Hannah Arendt on the origins of totalitarianism.

“Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.” - Gore Vidal

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."

In politics, Napoléon Bonaparte believed that stupidity could be a boon.

""Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man..."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky believed humans were the cruelest animals on Earth.

“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself..."

Niccolò Machiavelli understood the human condition.

William Faulkner is considered one of America's pre-eminent authors. He is known for his writings about the South.