Brute Force Quotes

• The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force.

  George Bancroft

  Government, Civilization, Mind

  "Literary and Historical Miscellanies". "The Office of the People in Art, Government and Religion", pp. 426-427. Book by George Bancroft, 1855.

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• When in doubt, use brute force.

  Ken Thompson

  Doubt, Use, Programming

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• I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hitting, Unbearable, Reason

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.30, Wordsworth Editions

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• Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom.

  Dalai Lama

  Peace, Freedom, Desire

  Dalai Lama XIV, Rajiv Mehrotra (2010). “In My Own Words: An Introduction to My Teachings and Philosophy”, p.138, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that any one else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Believe, Law, Age

  Mahatma Gandhi, Anand T. Hingorani, Ganga Anand Hingorani (1985). “The Encyclopaedia of Gandhian Thoughts”

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• We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

  Ayn Rand

  Gun, Government, Historical

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.320, Penguin

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• Nothing made by brute force lasts.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Lasts, Made, Force

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• It's all about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.

  Craig Ferguson

  Romance, Triumph, Cynicism

  "Craig Ferguson's Doctor Who Song" by David M. Ewalt, www.forbes.com. December 1, 2010.

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• Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Kings, World, Persuasion

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• Charm is a woman's strength just as strength is a man's charm.

  Havelock Ellis

  Inspirational, Strength, Men

  "The Task of Social Hygiene". Book by Havelock Ellis, ch. 3, 1912.

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• Charm" — which means the power to effect work without employing brute force — is indispensable to women. Charm is a woman's strength just as strength is a man's charm.

  Havelock Ellis

  Mean, Men, Charm

  Havelock Ellis (1912). “The Task of Social Hygiene”

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• Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force.

  Vladimir Putin

  America, Democracy, World

  "A Plea for Caution From Russia" by Vladimir Putin, www.nytimes.com. September 11, 2013.

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• The power which money gives is that of brute force; it is the power of the bludgeon and the bayonet.

  William Cobbett

  Giving, Bayonets, Force

  William Cobbett (1829). “Advice to young men, and, incidentally, to young women, in the middle and higher ranks of life, in a series of letters”, p.51

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• I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Unbearable

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.30, Wordsworth Editions

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• Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses.

  Simone Weil

  Ideas, Fragility, Stories

  "Three Letters on History: Thophile de Viau" (written 1938 - 1939)

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• Now a slave is not 'held' by any legal contract, obligation, duty, or authority, which the laws will enforce. He is 'held' only by brute force. One person beats another until the latter will obey him, work for him, if he require it, or do nothing if he require it.

  Lysander Spooner

  Law, Slave, Authority

  Lysander Spooner (1850). “A Defence for Fugitive Slaves”, p.51

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• I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Easter, West, Unions

  Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

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• Most software today is very much like an Egyptian pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each other, with no structural integrity, but just done by brute force and thousands of slaves.

  Alan Kay

  Funny Inspirational, Integrity, Technology

  "A Conversation with Alan Kay: Big talk with the creator of Smalltalk — and much more". Interview with Stuart Feldman in ACM Queue, Volume 2, issue 9, queue.acm.org. December 27, 2004.

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• When Bryan Price taught me how to throw a changeup, he made me see myself. All my life, I've been the equivalent of a fastball pitcher - trying to use blazing speed and brute force to wow the people around me.

  Eric Liu

  People, Trying, Wow

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• Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning it was not a Word, but a chirrup.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Crush, Time, Jesus

  D. H. Lawrence, Simonetta de Filippis (2002). “Sketches of Etruscan Places and Other Italian Essays”, p.36, Cambridge University Press

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• It is important to understand what I mean by semiosis. All dynamic action, or action of brute force, physical or psychical, either takes place between two subjects, whether they react equally upon each other, or one is agent and the other patient, entirely or partially, or at any rate is a resultant of such actions between pairs. But by "semiosis" I mean, on the contrary, an action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Mean, Two, Important

  "Pragmatism (1907)". "The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings". Book edited by the Peirce Edition Project, Volume 2, p. 411, 1998.

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• Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals. The power of this community is then set up as right in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as brute force.

  Sigmund Freud

  Life, Community, Together

  Sigmund Freud, James Strachey, Anna Freud, Carrie Lee Rothgeb (1961). “The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud”

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• They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.

  Joseph Conrad

  Weakness, Want, Force

  Joseph Conrad (2016). “Heart of Darkness”, p.8, Xist Publishing

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• It is all a question of sensitiveness. Brute force and overbearing may make a terrific effect. But in the end, that which lives by delicate sensitiveness. If it were a question of brute force, not a single human baby would survive for a fortnight. It is the grass of the field, most frail of all things, that supports all life all the time. But for the green grass, no empire would rise, no man would eat bread: for grain is grass; and Hercules or Napoleon or Henry Ford would alike be denied existence.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Baby, Men, Support

  D. H. Lawrence (2013). “Etruscan Places”, p.31, Read Books Ltd

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• Nonviolence is the law of the human race and is infinitely greater than, and superior to, brute force.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Race, Law, Force

  Mahatma Gandhi (1968). “The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa”

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