John Ralston Saul quotes - page 5

The undoubted sign of a society well under control or in decline is that language has ceased to be a means of communication and has become instead a shield for those who master it. (John Ralston Saul)
The recession is over. View quote
John Ralston Saul
A referendum is little more than a "rumour of choice." View quote
John Ralston Saul
If allowed to run free of the social system, capitalism will attempt to corrupt and undermine democracy, which is after all not a natural state. View quote
John Ralston Saul
A Big Mac - the communion wafer of consumption. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Democracy, of course, requires strong demands from the public. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Only when God was said to have died did various leaders, professions and sectors risk pushing themselves forward as successors. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Armaments; extremely useful for fighting wars, a deadweight in any civil economy. View quote
John Ralston Saul
You can always tell you're in deep trouble when people start thinking money's real. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Educating the masses was intended only to improve the relationship between the top and the bottom of society. Not for changing the nature of the relationship. View quote
John Ralston Saul
I have a theory of statistics: if you can double them or halve them and they still work, they are really good statistics. (John Ralston Saul)
We all need a bit of self-delusion. It gets us over the difficult spots. View quote
John Ralston Saul
After a period in which technocrats attempted to become stars and stars to become politicians, the political void has been occupied by the force of mediocrity, which can easily master enough of the star techniques to produce inoffensive personalities and enough of the rational vocabulary to create the sounds of competence. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Simplicity is no longer presented as a virtue. The value of complex and difficult language has been preached with such insistence that the public has begun to believe the lack of clarity must be a sign of artistic talent. View quote
John Ralston Saul
There is no need to search for global solutions, apart from an absolute necessity to destroy the idea that such things exist. View quote
John Ralston Saul
In a society of ideological believers, nothing is more ridiculous than the individual who doubts and does not conform. View quote
John Ralston Saul
The most powerful force possessed by the individual citizen is her own government. ... Government is the only organized mechanism that makes possible that level of shared disinterest known as the public good. View quote
John Ralston Saul
A commercial civilization is money-oriented, profit-oriented. Commercial values always tend to wrench a society free of tradition.Economics from education to public service is being reorganized on the self-destructive basis of self-interest. View quote
John Ralston Saul
In general, democracy and individualism have advanced in spite of and often against specific economic interest. Both democracy and individualism have been based upon financial sacrifice, not gain. Even in Athens, a large part of the 7,000 citizens who participated regularly in assemblies were farmers who had to give up several days' work to go into town to talk and listen. View quote
John Ralston Saul
Marx was fortunate to have been born eighty years before Walt Disney. Disney also promised a child's paradise and unlike Marx, delivered on his promise. View quote
John Ralston Saul