Thoroughgoing Thoughts from an Open-Eyed Onlooker

A succinct catchall of thoroughgoing thoughts from an open-eyed onlooker, offered for the casual edification of those who might wish to be casually edified.

No one, whether by "hard work" or "good fortune," has a right to be wealthy.

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War continues to happen because millions of citizens whose taxes pay for wars refuse to take a firm stand against armed conflict.

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The primary lesson that students receive in school is how not to think for themselves.

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Putting one's trust in the flip of a coin is a safer bet than putting one's trust in accepted institutions.

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As technology increasingly becomes more sophisticated, it is increasingly more likely to diminish the humanity of those who use it.

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An unrelenting desire for riches is the first step on a malign path that necessarily ends in moral destruction.

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To say that religion is fraudulent and harmful is merely to say that religion has much in common with government, business, education, and science.

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The fate of our planet is in the grasping hands of coldblooded lowlifes who are unworthy to rule over a patch of weeds.

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A person who blindly abides by the false guidelines of convention has no chance of ever being truly human.

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Capitalism can endure only so long as the masses are willing to submit themselves to the bondage of greed and debt.

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Progress is the means by which daily life is made to be more difficult than it actually needs to be.

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True freedom cannot be measured by laws or decrees, and is not dependent on the brutal might of armies.

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If all the honest people in the world were gathered in one small room, it would not be particularly crowded.

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It has yet to be determined whether life is a question without an answer, or an answer without a question.

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A free market is beneficial to humanity in the same way that a tiger is beneficial to its prey.

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Most of the time, most people in most situations do not know why they are doing whatever they happen to be doing.

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The likelihood of our leaders honestly seeking to do the right thing is roughly akin to the likelihood of hearing a Shakespearean soliloquy performed by a lawn mower.

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In the moral hierarchy of life forms, bankers should be counted among the lowest organisms.

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Peace can never be achieved through war for the same reason that love can never be achieved through hate.

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A smart person never surrenders to the transitory delusions of the stuporous masses.

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The distance from one side of the Milky Way to the other is considerably less than the distance between what most people claim to believe and what they privately think.

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A person who can afford to put money into stocks and bonds is a person who has too much money.

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As long as the number of dutiful followers in the world greatly exceeds the number of stalwart objectors, the principle of liberty will be in jeopardy.

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The truth can be suppressed for a moment, or an hour, or a day, or a week, or a month, or a year, or a lifetime, but it cannot be suppressed forever.

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New wealth cannot be "created," any more than an ocean can be conjured from a handful of dust.

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It is best to believe only that which has been proven, clearly and undeniably, to be correct.

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The only thing more villainous than being a millionaire is being a billionaire.

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A single flower contains more wisdom than all the books of philosophy that have ever been written.

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Heaven, as imagined in the compliant minds of devout believers, is a pleasant state of eternal conformity.

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Although the urgent threat of nuclear warfare is given little heed by most people, it remains probable that, sooner or later, mankind will render itself extinct.