John Kramer

This is what evil does; it makes choices for others in the name of religion, in the name of government, in the name of community, in the name of personal gain, that these individuals are best able to make for themselves.

Ignorance has one virtue: persistence. It will insist through dogged persistence on leading others to follow its vision no matter how misguided. Ignorance will drive the world to the brink of failure and catastrophe and beyond into the abyss with arrogance and anger because wisdom is often too polite to fight. Wisdom doesn__ like to impose its will, but that is all ignorance understands__orce over free will and choice. Sooner or later the world comes to its senses, but oh the damage that has been done.

Catastrophe alone sparks man__ salvation. I don__ mean in the religious sense, although I guess it is appropriate there, too, because believers agree that salvation comes only after death. It is part of the human near-tragedy that we learn more from loss than from gain. Gain binds us until we stumble and fall into that black pit then we find the spirit of understanding and truth. And if we fall far enough and still persist, we find our salvation.

A full heart has more room than an empty one.

When there is a crisis, let your heart pray, but let your hands work.

The smallest act of compassion can save a soul, perhaps your own.

As_ is the most difficult word in a Christian__ life. We have to forgive 'as' we want to be forgiven.

In politics and passion, perception is reality.

Public awareness is the equinox of tyranny__ rise; once one man learns of another__ captivity, he will act to free him. It is the best and most certain part of man__ nature.

Not by prayers alone will a captive be freed, but by another man__ prayers matched by his deeds.

To be free, you must think. There is no way to follow blindly and to be free.

Discontent comes from two sources alone: Not having dreams, or not pursuing the ones you have. No one has ever died sorry who tried to turn a wish into a memory.

Every war, every plague is God__ judgment. But every man who rises up to stop the wars and the plagues is God__ instrument. Human action is God__ will, not blind indifference in the face of suffering.

Some people are anchored to this world by their feet, others by their fears.

Man must be free or he will not survive.

It was no accident that one of the first things God asked of Adam was for him to name the animals he saw around him. Why do you suppose God asked man to do that? Because once you have a name, you have the beginning of understanding, and once you have understanding, you lose fear. God didn__ want man to be fearful. He wanted man to be brave.

There is no success where there are no secrets.

The people__ silence is a tyrant__ greatest advocate. The less captives talked, the less they knew; the less they knew, the more they feared; and the more they feared, the more easily others could manipulate them to their own ends, the more easily the captives could be controlled.