Donella Meadows Quotes

The power of groups of men organized by incorporation ... or of small knots of rich men acting in combination has developed with unexpected strength in unexpected ways, overshadowing individuals and even communities, and showing that the very freedom of association which men sought to secure by law when they were threatened by the violence of the potentates may, under the shelter of law, ripen into a new form of tyranny.

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

There are men who strike at liberty under the term licentiousness.

Wall Street has too much wealth and political power.

Money is not free speech. Money is property.

… the rules of big business … have superseded the teachings of our parents and are reducible to a simple maxim: Get a monopoly; let Society work for you: and remember that the best of all business is politics, for a legislative grant, franchise, subsidy or tax exemption is worth more than a Kimberly or Comstock lode, since it does not require any labor, either mental or physical, for its exploitation”

The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson — and I am not wholly excepting the Administration of Woodrow Wilson. The country is going through a repetition of Jackson's fight with the Bank of the United States — only on a far bigger and broader basis.

… the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

Political speech is indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation rather than an individual.

I have no problem with free speech, but free speech and then silencing your opposition - boy, I have a problem with that.

No one gets punished for corruption in our country.

Millions of people have to restore liberty and have to understand the danger and personal risk they face in a police state.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

Freedom can be destroyed, not just by its retraction, but also by its abuse.

Because you took advantage of my disadvantage.

I am not being facetious when I say that the real enemies in this country are the Pentagon and its pals in big business.

Liberty... is there only when there is no abuse of power.

Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state.

Government is a kind of legalized pillage.

Liberty is the soul's right to breathe and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.

A democratic government that respects no limits on its power is a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy the rights it was created to protect.

I hate extremes of any kind. Communism [seeks] the domination of the state over the individual... All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument...

Joe Lieberman frightens me. Why should we, an Hollywood voter, donate money to a man who threatens our creative freedom, our freedom of expression.

We're most likely to lose our rights when we allow ourselves to be persuaded to deprive others of theirs.