…the artist is the figure who, above all others, imposes values without discussion, opens up perspectives and invents worlds without needing to demonstrate the legitimacy of his propositions, still less to prove them by a refutation of those works which preceded his own. Like the aristocracy, the artist commands without arguing with anyone or anything…

— Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought

…a recent survey determined that 80 percent of employees feel their managers are useless and that they could do their job just as well without them.

— David Graeber, Bullshit Jobs

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.

— Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

For most traits measured, about 40-50 percent of the variance among people is accounted for by their genes, including both religious and political preferences

— Michael Shermer, Joe Carter, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Ronald Bailey, and Jason Kuznicki, Brain, Belief, and Politics

Rumors had persisted for years that the ARPANET had been built to protect national security in the face of a nuclear attack. It was a myth that had gone unchallenged long enough to become widely accepted as fact.

— Matthew Lyon and Katie Hafner, Where Wizards Stay Up Late