He had long been curious at leaders intermittent calls for a return to past values and had tested the notion by trying to build a house from the sky downwards - Steve Aylett
Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they've been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative. - Lemony Snicket
In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards. - Bertrand Russell