Karl Popper Quotes

Unfortunately, kids are led to believe things are easier to achieve than they really are.

Many self-help books give you these neat, tidy formulas that are really illusions. They dupe people into thinking, 'Well if I can just do that, then everything's going to be okay.' My work differs in that I don't offer quick solutions and simple explanations.

No, I'm not a horse better. Every once in a while somebody will give me a sure thing and of course it's not.

Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.

Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke typically don't end well. Maybe the Hollywood stars and the glamour blinded us a little: you thought it was the glare, some of us thought it was a halo.

What Western society teaches us is that if you get enough money, power, and beautiful people to have sex with, that's going to bring you happiness. That's what every commercial, every magazine, music, movie teaches us. That's a fallacy.

You just want fame so bad. You want success so bad. You just believe anybody who conjures up a pretty contract and they're telling you all these sweet nothings I guess.

I was so naive to think once you sign, it's all good, and you are a superstar.

If people want to follow an illusion that you don't have to pay your way, you don't have to measure up, then there are serious consequences for any country.

You can't control what people gravitate to and what they don't. We can only control the work that we do and try to give it the best that we can.

What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them.

Societies are healthiest when their radius of trust is broad and when people feel they can influence their own fate.

Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory.

This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.

People need security of the mind. Why do they want democracy? Because it can give them freedom and security in a balanced way.

There's people on the left who say, the ballot box is a waste of time. Forget them. When Mandela voted for the first time at the age of 76 there was a lot of grown men, including me, wept buckets. That was what it was about. It doesn't solve things, but it gives you the mechanism to hold to account the people with power.

We are going to have to be very careful that we give people the hope that freedom is actually better than unfreedom.

I don't really care about the GOPs or the Democratic Party. My point is the people, giving the people truth.

You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. Besides you don't build a better world by choppin' heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.

We desire to give the Soviet people absolute liberty of voting for those they desire to elect, those whom they trust to ensure their interests.

Every argument that Margaret Thatcher ever made internationally didn't have a great deal to do with her contempt for Communism - she never really got into that. What she talked about was giving freedom to tens of millions of people in Central and Eastern Europe. She was an inspirational leader when it came to discussing her belief in freedom. More visceral and moral.

When you give the American people the tools to make the right choices for themselves, they're going to do that.

In a Nutshell - Fundamental Techniques In Handling People; Principle 1 - Don't criticize, condemn or complain; Principle 2 - Give honest and sincere appreciation; Principle 3 - Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Welcome to the free world. We give people the power to choose. They can even choose the wrong thing. Beautiful, isn't it?

When I was young, I expected from people more than they could give: neverending friendship and constant excitement. Now I expect less than they can actually can give: to stay close silently. And their feelings, friendship, noble deeds always seem like a miracle to me: a true grace.