{"quotes":[{"text":"I know positively - yes Rieux I can say I know the world inside out as no one on earth is free from it. And I know too that we must keep endless watch on ourselves lest in careless moment we breathe in somebody's face and fasten the infection on him. What's natural is the microbe. All the rest- health integrity purity if you like - is a product of the human will of vigilance that must never falter. The good man the man who infects hardly anyone is the man who has the fewest lapses of attention. And it needs tremendous will-power a never ending tension of the mind to avoid such lapses. Yes Rieux it's a wearying business being plague-stricken. But it's still more wearying to refuse to be it. That's why everybody in the world today looks so tired everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us who want to get the plague out of their systems feel such desperate weariness a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death.","author":"Albert Camus","tags":["health","sickness","social-commentary"],"id":10646,"author_id":"Albert+Camus"},{"text":"Jazz is democracy in music.","author":"Wynton Marsalis","tags":["artistic","patriotism","social-commentary"],"id":21275,"author_id":"Wynton+Marsalis"},{"text":"I wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about alot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when peopletake intractable positions on an issue, and stick to extreme sides,sometimes the result is a compromise that is worse than either extreme. Imeant it as a wake up call to society -- and to point out that sometimes theproblem IS that we take sides on an issue, when a different sort of approachis needed. It's also to pose questions about what it means to be alive.Where does life begin, where does it end -- and point out that there is nosingle answer to these questions. The problem is people who think there aresimple answers. People who see things as simple black-and-whiteright-and-wrong are the type of people who will end up with a world like theworld in Unwind.","author":"Neal Shusterman","tags":["choice","dystopian","morality","sanctity-of-life","social-commentary","unwind","value-in-a-person"],"id":28018,"author_id":"Neal+Shusterman"},{"text":"There must be some Tommy Hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul.","author":"William Gibson","tags":["fashion","labels","social-commentary","society","trends"],"id":38565,"author_id":"William+Gibson"},{"text":"So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.","author":"Elbert Hubbard","tags":["biography","inspirational","memoir","nonfiction","social-commentary"],"id":48461,"author_id":"Elbert+Hubbard"},{"text":"One problem with the division of labor in our complex economy is how it obscures the lines of connection, and therefore of responsibility, between our everyday acts and their real-world consequences. Specialization makes it easy to forget about the filth of the coal-fired power plant that is lighting this pristine computer screen, or the back-breaking labor it took to pick the strawberries for my cereal, or the misery of the hog that lived and died so I could enjoy my bacon. Specialization neatly hides our implication in all that is done on our behalf by unknown other specialists half a world away.","author":"Michael Pollan","tags":["economy","food","social-commentary","society"],"id":50779,"author_id":"Michael+Pollan"},{"text":"Friends are the family you choose (~ Nin/Ithilnin, Elven rogue).","author":"Jess C. Scott","tags":["cyberpunk","elven","elves","family","friends","friendship","human-behavior","human-nature","humanity","humankind","humans","inside-ourselves","insight","insightful","life","life-lessons","love","meaning","meaning-of-life","nq-mobile-omar-khan","omar-khan-nq-mobile","reflection","reflective","social-commentary","social-issues","social-science","society","truth","urban-fantasy","urban-fantasy-series","ya-urban-fantasy","young-adult","young-adult-fiction","young-adult-literature","young-adult-novels","young-adult-series"],"id":57118,"author_id":"Jess+C.+Scott"},{"text":"When the Rule of Law disappears, we are ruled by the whims of men.","author":"Tiffany Madison","tags":["america","americanism","despotism","law","legal-system","men","police","police-state","politics","politics-of-the-united-states","rule-of-law","social-change","social-commentary","social-justice","social-norms","social-psychology","society","society-s-increasing-stupidity","state","surveillance","surveillance-society"],"id":64994,"author_id":"Tiffany+Madison"},{"text":"Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?","author":"Douglas Adams","tags":["british","humor","science-fiction","social-commentary","thumb","towel"],"id":70819,"author_id":"Douglas+Adams"},{"text":"Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived...' (Bk2:3).","author":"Jean-Jacques Rousseau","tags":["government","philosophy-of-people","social-commentary"],"id":77030,"author_id":"Jean-Jacques+Rousseau"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":64,"pages":7,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}