One doesn't want one's democracy to behave like a dictatorial or fascistic police. One doesn't.Tom Stoppard
The idea of the state is, or should be, a very limited, prescribed idea. The state looks after the defense of the realm, and other matters - raising revenue to pay for things which are for all of us, and so on. That idea has turned turtle now. The state isn't any longer perceived as an institution which exists to serve us.Tom Stoppard
It is no light matter to put in jeopardy a single life when it is the very singularity of each life which underpins the idea of a just society.Tom Stoppard
I don't respond well to the Olympic noise, which is the noise of nationalistic triumphalism.Tom Stoppard
Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.Honoré de Balzac
Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart.Honoré de Balzac
A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.Sigmund Freud
