Quotes About State

Lo sviluppo dello stato in Mesopotamia non è stato per niente lineare. I piccoli stati della pianura alluvionale avevano, come i loro abitanti, un'aspettativa di vita molto limitata. Gli interregni erano più comuni dei «regni» ed erano normali lunghi periodi di caduta e frammentazione.

Lo stato antico, un po' come il clima, spesso costituiva una minaccia, non un beneficio.

Non dovremmo nemmeno escludere la possibilità che la scelta delle pratiche di sussistenza spesso fosse una scelta politica - una decisione sulla propria posizione nei confronti dello stato.

il surplus non esiste fino a che non viene creato dallo stato in embrione. Detto meglio, prima che lo stato riuscisse ad appropriarsi del surplus produttivo, questo veniva «usato» per avere tempo libero dal lavoro e per l'elaborazione culturale.

I racket di protezione, abituali e persistenti, sono una strategia a lungo periodo rispetto al saccheggio occasionale e quindi dipendono da un ambiente politico e militare ragionevolmente stabile. E sono difficilmente distinguibili dallo stesso stato arcaico che, come loro, si appropria del surplus sostenibile di comunità sedentarie e respinge attacchi esterni per proteggere la sua base.

Why the histories of states should have so persistently insinuated themselves in the place that might have been occupied by peoples merits reflection.

That frontier operated as a rough and ready homeostatic device; the more a state pressed its subjects, the fewer subjects it had. The frontier underwrote popular freedom.

which the sovereign state finds in its interest.19 The nature of the acts themselves

every major successful revolution ended by creating a state more powerful than the one it overthrew, a state that in turn was able to extract more resources from and exercise more control over the very populations it was designed to serve.

The classical view that ancient Sumer was a miracle of irrigation organized by the state in an arid landscape turns out to be totally wrong.

Nothing is of more importance to the state than the quality of its spies. It is ten thousand times cheaper to pay the best spies lavishly than even a tiny army poorly.

Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition, and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. In practice, it can only mean a common misery.

chaos is a science of process rather than state, of becoming rather than being.

Life to me is defined by uncertainty. Uncertainty is the state in which we live, and there is no way to outfox it.

The precariat faces chronic uncertainty about what to do, about what incomes to expect, about state benefits that might be their due, about their relationships, their homes, and about the occupations they can realistically expect.

Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions.

The tenet of the separation of church and state is an unconstitutional doctrine.

In an unconstitutional partnership with the state, the church can impose the most irresistible, if covert, controls conceivable.

And what I would say now is, yes, if a state enacted a law permitting flogging, it is immensely stupid, but it is not unconstitutional. A lot of stuff that's stupid is not unconstitutional.

Iowa is especially critical for underdog and cash-strapped campaigns, because the caucus system relies on grassroots organizing, enabling candidates with time for retail politicking to beat better-funded rivals. So underdogs usually seize on the state.

Never underestimate the power of the State to act out its own massive fantasies.

Attempts to restrict encryption at the state or local levels would only serve to undermine security and economic competitiveness for the entire nation.

I feel like I'm in a weird state, and I wake up in Hollywood, and I've got a couple of studio movies underneath my belt, and I take these meetings with people. Sometimes it's this great, weird sense of oddness that comes at you, because I've never really stopped thinking the way that I started thinking.

There is a state that is able to understand the demand in the economy. That state should use prices as an instrument for implementation of this understanding.