Samuel Beckett Ignorance, forgetfulness, or contempt of the rights of man are the only causes of public misfortunes and of the coruption of governments. Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. The silent majority distrusts people who believe in causes. The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an upopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul. It is well for our vanity that we slay the criminal, for if we suffered him to live he might show us what we had gained by his crime.
Nothing can be more contemptible than to suppose public records to be true.
If we ever do end up acting just like rats of Pavlov's dogs, it will be largely bcause behaviorism has conditioned us to do so. Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless. There is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. Even if you don't agree with a law personally, you still obey it.