A Quote by Chris Hedges

Washington has become our Versailles. We are ruled, entertained, and informed by courtiers -- and the media has evolved into a class of courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are mostly courtiers. Our pundits and experts, at least those with prominent public platforms, are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games, and the purpose behind it is deception.

Chris Hedges

Quote Topics

Become Behind Captivated Class Con Courtiers Deception Democrats Entertained Evolved Experts Games Hollow Informed Least Like Media Mirrors Mostly Our Platforms Political Power Prominent Public Pundits Purpose Republicans Ruled Smoke Smoke And Mirrors Stagecraft Stripped Theater Those Tricks Versailles Washington

Quote Author

Chris Hedges
American - Journalist

The neo-conservatives, who are closely linked to the neo-corporatists, are rather different. They claim to be conservatives, when everything they stand for is a rejection of conservatism. They claim to present an alternate social model, when they are little more than the courtiers of the corporatist movement. Their agitation is filled with the bitterness and cynicism typical of courtiers who scramble for crumbs at the banquet tables of real power, but are always denied a proper chair.

John Ralston Saul

Imagine that Queen Elizabeth I, in her time, had the opportunity to give out a monopoly for playing cards within the kingdom. She knew she was going to give it to one of her courtiers. These courtiers would then all try to curry her favour. Meanwhile, they would not contribute anything to the product of the kingdom, in fact, they were wasting resources trying to secure a single prize. That, more or less, is rent seeking.

James M. Buchanan

The man who bows before the ruler, shows his behind to the courtiers

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

...many of the officials, courtiers, and priests, representing the upper class of Egyptian society but not the royalty, looked strikingly like modern Europeans, especially long-headed ones

Carleton S. Coon

Every spendthrift passion has its attendant courtiers.

Doris Lessing

To be over much facetious is the accomplishment of courtiers and blemish of the wise.

Saadi

The politics of courtiers resemble their shadows; they cringe and turn with the sun of the day.

Jean Antoine Petit-Senn

What is known as success assumes nearly as many aliases as there are those who seek it. Like love, it can come to commoners as well as courtiers. Like virtue, it is its own reward. Like the Holy Grail, it seldom appears to those who don't pursue it.

Stephen Birmingham

Courtiers don't take wagers against the king's skill. There is the deadly danger of winning.

Isaac Asimov

Here and there in the ancient literature we encounter legends of wise and mysterious games that were conceived and played by scholars, monks, or the courtiers of cultured princes. These might take the form of chess games in which the pieces and squares had secret meanings in addition to their usual functions.

Hermann Hesse

I find virtue to be found amongst the farmers of the country alone, not about courts, where courtiers dwell.

Andrew Jackson

Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissus, flattered and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court is the leprosy of the papacy.

Pope Francis

When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood-- Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good. Oh! the roast beef of England. And Old England's roast beef.

Henry Fielding

In the common words we use every day, souls of past races, the thoughts and feelings of individual men stand around us, not dead, but frozen into their attitudes like the courtiers in the garden of the Sleeping Beauty.

Owen Barfield

Dogs live with man as courtiers 'round a monarch, steeped in the flattery of his notice ... to push their favor in this world of pickings and caresses is, perhaps, the business of their lives.