"The patriotic societies . . . have exhibited to us a picture in miniature of what passes in the great society of the state. First we find a few men of ardent disposition, deeply impressed with a sense of the public danger, and seeking sincerely to prevent it . . . . Then come forward individuals who, by affirming principles that do not belong to them, which they decorate with the most captivating language, endeavor to gain favor with the public in order to acquire consequence or power."
Madame Roland, An Appeal to Impartial Posterity (1796)
"One of the reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming out the goddam window."
J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (1951)
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."
Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Times (1969)
I think the Hoffer quote is actually a pithy paraphrase of some slightly more adipose lines in his essay "The Negro Revolution." Speaking of the Black Power movement of the 1960s, Hoffer wrote,
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