• Unfaithful women feel remorse, the others feel regret
• When the wise man points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger

Chinese proverb

• Happiness comes from altruism, and unhappiness from selfishness.
• With our thoughts, we create the world.

Siddhartha Gautama (563-483 BC) (Boudha)

• When a man is hungry, it is better to teach him how to fish than to give him a fish
• Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life
• Under good government, poverty is a disgrace. Under bad government, wealth is also a disgrace
• When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom
• We have two lives. The second one begins when we realise we only have one
• Demand a lot from yourself and expect little from others. That way, you will be spared a lot of trouble

Confucius (551-459 BC) (chinese philosopher)

• Before healing someone, ask them if they are prepared to give up the things that make them ill.
• It is more important to know the patient than the illness they are suffering from.

Hippocrate (460-377 BC) (philosopher, the “father” of medicine)

Eyes are useless when the mind is blind.

Publius Syrus (85–43 BC) (Syrian slave freed in Rome, author of famous aphorisms and representative of the art of mime)

Happiness is continuing to desire what one already possesses.

Saint-Agustin (354-430) (Christian philosopher and theologian)

Difficult times create strong men,
strong men create periods of peace,
periods of peace create weak men,
weak men create difficult times.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) (philosopher, Muslim historian)

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Léonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) (Italian writer, inventor, painter, architect, botanist, philosopher and sculptor)

Disobeying the law leads to illegality; obeying the law without questioning whether it is just leads to tyranny.

Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1563) (French humanist writer and jurist)

I disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the end for your right to say it.

Voltaire (1694-1778) (french philosopher)

A people willing to sacrifice a little freedom for a little security deserves neither, and ends up losing both.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) (one of the founding fathers of the United States)

When a people no longer defends its freedoms and rights, it is ripe for slavery.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) (philosopher, writer from Geneva)

Under any government, nature has set limits on the misfortune of peoples; beyond these limits lies death, flight or revolt.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) (French writer, philosopher and encyclopaedist)

A nation has only one dangerous enemy: its government.

Saint-Just (1767-1794) (politician of the French Revolution)

There is one thing that all peoples have in common: if you lock them up with golden chains, they will accept their servitude.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) (first Emperor of the French)

• Every scientific, political or moral revolution in human history goes through three phases:
  1. ridiculous, laughable
  2. dangerous, subversive
  3. obvious
• Very few people know how to think, but everyone wants to give their opinion

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) (German philosopher)

When luxury is shown to the people in times of scarcity and distress, they do not think that this luxury keeps them alive, that it is useful to them. They think that they are suffering and that there are people who are enjoying themselves. When the crowd looks at the rich with these eyes, these are not thoughts in their minds; these are events.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) (French romantic poet, playwright, writer, novelist and illustrator)

Men are unhappy because they have forgotten how to be happy.

Fiodor Dostoïevski (1821-1881) (Russian writer)

• One must always take into account the opinions of fools, for they are the majority
• Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change themselves

Léon Tolstoï (1828-1910) (Russian writer)

It is fairly easy to convince people, except to convince them that they have been deceived.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) (American writer and humorist)

• Living is the rarest thing; most people are content just to exist
• Hard work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do with their lives

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) (Irish writer and poet)

• Democracy is not suited to an ignorant society; for a majority of donkeys will decide your fate
• Anyone who is not a communist at 20 has no heart, anyone who is still a communist at 40 has no brain

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) (music critic, playwright, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925)

To appear foolish in the eyes of a fool is a gourmet's delight.

Georges Courteline (1858-1929) (french novelist, playwright)

A new theory never triumphs. It is its opponents who eventually die out.

Max Planck (1858-1947) (Nobel Prize winner in physics, founder of quantum mechanics)

• Fat people do not start revolutions
• Just as clouds herald a storm, capitalism carries within it the seeds of war

Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) (French politician)

• Be the change you wish to see in this world
• Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence
• Living simply so that others may simply live

Ghandi (1869-1948) (political leader and spiritual guide of India)

Revolutionary methods must be in harmony with revolutionary goals.

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) (Activist in the anarchist movement)

When people stop believing in God, it is not to believe in nothing, but to believe in anything.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) (English writer and apologist for Christianity)

• The easiest way to take control of the population is to commit acts of terror; the public will demand repressive laws if their security is threatened
• In an election, it is not the votes that matter, but those who count the votes
• Call your opponents fascists; while they're busy justifying themselves, you can strike them again

Joseph Staline (1878-1953) (Soviet dictator of Georgian origin)

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) (physicist and theorist)

Journalism is a profession where you spend half your life talking about things you don't know and the other half keeping quiet about what you do know.

Henri Béraud (1885-1958) (french journalist)

Elite minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, mediocre minds discuss people.

Jules Romains (1855-1972) (French writer and philosopher)

Freedom is not asked for, it is taken.

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) (1888-1955) (British liaison officer between 1916 and 1918)

When they came for the socialists, I said nothing, I was not a socialist.
When they came to take the trade unionists away, I didn't say anything, I wasn't a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I said nothing, I was not Jewish.
Then they came for me. And there was no one left to protest.

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) (Lutheran pastor)

The truth about a man is first and foremost what he hides.

André Malraux (1901-1976) (French writer and intellectual)

• A people that elects corrupt individuals, renegades, impostors, thieves and traitors is not a victim, it is an accomplice!
• Some ideas are so absurd that only intellectuals believe them.

Georges Orwell (1903-1950) (British writer and journalist

• Truthfulness has never been considered a political virtue, and lying has always been regarded as a perfectly justified means in political affairs
• When everyone knows, but no one speaks, it means that lying has become an institution

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) (german philosopher)

the needs of the soul

• obedience and honour
• freedom of opinion and truth
• order and liberty
• equality and the hierarchy
• private property and collective ownership
• security and risk
• responsibility and punishment
• rooting is the most important and most misunderstood need of the human soul

Simone Weil (1909-1943) (French philosopher and humanist)

What matters is not what we give, but the love with which we give it.

Mother Teresa (1910-1997) (Indian Catholic nun and missionary of Albanian origin)

More terrifying than the sound of boots is the silence of slippers.

Max Frisch (1911-1991) (Swiss writer and architect)

Only small secrets need to be protected. The biggest lies are kept by public disbelief.

Marshall Mc Luhan (1911-1980) (Canadian philosopher, communication theorist)

To name things incorrectly is to add to the misery of the world.

Albert Camus(1913-1960) (French writer, philosopher and journalist)

• To destroy a people, you must destroy its roots
• It is easier to enslave people with pornography than with watchtowers

Alexandre Soljenitsine (1918-2008) (russian writer)

The media are the most powerful entities on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent.
And that's what power is all about. Because they control the minds of the masses.

Malcolm X (1925-1965) (Civil rights activist in the USA)

The government does not have its own money. All money comes from the people.

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) (British stateswoman)

The objective of the media is not to inform, but to shape public opinion.

Noam Chomsky (1928-) (American linguist)

• What frightens me is not the oppression of tyrants, but the indifference of the people
• When one suffers evil without fighting against it, one cooperates with it
• Every citizen has a moral responsibility to disobey laws when they are unjust

Martin Luther King (1929-1968) (civil rights activist pastor, proponent of civil disobedience)

To remain neutral in the face of injustice is to take the side of the oppressor.

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) (Anglican archbishop, South African human rights activist)

International aid consists of taking money from the poor in a rich country and giving it to the rich in a poor country.

Ronald Paul (1935-) (American politician, supporter of libertarianism)

I come from a world where we believed that justice inevitably led to progress, that changing things meant improving them. For a long time, I believed that the left was fighting this battle, but then, little by little, reality reasserted itself, imposing itself brutally as it always does when it has been denied for too long. This is not an ideological shift, it is weariness, fatigue from having to keep quiet, from having to choose between saying what I see and keeping my place in the camp of good.

Charles Rojzman (1942-) (psychosocial scientist, philosopher, writer, and originator of the concept of social therapy)

Dictatorship is “shut up” whereas democracy is “keep talking”.

Coluche (1944-1986) (Michel Colucci, known as Coluche, French comedian and actor)

We vote, but the very next day, those we have elected no longer listen to us. They listen to those who financed their election campaigns, i.e. lobbyists from multinational corporations and financial institutions.

John Perkins (1945-) (economist, American writer)

We environmentalists do not defend nature; we are nature defending itself.

John Seed (1950- ) (founder of the tropical forest centre)

Immigration for settlement purposes is the icebreaker of globalism because it breaks down nation states by attacking their homogeneity and identity.

Michel Geoffroy (1954- ) (graduate of the École Nationale d'Administration, former senior French civil servant)

There can be no democratic choice against the European treaties!

Jean-Claude Juncker (1954-2019) (Luxembourg politician, former President of the European Commission)

Only dead fish follow the stream.

David Swenson (1956- ) (American teacher of Ashtanga Yoga)

The means available for manipulating public opinion far exceed those dedicated to educating citizens.
Each individual has the impression that they are freely choosing their political representatives, whereas the power of the media, opinion polls and the political class converge to amplify or minimise certain information and thus influence votes.

Marc Dugain (1957- ) (French novelist, excerpt from his novel ‘Transparence’)

It is not for the state to know everything about its citizens, but for citizens to know everything about their government.

Julian Assange (1971-) (Australian computer scientist and cyberactivist)

The worst crimes in history are often linked to obedience rather than transgression.

Julia de Funès (1971 -) (French philosopher and lecturer)

• Distinguishing between genuine desire and programmed desire (advertising)
• Distinguishing between imposed poverty and chosen frugality
• Don't mistake your dream
• Preferring uniqueness over conformity
• Opposing free will to submission
• Understanding the absurdity of "earning more to buy more"
• Capitalism is producing wealth by creating misery

Corinne Morel-Darleux (1973- ) (eco-socialist activist)

• Not caring about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is like not caring about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say
• We do not realise how difficult it is to expose the truth to people who are unaware that they are living in a world of lies

Edward Snowden (1981- ) (whistleblower of American and British mass surveillance programmes; refugee in Russia)

• Our democracies are imperfect systems with real flaws in their functioning, an illusion that leads us to believe that voters have the power to freely choose their representatives and therefore the social model they hope for. Does our free will at the ballot box truly reflect our aspirations? Isn't our choice influenced by censorship, ignorance of geopolitical issues, and monopoly of information controlled by the mainstream media?
• When a system allows elites to be untouchable, the very idea of justice collapses

Key global challenges :

• climate (climate change, loss of biodiversity, global pollution, natural resources)
• health (pandemics, antibiotic resistance, health safety))
• technology (AI regulation, global cybersecurity, global disinformation)
• conflicts (proliferation of weapons, transnational terrorism, international migration)
• economy (global inequalities, financial system, food security)
• human rights (protection of human rights, universal access to education)
• existential risks (natural disasters, biotechnology risks)

A world government presents considerable risks :

• global totalitarianism (excessive concentration of power)
• collapse of cultural and political diversity
• extreme corruption (the more power and resources are concentrated, the higher the risk of corruption)
• uncontrollable bureaucracy (administering billions of people with a single central structure)
• lack of alternatives for people (no political refuge, global social control)
• large-scale internal conflicts (more destructive global civil wars)
• highly questionable democratic legitimacy (difficulty in organising a fair and representative democratic process)
• mass surveillance and control (digital identification database of all citizens worldwide)

Left

1. Make the world a better place
2. Progressivism
3. Tolerance
4. cosmopolitanism, nomadism
5. Globalization
6. Idealism
7. Man is born good; it is society that corrupts him

Right

1. Protecting the world from evil
2. Conservatism
3. Authority
4. patriotism, rooted in the land
5. Nationalism
6. Pragmatism
7. Evil is inherent in human nature