"It was the hook used by the rabble rousers, whose monopoly of moral interpretation might be challenged."

Mark Clifton Literature See all quotes by Mark Clifton →

React to this quote

More by Mark Clifton

“That kind of therapy, the use of force to make a man give up his convictions, has been tried since the dawn of history. I think we should have learned by now that it won’t work.”

“Somehow I got the impression that instead of looking into a crystal ball, they would be more inclined to look out of one.”

“Everyone recognized that only five percent of all the people born ever amount to anything at all. Everyone humbly thanked his providential stars that through his own personal efforts and merit he had become one of the superior five percent. Everyone looked with pity and contempt upon the ninety-five percent who did not share his grace.”

“People will tie in with a fanatic if for no other reason than to break the monotony of their lives.”

“It took two thousand years for man to move from the concept that amber was a stone with a soul to the concept of static electricity.”

“The public wants miracles. The public demands miracles; and if one source ceases to provide them, they will turn to another source which seems to accomplish the spectacular. Even while they resented and opposed the scientific attitude, they lapped up the miracles which this attitude accomplished with glee.”

Resonant Thoughts

"There are mothers, who risk perilous journeys to desperately try to give the fruit of the womb a better future and are judged to be redundant by people whose bellies are full of things, but whose hear…"

— Pope Francis

Religion1936–2025

#love

"It gives me great confidence and pride to think that, had the Israelites been influenced by German engineering, Paul and Timothy might have journeyed in an old Volkswagen camping van."

— Don Miller (author)

Business1923–1993

#power

"A year before the dawn of the fifteenth century, Timur had claimed to have invaded Hindustan to destroy its infidels and idolators.1 In the year 1400 India was predominantly Hindu; Muslims comprised l…"

— K. S. Lal

history1920–2002

#time

"The rule of our policy is that nothing should be done by the state which can be better or as well done by voluntary effort; and I am not aware that, either in its moral or even its literary aspects, t…"

— William Ewart Gladstone

Politics1809–1898

#work