On fact and freedom

Carrying on from Lionel Shriver’s pointers for spotting ‘the next mania’, here is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer explaining why a stupid person is more dangerous than a malicious one.

The stupid person ignores facts and goes on the attack when presented with them:

In the second quote, which is about freedom, Margaret Thatcher says that the state should be no one’s master, that people should be encouraged to take charge of their own lives, living honestly and openly:

Both quotations are well worth heeding in an era of social media, heightened emotion and seeming helplessness on the part of many average citizens in the Western world.