758 – “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”

–Noam Chomsky

679 – “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.”

–anonymous

654 – Henry Steele Commager on Governments and Criticism

“If government, or those in positions of power and authority, can silence criticism by the argument that such criticism might be misunderstood somewhere, there is an end to all criticism, and perhaps an end to our kind of political system. For men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.”

–Henry Steele Commager

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620 – “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

–Nick Carraway’s Father in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

399 – Procrastination Is Not Laziness Quote

“It turns out procrastination is not typically a function of laziness, apathy, or work ethic as it is often regarded to be. It’s a neurotic self-defense behavior that develops to protect a person’s sense of self-worth.
You see, procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive and unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability – which is pretty much everything.”

–David Cain