The Kidd

People's merit should be judged by their actual behavior rather than by their religious affiliation and philosophical views

Referendums and elections are always about human feelings, not about human rationality

Homo sapiens is just not built for satisfaction. Human happiness depends less on objective conditions and more on our own expectations. Expectations, however, tend to adapt to conditions, including the conditions of other people. When things improve, expectations balloon, and so even dramatic improvements in conditions might leave us as dissatisfied as before

Technology is never deterministic, and the fact that something can be done does not mean it must be done

Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clear-sighted.   Do you feel like running down the street crying "The apocalypse is upon us?" Try telling yourself, "No, it's not that. Truth is, I just don't understand what's going on in the world."

If the nation is facing external invasion or diabolical subversion, who has time to worry about overcrowded hospitals and polluted rivers? By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crises, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely

Liberty is not worth much unless it is coupled with some kind of social safety net. Social-democratic welfare states combined democracy and human rights with state-sponsored education and healthcare. Even the ultra-capitalist United States has realized that the protection of liberty requires at least some government welfare services. Starving children have no liberties

It is much harder to struggle against irrelevance than against exploitation

Humans were always far better at inventing tools than using them wisely

If a mosquito buzzed in our ear and disturbed our sleep, we knew how to kill the mosquito, but if a thought buzzed in our mind and kept us awake at night, most of us did not know how to kill the thought

Not a better theory, but better practices

Such an economy creates debtors who live for the present, confident that the future will take care of itself while consuming the goods of the earth today in ways that make it less likely that that future ever exists

We have endless choices of the kind of car to drive but few options over whether we will spend large parts of our lives in soul-deadening boredom within them

We effectively possess little self-government, either as citizens over our leaders or as individuals over our appetites

We must build upon those achievements while abandoning the foundational reasons for its failures. There can be no going back, only forward

Feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of men upon one another