Rummel Quotes & Sayings

The way to virtually eliminate genocide and mass murder appears to be through restricting and checking power. This means to foster democratic freedom. — Rudolph Rummel

He felt dirty, contaminated, as though he were carrying some deadly germ, unworthy to sit on the underground train back from the hospital with innocent, clean people whose minds and bodies were free of the taint of Voldemort. . — J.K. Rowling

Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong. — Vita Sackville-West

The subtle differences in language and humor that get lost in translation, for example, make it almost impossible for big companies to do something that will appeal at home and abroad. — Larry Gelbart

The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide. — Rudolph Rummel

One of the characteristics I cherish in my friends is their childlike gullibility, and several excited minutes were spent trying to actually find this book. — Phil Foglio

The great thing about living today is that there is this thing called the Interweb, and you can just look up anything. — Padma Lakshmi

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression. — Rudolph Rummel

[During the 20th century] ... 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. — Rudolph Rummel

Any dance of celebration must weave both the sorrows and the blessings into a joyful step ... To heal is to let the Holy Spirit call me to dance, to believe again, even amid my pain, that God will orchestrate and guide my life. — Henri Nouwen

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment. — Rudolph Rummel

Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth. — Rudolph Rummel

People on corporate conveyor belts, like animals in slaughter-chutes are all part of the same big massacre of joy. — Bryant McGill

The recently ended twentieth century was characterized by a level of human rights violations unparalleled in all of human history. In his book Death by Government, Rudolph Rummel estimates some 170 million government-caused deaths in the twentieth century. The historical evidence appears to indicate that, rather than protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of their citizens, governments must be considered the greatest threat to human security. — Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom. — Rudolph Rummel

How easy to relive the past if you've never left it! — William Heath

Once the script is done, I put it aside for a month. I start thinking of all the films that have influenced me, which I have liked for different reasons, and not necessarily the look, but films that have moved me. Some very strange films came to mind. — Deepa Mehta

The fact is that we cannot drill our way to independence. We cannot drill our way to freedom, and we cannot drill our way to create jobs in this country. — Jay Inslee

Aristotle taught that stars are made of a different matter than the four earthly elements - a quintessence - that also happens to be what the human psyche is made of. Which is why man's spirit corresponds to the stars. Perhaps that's not a very scientific view, but I do like the idea that there's a little starlight in each of us. — Lisa Kleypas

I've had a five- or six-year down-spell as a writer, and now that most of the other contracts are cleared or down to the last book, I have a chance to do what I want to do - specifically, something set in New Orleans. — Robert Asprin

It will be under the name David Talbot." "My clothes. There's a stash of them here under the name Isaac Rummel. Just a suitcase or two, and some coats. It's really winter, isn't it?" I gave him the key to the room. This was humiliating. Rather like making a servant of him. Perhaps he'd change his mind and put our new lodgings under the name of Renfield. — Anne Rice

We have a solution for war. It is to expand the sphere of liberty. — Rudolph Rummel

To gauge the understanding and insight that metaphysics provides is to ask whether, in the final analysis, it helps us to cope with our world and harmonize our existence with nature, humanity, and ourselves, and leads to greater freedom and self-realization. Metaphysics is only the beginning. The end is human progress. — Rudolph Rummel