A Law of Life?

". . . any time a great man tries do do a wonderful thing, lesser men will try to stop him. That is one of the laws of life."
Ireland by Frank Delaney (p. 27)

Politicians Want Us Not to Think.

"War goes in the direction opposite to that in which man naturally wants to aim. Man wants peace and ease, so that he can work out the mysteries of life, but war introduces such chaos and actual physical pain that man can't think. And that, of course, is what politicians want--they want us not to think."
Attributed to W.B. Yeats in Ireland by Frank Delaney (p. 589)