Mark Singer

“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”
― José Ortega y Gasset

“When wicked or ignorant men govern, it is not surprising that virtue and goodness are not esteemed. For the former hate them, and the latter do not know them.”
― Francesco Guicciardini, Maxims and Reflections

“The burning conviction that we have a holy duty toward others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like giving a hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The downfall of every civilization comes, not from the moral corruption of the common man, but rather from the moral complacency of common men in high places.”
― E. Digby Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America