If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him… - Ray Bradbury

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If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.

Ray Bradbury

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government politics popular data ignorance information brilliance motion taxation philosophy questioning facts thinking peace war forget happiness change backwards contests worry

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About Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury (22 August 1920 – 5 June 2012) was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer.

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Also Known As

Birth Name: Raymond Douglas Bradbury

Native Name: Ray Douglas Bradbury

Alternative Names: Elliott, William • William Elliott

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Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.

Originators like Ray Bradbury:

Stephen King Neil Gaiman Harlan Ellison Ernest Hemingway Kurt Vonnegut

Additional quotes by Ray Bradbury

Out of the nursery into the college and back into the nursery; there’s your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more.

But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.

"That's life for you," said MacDunn. "Someone always waiting for someone who never comes home. Always someone loving some thing more than that thing loves them. And after a while you want to destroy whatever that thing is, so it can't hurt you no more."

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him fo… - Ray Bradbury

About Ray Bradbury

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