Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Through the machineries of greed, pettiness, and the abuse of power, love occurs.

Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.

We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp.

An organized effort is making to deceive the people. There are two great enemies of thought and progress, the aristocracy of royalty and the aristocracy of gold.

And then there's all these other creeps that surround your band and suck off you like leeches and try to manipulate you and your business. You have to watch like a hawk. I'm always ready to fight. I see it very much as a battle.

It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

But human nature dictates that there will always be cheaters. That's inevitable. Where there's money involved and glory, there are going to be people that cheat, and there will always be ways to cheat.

A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature.

No one can expect a majority to be stirred by motives other than ignoble.

Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies

Is there any way we can screw him?

Money makes everybody evil when you think about it.

Oil rich boys . . . had a nice, sweet smile but when you finished meeting with them your socks were missing and you hadn't even noticed they'd taken your boots.

Legal plunder has two roots: One, as we have just seen, is in human selfishness; the other is in false philanthropy.

"A child!" said Edith, looking at her. "When was I a child? What childhood did you ever leave to me? I was a woman - artful, designing, mercenary, laying snares for men - before I knew myself, or you, or even understood the base and wretched aim of every new display I learnt. You gave birth to a woman. Look upon her. She is in her pride tonight."

Seducers are more dangerous enemies to the church than persecutors.

Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.

The problem with addicted people, communities, corporations, or countries is that they tend to lie, cheat, or steal to get their 'fix.' Corporations are addicted to profit and governments to power.

Civilization, let me tell you what it is. First the soldier, then the merchant, then the priest, then the lawyer. The merchant hires the soldier and priest to conquer the country for him. First the soldier, he is a murderer; then the priest, he is a liar; then the merchant, he is a thief; and they all bring in the lawyer to make their laws and defend their deeds, and there you have your civilization!

A man with no enemies is a man with no character.

I love enemies, though not in the Christian way. They amuse me, excite my blood. Being always on one’s guard, catching every glance, the significance of every word, guessing at intentions, frustrating their plots, pretending to be tricked, and suddenly, with a shove, upturning the whole enormous and arduously built edifice of their cunning and schemes—that’s what I call life.

There is a social contract in "Fight Club" and in "Choke" where the protagonist has deceived a whole bunch of people. In "Choke" it's all of these people who think that they've saved his life, and really care about him because they've embraced him and they've been his saviors. In "Fight Club" it's all of these people who are dying of various diseases, and they thought that Edward Norton was also dying so they allowed him really strong pent-up emotions.

The most detestable race of enemies are flatterers.

Abetted by misguided or co-opted intellectuals, the rulers weave a cloak of legitimacy to disguise their theft and hence to ease their extraction of wealth from the rightful owners.

Then if my friendships break and bend, There's little need to cry The while I know that every foe Is faithful till I die.