"Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war."

Politics

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Politics as articulated by William S. Burroughs. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Politics provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a postmodern author who influenced underground and popular culture and literature. Much of Burroughs's work is experimental and features unreliable narrators. Also noted as semi-autobiographical, his work often drew from his experiences with drug addiction, and featured his various places of residence as settings in much of his work. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique. His writing also engaged frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, constant preoccupations in his fiction and real life.

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More by William S. Burroughs

"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."

— William S. Burroughs
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"Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative."

— William S. Burroughs
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"In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality."

— William S. Burroughs
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"The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits."

— William S. Burroughs
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More about Politics

"The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war."

— William Tecumseh Sherman
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"In politics stupidity is not a handicap."

— Napoleon Bonaparte
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"If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps."

— Michele Bachmann
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"I think as an American society, when we're paying too many taxes or dealing with war, we don't want to see sad things at the movies."

— Zoe Saldana
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