Ὀλιγόπιστος

“What do you think, Assalāyana? Suppose a consecrated khattiya king were to assemble here a hundred men of different birth and say to them: 'Come, sirs, let any here who have been born into a khattiya clan or a brahmin clan or a royal clan take an upper fire-stick of fine quality wood and light a fire and produce heat. And also let any who have been born into an outcast clan, a trapper clan, a wicker workers' clan, a cartwrights' clan, or a scavengers' clan take an upper fire-stick made from a dog's drinking trough, from a pig's trough, from a dust-bin, or from castor-oil wood and light a fire and produce heat.'

"What do you think, Assalāyana? When a fire is lit and heat is produced by someone in the first group, would that fire have a flame, a color, a radiance, and would it be possible to use it for the purposes of fire, while when a fire is lit and heat is produced by someone of the second group, that fire would have no flame, no color, and no radiance, and it would not be possible to use it for the purposes of fire?”
― Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”
― Stephen King