through religion all men get a little of what a few privileged souls possess in full.

— Henry Bergson, Two Sources of Morality and Religion

…people being divided generally, according to the law of nature, into two categories: a lower one, ordinary people, who are, so to speak, material serving solely for the reproduction of their own kind; and people proper—that is, those who have the gift or talent of speaking a new word in their environment. The subdivisions here are naturally endless, but the distinctive features of both categories are quite marked: people of the first, or material, category are by nature conservative, staid, live in obedience, and like being obedient. In my opinion they even must be obedient, because that is their purpose, and for them there is decidedly nothing humiliating in it. Those of the second category all transgress the law, are destroyers or inclined to destroy, depending on their abilities. The crimes of these people, naturally, are relative and variegated; for the most part they call, in quite diverse declarations, for the destruction of the present in the name of the better.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

To take something seriously is to make that thing a referendum on who you are; on your value and worth as a human being. To take something seriously is to invest that something with the ability to determine whether you matter. You’re giving that something the ability to provide you with, or keep you from, experiencing ultimate security.

— Jim Dethmer, Conscious Competition

The entire earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but an immense altar on which every living thing must be immolated without end.

— St Petersburg Dialogues, Joseph De Maistre

If the Defense Department pays a thousand dollars for toilet seats, it’s partly because it costs a lot to sell toilet seats for a thousand dollars.

— Paul Graham, Hackers & Painters