe power resides.

No one can escape the influence of a prevailing ideology.

Owning media is power. That’s the way it is.