Byour skill in Mechanism, it has cometo pass, that in the management of external things we excel all other ages; while in whatever respects the pure mortal nature, in true dignity of soul and character, we are perhaps inferior to most civilised ages.

-Carlyle,Thomas
  Signs of the Times.

We are only beginning to understand on how subtle a communication system the functioning of an advanced industrial society is basedöa communications system which we call the market and which turns out to be a more efficient mechanism for digesting dispersed information than any that man has deliberately designed.

-Hayek, Friedrich August von
  New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas,'The Pretence of Knowledge'.

In all our studies of the brain, no mechanism has been discovered that can force the mind to think, or the individual to believe, anything. The mind continues free. That is a statement I have long considered. I have made every effort to disprove it, without success.

-Penfield,Wilder Graves
  SecondThoughts: Science, theArts, and the Spirit.

Down for a new radio, to Ross Lake, and back up. Three days walking. Strange how unmoved this place leaves one; neither articulate or worshipful; rather the pressing need to look within and adjust the mechanism of perception.

-Snyder, Gary Sherman
  Earth House Hold,'Lookout's Journal, Crater Shan 28 July'.

The British Civil Service†is a beautifully designed and effective braking mechanism.

-Baroness
  Speech at the Royal Institute of Public Administration, 11 Feb.