“What luck for rulers that men do not think.”

Today I received two interesting bits of information. The first was a response to the email I wrote to the the Prime Minister concerning the National School Chaplaincy Programme (I’ll post more about that later). The second was a quote that I received via my RSS subscription to The Quotations Page:

What luck for rulers that men do not think.

This quote from Adolf Hitler seems to identify why the Nazis were able to take power in 1933. It also succinctly explains why so much insane legislation makes it though parliament without public outcry. People seem predisposed to intellectual and ethical complacency.

Other quotes that have struck me recently include:

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

by Leo Tolstoy and:

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.

by Sir Francis Bacon (not to be confused with Francis Bacon the modern artist). Anyone else have some favourites they’d like to share?

Note: I wish these quotes didn’t use such gender-specific language.