The true believer, no matter how rowdy and violent his acts, is basically an obedient and submissive person.

However much we talk of the inexorable laws governing the life of individuals and of societies, we remain at the bottom convinced that in human affairs everything in more or less fortuitous. We do not even believe in the inevitability of our own death. Hence the difficulty of deciphering the present, of detecting the seeds of things to come as they germinate before our eyes. We are not attuned to seeing the inevitable.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

The wise learn from the experience of others, and the creative know how to make a crumb of experience go a long way.

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes. Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.

The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.

It is doubtful whether the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power-power to oppress others.