I've seen attack ships on fire on the shoulder of Orion, I've seen moon beams glisten at the Ten hauser gate, all those memories, lost like tears in the rain.
Rutger HauerRead
Most of the real bad guys in the world are people like you and me; they're not stupid, and you can't smell their horns.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that evil can reside in ordinary people and may not be easily recognizable.
Rutger Hauer's quote points to the unsettling reality that people who commit wrongful acts often appear normal or even amiable. It emphasizes that malevolence is not always evident and encourages a deeper understanding of human nature, where the capacity for good and evil coexists within us all. The suggestion that 'you can't smell their horns' indicates that these individuals do not fit the stereotype of what we typically envision as 'bad'βa reminder that appearances can be deceiving.
In practice
Discussing the complexities of morality in a philosophy class.
I've seen attack ships on fire on the shoulder of Orion, I've seen moon beams glisten at the Ten hauser gate, all those memories, lost like tears in the rain.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
I hate acting when I see it. I don't want to feel it, I don't want to see it, I want to be taken away with the story - I don't want the actor's ego in front of me. That's what I try to live when I do the work.
The cadence of suffering has begun. Every evening at dusk, my heart constricts until night has come.
If facts, logic, and scientific procedures are all just arbitrarily "socially constructed" notions, then all that is left is consensus--more specifically peer consensus, the kind of consensus that matters to adolescents or to many among the intelligentsia.
The great soul of power extends far beyond states, to every domain of life, from families to international affairs. And throughout, every form of authority and domination bears a severe burden of proof. It is not self-legitimizing. And when it cannot bear the burden, as is commonly the case, it should be dismantled.
Don't let people tell you to do it this way. You are on the verge of figuring out hybrid models -- with companies and nonprofits, markets, government, crowd-sourced philanthropy. The capitalist system as we know it is not working.
If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
The world is not given by our fathers but borrowed from our children.
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