Main Page: hermetica.info Save as "Page Source" for a desktop html copy Assorted Quotations
Revised 4-9-20
These are just assorted quotes picked up over the years. There is no order here, except that the last group has already been published in my Yijing Commentary and towards the end I've made a beginning of sorting quotes by author. So far the only authors with their own sections are Lucretius, Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Jefferson, Loren Eiseley, Yogi Berra, Jack Handey, Steven Wright, George Carlin, Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, Ambrose Bierce, Meister Eckhart, Albert Einstein, David Hume, M. K. Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, Carl Sagan, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, HH the Dalai Lama, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Watts, Albert Schweitzer, Francois De La Rochefoucauld, Robert G. Ingersoll, Jalal ad-Din Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and William Shakespeare. The link below is the best search engine I know for finding quotes or verifying authors. It's not the simple Google search engine: http://www.google.com/advanced_search Pick a string of the four or five words most likely to be unique to the quote and the least likely to have been altered in the retelling. Then enter these in the box "Contains the entire phrase." Wikiquote is growing as a source as well. Using the string instead of the author helps to locate misattributed quotes. Attributions are as accurate as I could make them in the time I had to research them, but there will still be misattributions here. |
*********************************************************************************************** The margins could be the richest place, the perch between realms you could enter and exit. Rebecca Solnit If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only its consumption but the number of consumers. B. F. Skinner If we can be open…we find that life's unpredictability is full of interesting and invigorating challenges. These challenges engage us in unexpected and unanticipated ways and allow for the freedom of unscripted responsiveness. Right Action is more than just a reaction. It springs from an attunement to the moment that the confines of convention obscure. Mark Epstein Each instance of craving involved an escape from the here and now, a desire for becoming or being something or someplace other than what the present moment offered. But to seek ceaselessly some new state of being while at the same time striving for permanence was to expose oneself to frustration. Pankaj Mishra Some people are content in the midst of deprivation and danger, while others are miserable despite having all the luck in the world. This is not to say that external circumstances do not matter. But it is your mind, rather than circumstances themselves, that determines the quality of your life. Your mind is the basis of everything you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it Sam Harris When I was younger, I didn't believe in brainwashing. I though to myself, “How could anyone be that stupid. And then I moved to America, and realized I was living amongst a populace that widely defended capitalism, yet none of them had any capital. Keith Richards In the rush to return to normal, use this tim to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to. Dave Hollis I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. Walt Whitman Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from. Jodie Foster It is so high and so wide and so vast and so deep and goes around so many kinds of corners. Unknown You will lose everything. Your money, your power, your fame, your success, perhaps even your memories. Your looks will go. Loved ones will die. Your body will fall apart. Everything that seems permanent is impermanent and will be smashed. Experience will gradually, or not so gradually, strip away everything that it can strip away. Waking up means facing this reality with open eyes and no longer turning away. But right now, we stand on sacred and holy ground, for that which will be lost has not yet been lost, and realizing this is the key to unspeakable joy. Whoever or whatever is in your life right now has not yet been taken away from you. This may sound trivial, obvious, like nothing, but really it is the key to everything, the why and how and wherefore of existence. Impermanence has already rendered everything and everyone around you so deeply holy and significant and worthy of your heartbreaking gratitude. Loss has already transfigured your life into an altar. Jeff Foster The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are. Ajahn Chah If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. J.R.R. Tolkien 人虽有南北，佛性本无南北。” -慧能 Although people have north and south, Buddha nature has no north or south. Huineng We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don't need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up. Tenzin Palmo So, friends, every day do something that won't compute… Give your approval to all you cannot understand… Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion--put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men… Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection. Wendell Berry, Manifesto, edited Hope remains only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up, so as to shape a living society inside a dying society. Albert Camus As a species, we immediately forget what is lost and only see what exists right here, right now as the new normal. Every generation is experiencing huge shifts in what passes for a natural system. These changes have become more extreme over the last few generations. What we see as dead landscapes, our kids will see as natural and normal. There is a phrase for this and most of us these days suffer from it. It’s called ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome.’ Generational amnesia is when knowledge is not passed down from generation to generation. For example, people may think of as ‘pristine’ wilderness, the wild places that they experienced during their childhood, but with every generation this baseline becomes more and more degraded. Dr. E.J. Milner-Gullan With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be ‘the man in the street.’ Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology. Hugh Trevor Roper, summarizing Joseph Goebbels’ thinking Certainly witchcraft … has very little to do with magic as people generally understand it. It has an awful lot to do with taking responsibility for yourself and taking responsibility also for the less able people and, up to a certain point, guarding your society. This is based on how witchcraft really was, I suspect. The witch was the village herbalist, the midwife, the person who knew things. She would sit up with the dying, lay out the corpses, deliver the newborn. Witches tended to be needed when human beings were meeting the dangerous edges of their lives, the places where there is no map. They don't mess around with tinkly spells; they get their hands dirty. Terry Pratchett The power and majesty of nature in all its aspects is lost on one who contemplates it merely in the detail of its parts and not as a whole. Pliny the Elder The best investment for one year is to grow grains; the best investment for ten years is to grow trees; the best investment for a lifetime is to educate people. Guan Zong. A version is attributed to Kongzi. Grief is just love with no place to go. Jamie Anderson When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Unknown Fear is a far more dominant force in human behavior than euphoria. Alan Greenspan All of our food comes from soil. So, when we begin to destroy the biology of the soil we destroy the food networks that give us life. Paul Stamets I used to dislike being sensitive. I thought it made me weak. But take away that single trait and you take away the very essence of who I am. You take away my conscience, my ability to empathize, my intuition, my creativity, my deep appreciation of the little things, my vivid inner life, my keen awareness for others pain and my passion for it all. Caitlin Japa Do y’all remember, before the internet, that people thought the cause of stupidity was the lack of access to information? Yeah. It wasn't that. BamaLu He suffers more than necessary who suffers before it is necessary. Seneca Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim. Be patient and tough. Some day this pain will be useful to you. Ovid When things aren’t adding up in your life, start subtracting. Richard Feynman It is the most terrible and effective thing you, as a helper, can do—stop helping. If I had one regret it would be that I enabled him. I allowed him to not feel the consequences and robbed him of the opportunity to build his self-esteem through addressing his mistakes himself. Adria Lopour We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. . . . No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you. Hunter S. Thompson Discontent is a flame and one suppresses it by childish acts, by momentary satisfactions; but discontent when you let it flower, arise, it burns away everything that is not true. Jiddu Krishnamurti A population may be too crowded, though all be amply supplied with food and raiment. It is not good for man to be kept perforce at all times in the presence of his species. John Stuart Mill The biggest danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done, apart from clever accounting and creative PR. Greta Thunberg Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Oscar Wilde No is a necessary magic. No draws a circle around you with chalk and says “I have given enough.” Mckayla Robbin, Boundaries The emergent is unlike its components insofar as these are incommensurable, and it cannot be reduced to their sum or their difference. George Henry Lewes, 1875 The output of a complex probabilistic system (such as a society) is a function of a self regulating, self organizing organization …in which regulatory power is not vested in a ‘controller’ but in the structure of that organization itself. Stafford Beer It is terribly important to appreciate that some things remain obscure to the bitter end. Stafford Beer Relation is the stuff of system. Stafford Beer A lie doesn't become truth, wrong doesn't become right, and evil doesn't become good, just because it's accepted by a majority. Booker T. Washington When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. Alexander Den Heijer If you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection. Lecrae Moore The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force. Michael Parenti The less you think, the more people agree with you. Montesquieu The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood. Voltaire To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at. Claude Monet It's a little weird that I'm getting an award for being nice and generous and kind... which is what we're all supposed to do for one another. That’s the point of being human. Ellen Degeneres The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it. George Orwell Instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach them all the things you were never taught. Material wears out but knowledge stays. Bruce Lee Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all other professions possible. David Haselkorn It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends. J. K. Rowling I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. Franklin P. Adams After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done. Unknown Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. Terry Pratchett Beware of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are. Rudyard Kipling The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov There's no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference - but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort. Isaac Asimov The child who is not embraced by the village will burn that village down to feel its warmth. African proverb There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked. “Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.” Unknown The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly. F. Scott Fitzgerald Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority. Arthur Schopenhauer You are in prison. If you wish to get out of prison, the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison. If you think you are free, you can’t escape. G.I. Gurdjieff The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command George Orwell, 1984 (1949) Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening Donald Trump, 2018 Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it. Daniel Webster Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student. George Iles It is manifest, therefore, that the jury must judge of and try the whole case, and every part and parcel of the case, free of any dictation or authority on the part of the government. They must judge of the existence of the law; of the true exposition of the law; of the justice of the law; and of the admissibility and weight of all the evidence offered; otherwise the government will have everything its own way; the jury will be mere puppets in the hands of the government; and the trial will be, in reality, a trial by the government, and not a “trial by the country.” By such trials the government will determine its own powers over the people, instead of the people’s determining their own liberties against the government; and it will be an entire delusion to talk, as for centuries we have done, of the trial by jury, as a “palladium of liberty,” or as any protection to the people against the oppression and tyranny of the government. Lysander Spooner A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one. Heraclitus For every action there is an equal and opposite government program. Bob Wells A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant. Unknown When you ask a question it makes you look stupid for 5 minutes - but if you don't ask - you stay stupid forever. Sir Isaac Newton Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology. Rebecca West When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. Bertrand Russell No one has to teach people how to pursue happiness. Unless impeded, people form communities that allow them to get the most satisfaction from the material resources they have. Unless impeded, they enforce norms of safety that they find adequate. Unless impeded, they develop norms of self-respect that are satisfying and realistic for the members of that community. Unless impeded, people engage in activities that they find to be intrinsically rewarding, and they know (without being taught) how to invest uninteresting activities with intrinsic rewards. Charles Murray Let’s assume that there are no ought’s or should’s in this universe. There is only what *is*—the totality of actual (and possible) facts. Among the myriad things that exist are conscious minds, susceptible to a vast range of actual (and possible) experiences. Unfortunately, many experiences suck. And they don’t just suck as a matter of cultural convention or personal bias—they really and truly suck. (If you doubt this, place your hand on a hot stove and report back.) If we *should* to do anything in this life, we should avoid what really and truly sucks. (If you consider this question-begging, consult your stove, as above.) Sam Harris (2018) The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask. Nancy Newhall A poem is no place for an idea. Edgar Watson Howe No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up. Lily Tomlin These are the final days, this is the darkness, this is the flood. The catastrophe has already happened and the question we now face is: what is the appropriate behavior in a catastrophe? Leonard Cohen I’m almost alive, I’m almost at home, No one to follow, and nothing to teach, Except that the goal falls short of the reach. Leonard Cohen There was a young man From Cork who got limericks And haikus confused Unknown The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane. Nikola Tesla The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. Niccolò Machiavelli. Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence— those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you'd collapse. And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster. Ignorance, militarism and breeding, these three—and the greatest of these is breeding. No hope, not the slightest possibility, of solving the economic problem until that's under control. As population rushes up, prosperity goes down. Aldous Huxley, Island, 1962. Difficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual patterns, or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it transform you. Pema Chodron The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. Aldous Huxley I don't trust anyone who’s nice to me but rude to the waiter. Because they would treat me the same way if I were in that position. Muhammed Ali It's an universal law– intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn You are perfect exactly as you are (and you could use a little work); Suzuki Roshi Actually, it’s only existentialism if it comes from the existentialism region of France. Otherwise it’s just sparkling anxiety. Aaron Paul Sullivan The gods that we've made are exactly the gods you'd expect to be made by a species that's about half a chromosome away from being chimpanzee. Christopher Hitchens These kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. … No root, no fruit. Utah Phillips Society is collapsing, and people are starting to realize that the reason they feel like they’re mentally ill is that they’re living in a system that’s not designed to suit the human spirit. Russell Brand (incorrectly attributed to Jim Carrey) Being wrong isn’t a bad thing like they teach you in school. It’s an opportunity to learn something. Richard Feynman In a rich man’s house there is no place to spit but his face. Diogenes To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful. Carl Jung A man should understand he doesn’t protect his woman because she is weak. He protects here because she is important. Unknown When you find yourself in a room surrounded by your enemies, you should tell yourself ‘I am not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me’. This is the kind of mindset you should have if you want to succeed in life. Get rid of that victim mentality. Bruce Lee A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. Jimmy Carter But woe awaits a country when She sees the tears of bearded men. Walter Scott The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. Gustave Le Bon Pick a lane, Grandpa. We are all collectively stuck doing 35 mph behind your whole generation while you drive in the left lane with your blinker on for 50 years. Unknown commentator to Joe Biden as a moderate Democrat. I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood. Tom Hanks When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package. John Ruskin The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life. Rabindranath Tagore Man is quite insane. He wouldn't know how to create a maggot, and he creates Gods by the dozen. Michel de Montaigne Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink. Shunryu Suzuki There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence. Henry Adams Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the Unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going into. Wendell Berry Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. H. L. Mencken (attr.) After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood. Fred Thompson I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. Poul Anderson A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself. Jessamyn West We can spend our whole lives escaping from the monsters of our minds. Pema Chödrön The root of all our problems right now is the fact that human minds are very hackable with enough resources, combined with the fact that war, oppression, exploitation and ecocide are highly profitable. This dynamic has caused human collective consciousness to generally dead-end into a kind of propagandized, zombified state in which all our knowledge and all our thinking moves in alignment with the agendas of existing power structures. It’s much easier to continue believing the official narratives than to sort through everything you’ve been told about your society, your nation and your world since grade school and work out what’s true and what’s false. Many don’t have the time. Many more don’t have the courage. Caitlin Johnstone What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease. George Dennison Prentice Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke. Lynda Barry Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. Christopher Morley Excitement is ecstatic, passion places bets Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat And saliva is falling from their smiles Phil Ochs, Crucifiction Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. Epictetus Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, And, weak men create hard times. G. Michael Hopf, Those Who Remain When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. Frédéric Bastiat, The Law Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to nuclear war, none is so great as the deadening of our response. Joanna Macy The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education. Frédéric Bastiat, What Is Money? I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. Vincent Van Gogh Os solos contam histórias que os céus há muito tempo esqueceram. The soils tell stories that the heavens have long forgotten. João L R Abegão What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years lie behind us are in death’s hands. Seneca The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Thomas Charlton, 1809. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity. Wendell Phillips, 1852 We're developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won't be able to think. Rod Serling As nights went on and nothing happened and the phenomenon slowly faded to the accustomed deeper violets again, most had difficulty remembering the earlier rise of heart, the sense of overture and possibility and went back once again to seeking only orgasm, hallucination, stupor, sleep, to fetch them through the night and prepare them against the day. Thomas Pynchon Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane. Thomas Pynchon, V 'No matter how the official narrative of this turns out,' it seemed to Heidi, 'these are the places we should be looking, not in newspapers or television but at the margins, graffiti, uncontrolled utterances, bad dreamers who sleep in public and scream in their sleep.' Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. Joyce Carol Oates We are made of all those who have built and broken us. Atticus Inadequacy requires a higher energy expenditure than proficiency. Humans 3.2 I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess. Walt Whitman Choose the words you don't speak as wisely as you can. I fucking love Chaos Magick People seem to enjoy things more when they know a lot of other people have been left out of the pleasure. Russell Baker You can only be young once. But you can always be immature. Dave Barry We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. George Bernard Shaw We carry the torch for more than we know, perhaps for more than we can ever know. H. J. Berrill You know, when we first set up WWF, our objective was to save endangered species from extinction. But we have failed completely; we haven’t managed to save a single one. If only we had put all that money into condoms, we might have done some good. Sir Peter Scott, founder of WWF (lived 1909 – 1989) Don't plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me: choke those little bad days. Choke ‘em down to nothing. Tom Waits Have the courage to go first. And then light a fire so your tribe can find you. Unknown We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed. Unknown Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom...is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. Anthony Bourdain The problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense! Brian Cox Zazen isn't about blissing out or going into an alpha brainwave trance. It's about facing who and what you really are, in every single goddamn moment. And you aren't bliss, I'll tell you that right now. You're a mess. We all are. Brad Warner Why should things be easy to understand? Thomas Pynchon When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful. Ann Druyan Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet. Terry Pratchett Why do they say we're over the hill? I don't even know what that means and why it's a bad thing. When I go hiking and I get over the hill, that means I'm past the hard part and there's a snack in my future. Ellen Degeneres The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began … No far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow it if I can, J.R.R. Tolkein There’s no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children’s children are ready for retirement and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war. Bill Moyers Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches. Werner Herzog The larger loneliness of our lives evolves from our unwillingness to spend ourselves, stir ourselves. We are always damping down our inner weather, permitting ourselves the comforts of postponement, of rehearsals. Carol Shields We all have two lives. The second one begins when you realize you only have one. Tom Hiddleston The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd. Unknown Everybody that went away suffered a broken heart. "I'm coming back some day," they all wrote. But never did. The old life was too small to fit anymore. Annie Proulx Remember, when you are dead, you do not know you are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when you are stupid. Philippe Geluck It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war. Unknown, quoted by Bruce Lee Courage is knowing it might hurt and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that’s why life is hard. Jeremy Goldberg Respecting human rights is more important than respecting cultures in my opinion, humans have rights, cultures and beliefs don't. Faisal Saeed Al Mutar The attitude of “that’s just how I am, take it or leave it” is still a sign of immaturity. As an adult, it’s your responsibility to figure out which of your traits are toxic and are negatively impactful towards other people and the ones you love and to eventually learn how to fix them. At some point, we all gotta start making ourselves better individuals. If you truly believe you don’t have to change anything yourself, even at the very least the worst in you, and that people will just have to deal with it, then sorry you’re still a child. Mark Manson I'm not arguing that there are no decent people in the Tory Party. But they're like bits of sweetcorn in a turd; technically they have kept their integrity, but they are still embedded in shit. Ian Banks You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining ourselves as the central nervous system or the brain of nature. We're not the brain, we are a cancer on nature. Dave Foreman Do something. Pay your rent for the privilege of living on this beautiful, blue-green living Earth. Dave Foreman The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity -- then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective. David Suzuki The wind and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. Edward Gibbon Achilles absent was still Achilles. Homer The blade itself incites to violence. Homer The abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it. Jeremy Collier That is gold which is worth gold. George Herbert How is it possible to expect that mankind will take advice, when they will not so much as take warning? Jonathan Swift He who acts through another does the act himself. Qui facit per alium facit per se. Legal maxim Ambition is a vice, but it may be the father of virtue. Quintillian How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the cause of it. Marcus Aurelius The size of a man can be measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry. J. Kenfield Morley The question is not, Can they Reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Jeremy Bentham An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome. John Ruskin The one thet fust gits mad’s most ollers wrong. J.R. Lowell Art is I, science is we. Claude Bernard Authority can make leather as current as gold. Joseph Glanville It’s a beggar’s pride that he is not a thief. Japanese proverb Because ye have a Bible ye need not suppose it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written. Book of Mormon Men do not choose among their navigators the one who is of highest birth to command a ship. Blaise Pascal Ignorant asses visiting stationers’ shops, their use is not to inquire for good books but new books. John Webster Beware of the man of one book. Cave ab homine unius libre. Latin proverb. Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it. Bertrand Russell There are three kinds of brains: One understands of itself, another can be taught to understand, and the third can neither understand to itself or be taught to understand. Niccolò Machiavelli The brain is only one condition out of many on which intellectual manifestations depend; the others being, chiefly, the organs of the senses and the motor apparatuses, especially those which are concerned in prehension and in the production of articulate speech. T.H. Huxley There’s brains enough outside his head. Scottish proverb It is a great art to know how to sell wind. Baltasar Gracian We have witnessed in modern business the submergence of the individual within the organization, and yet the increase to an extraordinary degree of the power of the individual of the individual who happens to control the organization. Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities or its moralities, is concerned. They are not units, but fractions; with their =individuality and independence of choice in matters of business they have lost also their individual choice within the field of morals. They must do what they are told to do, or lose their connection with modern affairs. They are not at liberty to ask whether what they are told to do is right or wrong. They cannot get at the men who ordered it have no access to them. They have no voice of counsel or of protest. They are mere cogs in a machine which has men for its parts. And yet there are men here and there with whom the whole choice lies. There are men who control the machine as a whole and the men who compose it. There are men who use it with an imperial freedom of design, whose power and whose individuality overtop whole communities. There is more individual power than ever, but those who exercise it are few and formidable, and the mass of men are mere pawns in the game. Woodrow Wilson Cannibals have the same notion of right and wrong that we have … Eating fallen enemies is only an extra ceremonial. The wrong does not consist in roasting them, but in killing them. Voltaire The alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses. It is imperative, if we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulation, and the power for evil of aggregated wealth. Knights of Labor, 1869 I am the Lord, I change not. (Explains much, like why he never grew up) Malachi III Charity sees the need, not the cause. German proverb Chastity is a monkish and evangelical superstition, a greater foe to natural temperance even than unintellectual sensuality; it strikes at the root of all domestic happiness, and consigns more than half the human race to misery. P.B. Shelley But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly ! They are weeping in the playtime of the others, In the country of the free. E.B. Browning Children need models more than they need critics. Joseph Joubert A man may carry the whole scheme of Christian truth in his mind from boyhood to old age without the slightest effect upon his character and aims. It has had less influence than the multiplication table. J.G. Holland The churches have killed their Christ. Alfred Tennyson Even the best of modern civilizations appear to me to exhibit a condition of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even possesses the merits of stability. T.H. Huxley A gentleman with his good gifts sits at the upper end of the table on a chair and a cushion, when a scholar with his good parts will be glad of a joint-stool in the lobby with the chambermaids. The Gentleman's Magazine Distribute the earth as you will, the principal question remains inexorable, —Who is to dig it? Which of us, in brief word, is to do the hard and dirty work for the rest, and for what pay? Who is to do the pleasant and clean work, and for what pay? And who is to do no work, and for what pay? John Ruskin He commands enough that obeys a wise man. George Herbert Commerce is entitled to a complete and efficient protection in all its legal rights, but the moment it presumes to control a country, or to substitute its fluctuating expedients for the high principles of natural justice that ought to lie at the root of every political system, it should be frowned on, and rebuked. James Fenimore Cooper What millions died, that Caesar might be great! Thomas Campbell There is another man within me that’s angry with me. Thomas Browne Conscience is, in most men, an anticipation of the opinions of others. Henry Taylor A good conscience pays badly. Chinese proverb Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. T.B. Macaulay Corporations are invisible, immortal, and have no soul. Roger Manwood, 1592 Courage is a virtue only insofar as it is directed by prudence. Francois Fenelon Courage ought to have eyes as well as arms. H.G. Bohn Man was created by the Trinity on the 26th of October, 4004 BC at 9 o’clock in the morning. John Lightfoot, 1654 (Time zone not mentioned, but that would help locate Eden) The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold. Aristotle All go free when multitudes offend. Quicquid multis peccatur, inultum est. Lucan The greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping punishment. Cicero There are men to whom throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that which attends the discovery of a new truth. T.H. Huxley Large bodies are far more likely to err than individuals. The passions are inflamed by sympathy; the fear of punishment and the sense of shame are diminished by partition. T.B. Macaulay Death is not the greatest of ills; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to. Sophocles Democracy arose from men thinking that if they are equal in one respect they are equal in all respects. Aristotle In a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person; in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, will be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region. James Madison The tendency in democracy is, in all things, to mediocrity. James Fenimore Cooper We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means. Aristotle The fundamental principle of human action, the law, that is to political economy what the law of gravitation is to physics is that men seek to gratify their desires with the least exertion. Henry George Arbitrary rule has its basis, not in the strength of the state or the chief, but in the moral weakness of the individual, who submits almost without resistance to the domineering power. Friedrich Ratzel If you want a war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men are ever subject, because doctrines get inside a man's reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines. William Graham Sumner It’s a hard Winter when dogs eat dogs. Thomas Fuller Barking dogs make poor hunters. Portuguese proverb I have always a sacred veneration for any one I observe to be a little out of repair in his person, as supposing him either a poet or a philosopher; because the richest minerals are ever found under the most ragged and withered surface of the earth. Jonathan Swift We need more courage to die alone. Everybody wants to die with the regiment. Martin Fischer More is meant than mets the ear. John Milton Learn on how little man can live. Lucan, 65 bce There are two kinds of arguments- the true and the false. The young should be instructed in both- but the false first. Plato The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that eery child should be given the wish to learn. John Lubbock Nearest the king, nearest the gallows. Danish proverb. When a certain worthy died, one man copied his way of wearing his hat. Another his way of carrying his sword, a third the cut of his beard and a fourth his walk. But not one tried to be the honest man he was. G.C. Lichtenberg The Spartans do not ask how many the enemy number, but where they are. Agis II (ascr.) It is only necessary to raise a bugbear before the English imagination in order to govern it at will. Whatever they hate or fear, they implicitly believe in, merely from the scope it gives to these passions. William Hazlitt Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. Epicurus Envy is the adversary of the fortunate. Epictetus Envy, among other ingredients, has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good fortune. William Hazlitt All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things, that the indolent man and the laborious man, the spendthrift and the economist, the imprudent and the wise, should obtain and enjoy an equal amount of goods. Victor Cousin All true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent, ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments. Francis Bacon The reward of suffering is experience. Aeschylus Just statin’ eevidential facts beyon’ all argument. Rudyard Kipling The final test of fame is to have a crazy person imagine he is you. Unknown Feeling is any portion of consciousness which occupies a space sufficiently large to give it a perceivable individuality. Herbert Spencer When flatterers meet, the Devil goes to dinner. John Ray He who hath not a dram of folly in his mixture hath pounds of much worse matter. Charles Lamb It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats. Russian proverb Not many men have both good fortune and good sense. Livy None can love freedom heartily but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. John Milton Freedom cannot be granted. It must be taken. Max Stirner Real freedom means good wages, short hours, security in employment, good homes, opportunity for leisure and recreation with family and friends. Sir Oswald Mosley I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (Bad idea, among history’s worst) He that is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. Luke 11:23 (Another bad idea) A wise man gets more out of his enemies than a fool gets out of his friends, Baltasar Gracian It is the nature of the mind of man, to the extreme prejudice of knowledge, to delight in the spacious liberty of generalities, and not in the enclosures of particularity. Francis Bacon Genius may sometimes need a spur, but more often he needs a curb. Longinus When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. Jonathan Swift High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it. James Froude We thus arrive at the paradoxical conception of God as a gaseous vertebrate. Ernst Haeckel Let us put an end, once and for all, to this discussion of what a good man should be - and be one. Marcus Aurelius A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares. Elbert Hubbard Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Abraham Lincoln (Jefferson had a better idea) The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. George Washington The man of true greatness never loses his child’s heart. Mencius It is permissible for great men to joke with saints. German proverb Habit is a sort of second nature. Cicero (origin of phrase?) Honesty is praised and starves. (Probitas laudatur et alget) Juvenal Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind. Joseph Addison Many abuses are engendered into the World, or, to speake more boldly, all the abuses of the World are engendered upon this, that wee are taught to feare to make profession of our ignorance, and are bound to accept and allow all that wee cannot refute. Michel de Montaigne His impromptus smell of the lamp. Pytheas Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another. Thomas B. Macaulay Humanity alone is real; the individual is an abstraction. Auguste Comte (really bad idea) The earth produces nothing worse than an ingrate. Ausonius Instinct is intelligence incapable of self-consciousness. John Sterling, 1840 The more mind we have, the more original men we discover there are. Common people find no difference between men. Blaise Pascal Nothing is invented and perfected at the same time. John Ray Knowledge is the treasure, but judgement the treasurer of a wise man. He that has more knowledge than judgement is made for another man’s use more than his own. William Penn If you are a lady, and I am a lady, who is to look after the sow? Spanish proverb The precepts of the law are these: to live honorably, to injure no other man, to render to every ma his due. The Institutes of Justinian, 533 No written laws can be so plain, so pure, but wit may gloss and malice may obscure. John Dryden The law doth punish man or woman that steals the goose from off the Common. But lets the greater felon loose that steals the common from the goose. Unknown, 1764 Laws are inherited like diseases. Goethe The law regards the course of nature. Lex spectat naturae ordinem. Legal maxim Life, if well used, is long enough. Seneca Nature has given man nothing better than the shortness of his life. Pliny the Elder All life is an experiment. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. O.W. Holmes The philosophy of reasoning, to be complete, ought to comprise the theory of bad as well as of good reasoning. J.S. Mill The majority, compose them how you will, are a herd, and not a very nice one. William Hazlitt Men fade like the leaves. They are emblems of imbecility, images of clay, a race lightsome and without substance, creatures of a day, without wings. Aristophanes Men are but children of a larger growth. John Dryden Man. He fabricates The sword which stabs his peace; he cherisheth The snakes that gnaw his heart; he raiseth up The tyrant whose delight is in his woe, Whose sport is in his agony. P.B. Shelley Let us take men as they are, not as they ought to be. Franz Schubert The most essential feature of man is his improveableness. John Fiske Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. Oscar Wilde I am very certain that I am not double; I consider myself as one single being; I know that I am a material, animated and organized animal which thinks. Hence I conclude that animated matter may think. Frederick the Great I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts. Oscar Wilde Man derives his moral sense from the social feelings which are instinctive or innate in the lower animals. Darwin All hope of never dying here lies dead. Richard Crashaw Generally things are ancienter than the names by which they are called. Richard Hooker There is no nation on earth so dangerous as a nation fully armed and bankrupt at home. H.C. Lodge Nature has no goal in view, and final causes are only human imaginings. Baruch Spinoza Chase nature away and it returns at a gallop. P.N. Destouches Human nature is the same all over the world, but its operations are so varied by education and habit that one must see it in all its dresses in order to be entirely acquainted with it. Lord Chesterfield Long ages of dreary monotony are the first facts in the history of human communities, but those ages were not lost to mankind, for it was then that was formed the comparatively gentle and guidable thing which we now call human nature. Walter Bagehot It was not nobility that gave land but the possession of land that gave nobility. Henry George The struggle and scramble for office, for a way to live without work, will finally test the strength of our institutions. A. Lincoln The human understanding is of its own nature prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds. Francis Bacon I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old. Psalms 78:2 Do not wonder if the the common people speak more truly than those above them; they speak more safely. Francis Bacon What has Philosophy taught men, but to promise without practicing, and to aspire without attaining? What has the deep and lofty thought of its disciples ended in but eloquent words? J.H. Newman Men, like all other animals, naturally multiply in proportion to the means f their subsistence. Adam Smith Posterity gives every man his true value. Tacitus People will not look forward to posterity who never look backwards to their ancestors. Edmund Burke There is a degree of poverty that has no disgrace belonging to it; that degree of it, I mean, in which a man enjoys clean linen and good company ; and if I never sink below this degree of it, I care not if I never rise above it. William Cowper Thousands upon thousands are yearly brought into a state of real poverty by their great anxiety not to be thought poor. William Cobbettt A power above all human responsibility ought to be above all human attainment. C.C. Colton We reverence gray-headed doctrines; though feeble, decrepit, and within a step of dust: and on this account maintain opinions, which have nothing but our charity to uphold them. Joseph Glanvill Adhere to precedents and do not unsettled things established. Stare decisis, et non quieta movere. Legal maxim, sometimes problematic He who never leaves his country is full of prejudice. Carlo Goldoni The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state: but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. William Blackstone Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of religion. William Blake Property exists by grace of the law. It is not a fact but a legal fiction. Max Stirner He who feeds the hen ought to have the egg. Danish proverb Race is precisely of as much consequence in man as it is in any other animal. John Ruskin Let any man but look back upon his own life and see what use he has made of his reason, how little he has consulted it, and how less he has followed it. What foolish passions, what vain thoughts, what needless labors, what extravagant projects, have taken up the greatest part of his life. How foolish he has been in his words and conversation, how seldom he has done well with judgment, and how often he has been kept from doing ill by accident; how seldom he has been able to please himself, and how often he has displeased others; how often he has changed his counsels, hated what he loved and loved what he hated; how often he has been enraged and transported at trifles, pleased and displeased with the very same things, and constantly changing from one vanity to another. Let a man but take this view of his own life, and he will see reason enough to confess that pride was not made for man. William Law Reason is nothing but the analysis of belief. Franz Schubert Who draws his sword against the prince must throw away the scabbard. James Howell Men will submit to any rule, by which they may be exempted from the tyranny of caprice and of chance. They are glad to supply by external authority their own want of constancy and resolution, and court the government of others, when long experience has convinced them of their own inability to govern themselves. Samuel Johnson Even in religious fervor there is a touch of animal heat. Walt Whitman The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. Japanese proverb All that makes existence valuable to anyone depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people. J.S. Mill All real joy and power of progress in humanity depend on finding something to reverence; and all the baseness and misery of humanity begin in a habit of disdain. John Ruskin If the plaintiff has a right, he must of necessity have a means to vindicate and maintain it, and a remedy if he is injured in the exercise or enjoyment of it; and indeed it is a vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy; for want of right and want of remedy are reciprocal. John Holt Satire will always be unpleasant to those who deserve it. Thomas Shadwell If any fool is by our satire bit, let him hiss loud, to show you all he’s hit. Alexander Pope Science has promised us truth—an understanding of such relationships as our minds can grasp; it has never promised us either peace or happiness. A.J. Balfour If the physical universe be subject to the laws of motion, the moral univeerse is equally so to those of interest. C.A. Helvetius Who would die a martyr to sense in a country where the religion is folly? William Congreve Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is being ashamed of frugality or poverty. Livy He who is silent is understood to give consent. Qui tacet consentire videtur. Pope Boniface, really bad legal maxim, but a warning. A people who are prosperous and happy, optimistic and progressive, will produce much slang. It is a case of play. They amuse themselves with the language. W.G. Sumner Society differs from nature in having a definite moral object. T.H. Huxley Soldiers fight and die to advance the wealth and luxury of the great, and they are called masters of the world without having a sod to call their own. Tiberius Gracchus If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one would remain in the ranks. Frederick the Great (attr.) Little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth. For a crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. Francis Bacon It is good to grow wise by sorrow. Aeschylus Things are well spoken if they are well taken. Henry Porter No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot. G.B. Shaw Free speech is to a great people what winds are to oceans and malarial regions, which waft away the germs of disease, and bring new elements of health. Where free speech is stopped miasma is bred, and death comes fast. H.W. Beecher I express many absurd opinions. But I am not the first man to do it. American freedom consists largely in talking nonsense. E.W. Howe Lo , the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. (Note that it is only a 50 km journey eastward from the Mediterranean shore to Bethlehem. Mighty slow camels to take twelve days.) Mat 2:9. The state is an historically temporary arrangement, a transitory form of society. M.A. Bakunin Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Isidore of Seville There is nothing in the world to which a man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person. Arthur Schopenhauer Genius doest what it must. Talent does what it can. E.R. Bulwer-Lytton The power to tax involves the power to destroy. John Marshall The tax upon land values is the most just and equal of all taxes. It falls only upon those who receive from society a peculiar and valuable benefit, and upon them in proportion to the benefit they receive. It is the taking by the community, for the use of the community, of that value which is the creation of the community. Henry George He teacheth ill who teacheth all. John Hay The true teacher defends his pupil against his own personal influence. A. Bronson Alcott When I consider Life and its few years— A wisp of fog betwixt us and the sun; A call to battle, and the battle done Ere the last echo dies within our ears; A rose choked in the grass; an hour of fears; The gusts that past a darkening shore do beat; The burst of music down an unlistening street,— I wonder at the idleness of tears. Lizette Woodworth Reese Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor. John Heywood Theology is anthropology. L.A. Feuerbach As the development of the mind proceeds, symbols, instead of being employed to convey images, are substituted for them. Civilized men think as they trade, not in kind, but by means of a circulating medium. T.B. Macaulay Know your time. Nosce tempus. Latin proverb. Travel only with your equals or betters; if there are none, travel alone. Buddha, the Dhammapada It is lawful, and hath been held so through all ages, for any, who have the power, to call to account a tyrant, or wicked king, and after due conviction to depose, and put him to death. John Milton If a sovereign oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government. Samuel Johnson Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high. Francis Bacon The moral and intellectual wealth of a nation largely consists in the multifarious variety of the gifts of the men who compose it, and it would be the very reverse of improvement to make all its members assimilate to a common type. Francis Galton Virtue should have its limits. Montesquieu Whenever possible the wage-contract should be modified by a partnership- contract whereby the wage earner is made to share in the ownership, the management, or the profits. Pope Pius XI What we now need to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war something heroic that will speak to men as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved itself to be incompatible. William James Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community. Andrew Carnegie No man ever became wise by chance. Seneca A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can. Michel de Montaigne A wise man’s day is worth a fool’s whole life. Arab proverb One witness is no witness. Testis unus, testis nullis. Legal maxim He writes nothing whose writings are not read. Martial The ancients wrote at a time when the great art of writing badly had not yet been invented. In those days, to write at all meant to write well. G.C. Lichtenberg Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go out and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds. Thomas Merton The clouds are thin the wind is light the sun is nearly overhead past the flowers through the willows down along the stream people don’t see the joy in my heart they think I’m wasting time or acting like a child Cheng Hao You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ Edgar Mitchell Orbiting Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it. Yuri Gregarin Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything. Sydney Smith Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors. Quentin Crisp “You’ve gotta respect everyone’s beliefs." No, you don’t. That’s what gets us in trouble. Look, you have to acknowledge everyone’s beliefs, and then you have to reserve the right to go: "That is fucking stupid. Are you kidding me?" I acknowledge that you believe that, that’s great, but I’m not going to respect it. I have an uncle that believes he saw Sasquatch. We do not believe him, nor do we respect him! Patton Oswalt Reality is frequently inaccurate. Douglas Adams Before you heal someone, ask him if he is willing to give up the things that made him sick. Hippocrates Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters. Isaac Asimov When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live. Search Results When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live. Sarah Kendzior Don't give them all the things you wished you had, teach them all the things you wished you knew. Unknown The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations. Unknown, probably spuriously attributed to Thomas Jefferson Sometimes saying "I don't know" is giving the universe the respect it deserves. Esteban Gunn It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so fucking what. Stephen Fry If someone tells me that I've hurt their feelings, I say, 'I'm still waiting to hear what your point is.' In this country, I've been told, 'That's offensive' as if those two words constitute an argument or a comment. Not to me they don't. Christopher Hitchens Those who are determined to be 'offended' will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt. Christopher Hitchens Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know. Pema Chödrön (See the story of Sei Weng from tht Huainanzi) When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. Seen in V for Vendetta, after a spurious Jefferson quote on resistance. For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow We don’t need men to be ‘gentlemen.’ We need men to do peyote and face their deep cores of emptiness, then return to the village humbled. Alena Smith You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better. Anne Lamott We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play. Heraclitus The people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, they are accomplices. George Orwell Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their peers, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Robert F. Kennedy Five years ago, if you remember, I should say you were pretty well convinced there was a God, and above all you had no doubt as to what was good and what was evil. Naturally you did what you thought was good and marched off to war. For five years now, the best years of your youth, you have kept on doing “good”: you have fired a gun, gone over the top, lounged about in barracks and mud holes, buried comrades or bandaged their wounds. And little by little you began to doubt the good, to suspect that the good and glorious occupation you were engaged in was fundamentally evil, or at the very least stupid and absurd. And so it was. Evidently the good you were so sure of at the time was not the right good, the good that is indestructible and timeless; and evidently the God you knew in those days was not the right God… Hundreds of thousands of bloody battle sacrifices were offered up to him, and in his honor hundreds of thousands of bellies were slit open, hundreds of thousands of lungs torn to pieces; he was more bloodthirsty and brutal than any idol… Has anyone stopped to consider, and to wonder at the fact, that in those four years of war our theologians buried their own religion, their own Christianity? Committed to the service of love, they preached hatred; committed to the service of mankind, they mistook for mankind the authorities who paid them. Herman Hesse at the end of WWI Adulting is soup and I am a fork. Unknown Imagine listening to Beethoven with the prepossession that C is a good note and F a bad one; yet this is exactly the stand point from which all uninitiates contemplate the universe. Obviously, they miss the music. Aleister Crowley It is by no means one of the wisest sayings of Solomon that ‘there is no new thing under the sun.’ Thomas Malthus Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others. Jules Renard In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; In practice, there is. Chuck Reid To live is enough. Shunryu Suzuki The branches of [benevolence and righteousness] will grow for a thousand ages, and in a thousand ages, men will be eating each other raw. Zhuangzi, Ch. 23 The higher the buildings, the lower the morals. Noel Coward The known part of Dao is called science. The unknown part of Dao is beyond the known scientific laws. Dao is above 物 (thing-kind). Dao cannot be completely known. Zhang Yuanshan The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. Leonardo da Vinci The Humanity of men and women is inversely proportional to their Numbers. Aldous Huxley To find out what is destroying your society, discover which ideas are considered beyond criticism. Brett Stevens We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. Marcel Proust I have often thought that at the end of the day, we would have saved more wildlife if we had spent all WWF’s money on buying condoms. Sir Peter Scott I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary-General, that the Members of the United Nations have perhaps ten years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, to defuse the population explosion, and to supply the required momentum to development efforts. If such a global partnership is not forged within the next decade, then I very much fear that the problems I have mentioned will have reached such staggering proportions that they will be beyond our capacity to control. U Thant, 1972 Let the revels begin, let the fire be started, We’re dancing for the restless and the broken-hearted … Say a prayer in the darkness for the magic to come No matter what it seems Tonight is what it means to be young Before you know it it's gone Jim Steinman Master, how much ego do you need? Just enough that you don’t step in front of a bus. Shunryu Suzuki Wisdom is given to no man until he asks for it. Manly P. Hall It requires a very unusual mind to undertake an analysis of the obvious. Alfred North Whitehead To say humans can't exist without governments is to say animals can't exist without farms. Mike Lundy I never lose. I either win or learn. Nelson Mandela Kill the chicken to scare the monkey. Chinese proverb If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much. Ted Williams You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass. Sylvester McNutt An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. Howard Zinn I’m an atheist, and that’s it. I believe there’s nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people. Audrey Hepburn Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly. Isaac Asimov When inventing a god, the most important thing is to make it invisible, inaudible and imperceptible in every way. Otherwise, people will become skeptical when it appears to no one, is silent and does nothing. Lindsey Brown No, it’s not fools who turn mystics. It takes a certain amount of intelligence and imagination to realize the extraordinary queerness and mysteriousness of the world in which we live. The fools, the innumerable fools, take it all for granted, skate about cheerfully on the surface and never think of inquiring what’s underneath. Aldous Huxley Experience and history teach that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it G.W.F Hegel Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want. Anna Lappe He Said "Don't You Feel Lonely Living In Your Own Little World?" She Whispered, "Don't You Feel Powerless Living In Other People's Worlds?" F.G. (?) These are the days that must happen to you. Walt whitman We are survivors of immeasurable events, Flung upon some reach of land, Small, wet miracles without instructions, Only the imperative of change. Rebecca Elson Master, what happens after we die? I don’t know. What do you mean? Aren’t you a Zen master? Yes, I am. But I’m not a dead one. You never hear in the news, “200 killed today when Atheist rebels took heavy shelling from the Agnostic stronghold in the North.” Doug Stanhope I do not particularly like the word 'work.' Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, the more wonderful they think it is. It would be good to give up that way of thinking and live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. For human beings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but simply doing what needs to be done. Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution Forget the noise, the crisis we face is not embodied in the public images of the politicians that run our dysfunctional state. The crisis we face is the result of a four decade long slow-motion corporate coup d’etat that has rendered the citizen impotent. Left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent. The crisis has spawned a corrupt electoral system of legalized bribery and elevated public figures that master the arts of entertainment and artifice. Chris Hedges, 2017 I guess my favorite thing in the world is when I look at a piece of art, or read a story, or watch a movie where I walk away feeling like "Oh my god — I have to do something, I have to make something or talk to someone — things are not the same anymore" — and so I try to make work where you come away with that feeling. It's like, yeah, you're thinking about what you just saw, but even more than that — you feel able, you feel like, kind of propelled. Miranda July Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments. Howard Zinn Vietato Lamentarsi (No Whining). Transgressors are subject to a victimization syndrome, resulting in lowering the mood and the ability to solve problems. The penalty is doubled if the violation is committed in the presence of children. To become the best of yourself, you must focus on your own potential and not on your own limits, so stop in silence and act to better your life. sign on door They laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at them because they're all the same. Kurt Cobain I am English by origin, but I am an early World man; and I live in exile from the world community of my desires. I salute that finer, larger world across the generations, and maybe someone down the vista may look back and appreciate an ancestral salutation. H. G. Wells Activism is my rent for living on the planet. Alice Walker We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality Seneca The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door. If you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door. Clarissa Pinkola Estés The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” Pema Chodron Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Henry Ford Journalism is printing what someone else does not want to be printed. Everything else is public relations. George Orwell News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising. Lord Northcliffe The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists. Hannah Arendt If you suffer it’s not because things are impermanent. It’s because you believe things are permanent. Thich Nhat Hanh Life is too short to be living someone else’s dream. Hugh Hefner Telling the truth and making someone cry is better than telling a lie and making someone smile. Paulo Coelho If you get caught masturbating and you stop, then you're just the guy who got caught. But if you keep going, then the guys who caught you become gay for watching. Success is all about finding the hidden advantage in a negative situation. Tony Robbins The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. John Ehrlichman I'll tell you what you did with Atheists for about 1500 years. You outlawed them from the universities or any teaching careers, besmirched their reputations, banned or burned their books or their writings of any kind, drove them into exile, humiliated them, seized their properties, arrested them for blasphemy. You de-humanised them with beatings and exquisite torture, gouged out their eyes, slit their tongues, stretched, crushed, or broke their limbs, tore off their breasts if they were women, crushed their scrotums if they were men, imprisoned them, stabbed them, disemboweled them, hanged them, burnt them alive. And you have nerve enough to complain to me that I laugh at you. Madalyn Murray O'Hair Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. Maya Angelou, from Still I Rise Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order. We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education. So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don't personally have a kid in school: It's because I don't like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people. John Green The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact. George Orwell The war was not meant to be won, it was meant to be endless." George Orwell, 1984 It is a basic human need that everyone wants to live a happy life. For this, one has to first experience real happiness. The so-called happiness that one experiences by having money, power, and indulging in sensual pleasures is not real happiness. It is very fragile, unstable and not lasting long. For real happiness, for real lasting stable happiness, one has to make a journey deep within oneself and see that one gets rid of all the unhappiness and misery stored in the deeper levels of the mind. So long as there is unhappiness and misery in the deeper levels of the mind and so long as unhappiness is being generated today this stored stock is being multiplied and all attempts to feel happy at the surface level of the mind prove futile. S.N. Goenka And then there is the most dangerous risk of all -- the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later. Randy Komisar Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. Rami Shaprio (attrib. sometimes to the Talmud)) While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its liabilities. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us incapable of criticizing ideas that are now patently absurd and increasingly maladaptive. Sam Harris The essence of all slavery consists in taking the produce of another's labor by force. It is immaterial whether this force be founded upon ownership of the slave or ownership of the money that he must get to live. Leo Tolstoy ’Tis a fearful thing to love what death can touch. A fearful thing to love, to hope, to dream, to be, to be, and oh! to lose. A thing for fools, this, and a holy thing, a holy thing to love. For your life has lived in me, your laugh once lifted me, your word was gift to me. To remember this brings painful joy. ’Tis a human thing, love, a holy thing to love what death has touched. Chaim Stern To fight for yourselves is right. To die vainly without hope of winning is the act of stupid men. Kung Fu series If one’s words are no better than silence, one should keep silent. Kung Fu series Joshu's dog barks at nothing. But look here, a handful of it! She was not fragile like a flower; She was fragile like a bomb. Rahul Singh Rathour Thinking Out Cloud Good snowflakes. They don’t fall anywhere else. Layman Pang The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is. Wittgenstein What is this thing and how did it get here? Huineng La vida es incierta. Como el postre primero. Life is uncertain. Eat desert first. Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man. Jesuit maxim attributed to Ignatius Loyola The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee. Pulp Fiction, Jules supposedly quoting Ezekiel 25:17, which has parts of the last two sentences. But how could you live and have no story to tell? Dostoyevsky (且)有真人, 而后有真知 There must first be a true man before there can be true knowledge. Watson There must first be a true man and then there is the true knowledge. Legge Zhuangzi, Ch. 6, 大宗師 Oh, it’s the half-remarkable question: what is that we are part of, and what is it that we are? Incredible String Band Outer space is no place for a person of breeding. Lady Violet Bonham Carter It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward. Lewis Carroll I feel so good, life is running around inside of me like a squirrel! You can’t take it with you He explained that in order to help erase personal history three other techniques were taught. They were: losing self-importance, assuming responsibility, and using death as an adviser. The idea was that, without the beneficial effect of those three techniques, erasing personal history would involve the apprentice in being shifty, evasive and unnecessarily dubious about himself and his actions. Carlos Castaneda To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level. Bertrand Russell E pur si muove (And yet it moves) Galileo Galilei The greatest teacher, failure is. Yoda We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters. Yoda Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing. The Buddha I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught. Winston Churchill Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia What's Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Michelle Wolf First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. Nicholas Klein, 1914 (not Gandhi) First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Version attributed to Gandhi since 1982 You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic; true power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you; breathe and allow things to pass. Unknown So though the sky be ashen grey, And winds be edged and sleet be slanting, Heap faggots on the fire and say: "It's just the kind of day I'm wanting." Robert Service, 1874-1958 As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it. Dick Cavett Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas. Aldous Huxley "No...I would *NOT* say for her benefit..." Harold For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed. Clifton Fadiman `Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, `I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' `What do you mean by that?' said the Caterpillar sternly. `Explain yourself!' `I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir' said Alice, `because I'm not myself, you see.' `I don't see,' said the Caterpillar. Lewis Carroll The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us. E.O. Wilson I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken. I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children. And it’s a hard rain’s gonna fall. Bob Dylan There is nothing irrational about seeking the states of mind that lie at the core of many religions. Compassion, awe, devotion and feelings of oneness are surely among the most valuable experiences a person can have. Sam Harris School is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is. Ivan Illich Once a word is written, it goes rolling all about, comes indifferently among those who understand it and all those whom it no wise concerns, and is unaware to whom it should address itself and to whom it should not do so. Plato Great wisdom, in observing the far and the near, recognizes the small without thinking it insignificant, recognizes the great without thinking it unwieldy. Zhuangzi 17 I stand by all the misstatements that I've made. Dan Quayle The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor If one man has a dollar he didn’t work for, some other man worked for a dollar he didn’t get. William Haywood (1869-1928) The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know, the world will tell you. C.G. Jung You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. James Thurber A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. Alexander Pope Principles are good and worth the effort only when they develop into deeds. Vincent Van Gogh Do not accept any of my words on faith, Believing them just because I said them. Be like an analyst buying gold, who cuts, burns, And critically examines his product for authenticity. Only accept what passes the test By proving useful and beneficial in your life. Buddha, Jnanasara-samuccaya Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box. Italian Proverb Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts. Charles Dickens I never met anybody who said when they were a kid, "I wanna grow up and be a critic." Richard Pryor All things dull and ugly, All creatures short and squat, All things rude and nasty, The Lord God made the lot … Monty Python A person’s identity is like a pattern drawn on a tightly stretched parchment. Touch just one part of it, just one allegiance, and the whole person will react, the whole drum will sound. Amin Maalouf Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche There’s hyphenated And there’s non-hyphenated Oh the ironing “We (scientists) are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress. This is the opposite of how religion works - it disregards any evidence which is unfavorable to its believe in an attempt to convince believers and others it’s true. This is why thousands of religions exist and why science works.” Richard Feynman At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; At 45 they are caves in which we hide. F. Scott Fitzgerald Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over the veils of ignorance. Henri Bergson The only sense to make of tragedies like this is that terrible things can happen to perfectly innocent people. This understanding inspires compassion. Religious faith, on the other hand, erodes compassion. Thoughts like, 'this might be all part of God’s plan,' or 'there are no accidents in life,' or 'everyone on some level gets what he or she deserves' - these ideas are not only stupid, they are extraordinarily callous. They are nothing more than a childish refusal to connect with the suffering of other human beings. It is time to grow up and let our hearts break at moments like this. Sam Harris If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow. Unknown The art of life consists in making correct decisions on insufficient evidence. Oliver Wendell Holmes If you want to catch beasts you don't see every day, You have to go places quite out of the way, You have to go places no others can get to. You have to get cold and you have too get wet, too. Dr. Seuss I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights. Dr. Seuss Nonsense wakes up the brain cells. And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age. Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world. It's more than just a matter of laughing. If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack. Dr. Seus "Ful ofte in game a sooth I have herd saye!" "Oft in jest a truth I’ve heard said” Cook's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming. Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come. Bruce Lee The moon and the sun are eternal travelers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. Matsuo Basho, Japan, "Narrow road to the Interior" Oku no Hosomichi My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes without having a single original thought. H. L. Mencken He knows all about art, but he doesn't know what he likes. James Thurber I'm not worried about the bullet with my name on it... just the thousands out there marked 'Occupant.' Unknown Instead of clinging to class unity, we should build coalitions that embrace difference. Kathi Weeks 焚林而田偷取多獸後必無獸以詐遇民偷取一時後必無復 If you hunt by setting a forest fire, you will get many animals as a one-time windfall but afterward there will be no animals. If you treat the people with deceit you will seize one occasion but later it will be unrepeatable. The Works of Master Hanfei I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. Eleanor Roosevelt A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things. Herman Melville There is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men. Herman Melville The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own. Xenophanes, c. 570 – c. 475 BCE They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate: I think they have no portion in us after We pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream. Ernest Dowson Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Pablo Neruda When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier. Rudyard Kipling Love thy neighbor as yourself, but choose your neighborhood. Louise Beal I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake--which I also keep handy. W. C. Fields Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not--struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God. Martin Luther It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree. Charles Baudelaire The only people who see the whole picture … are the ones who step out of the frame. Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet That awkward moment when you stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back, so you wave, but it’s staring back at the person behind you. Unknown To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight. e e cummings Many a man who falls in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl. Evan Esar The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. Hubert H. Humphrey If you have to tell a child something a thousand times, perhaps it is not the child who is the slow learner. Walter Barbe The Daoist Farmer A farmer named Sei Weng owned a beautiful mare which was praised far and wide. One day this wonderful horse disappeared. The people of his village offered sympathy to Sei Weng for his great misfortune. Sei Weng said simply, "What makes you think this is bad?" A few days later the lost mare returned, followed by a whole herd of wild horses, led by a beautiful wild stallion. The village congratulated Sei Weng for his great good fortune. He said, "What makes you think this is good?" Some time later, Sei Weng's only son, while riding the stallion, fell off and broke his leg. The village people once again expressed their sympathy at Sei Weng's misfortune. Sei Weng again said, "What makes you think this is bad?" Soon after, a war broke out and all the young men of the village except Sei Weng's lame son were drafted and sent into a horrible battle. The village people were amazed as Sei Weng's good luck. But Sei Weng only replied, "What makes you think this is good?" adapted from the Huainanzi, circa 139 BCE The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said 'This is mine', and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody. Rousseau 1754 Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practice charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man. Vladimir Lenin, 1905 To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize. Voltaire There is nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend. Bob Ross When people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small, but barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small. Just-shower-thoughts I was coming home from kindergarten--well they told me it was kindergarten. I found out later I had been working in a factory for ten years. It's good for a kid to know how to make gloves. Ellen DeGeneres Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man. Robert Oppenheimer, of Albert Einstein They caught the wild children and put them in zoos, They made them do sums and wear sensible shoes. They put them to bed at the wrong time of day, And made them sit still when they wanted to play. They scrubbed them with soap and they made them eat peas. They made them behave and say pardon and please. They took all their wisdom and wildness away. That’s why there are none in the forests today. Jeanne Willis Man is a social animal; only in the herd is he happy. It is all one to hime whether it is the profoundest nonsense or the greatest villainy - he feels completely at ease with it - so long as it is the view of the herd, and he is able to join the herd. Soren Kierkegaard A fly and a flea in a flue Were imprisoned, so what could they do? Said the fly, "Let us flee!" "Let us fly!" said the flea, So they fled through a flaw in the flue. Ogden Nash The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter. Paulo Coelho He who defines the terms wins the arguments. Chinese proverb Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun. W. B. Yeats, The Song of Wandering Aengus The headline of the Daily News today reads BRUNETTE STABBED TO DEATH. Underneath in lowercase letters: ‘6000 killed in Iranian earthquake.’ … I wonder what color hair they had. Abbie Hoffman Probably all education is but two things: first, parrying of the ignorant child’s impetuous assault on the truth; and second, gentle, imperceptible initiation of the humiliated children into the lie. Franz Kafka Do not feel embarrassed about wearing the same clothes, not having a big cell phone or riding in an old car. Shame is pretending to be something you are not. José Mujica, former President of Uruguay. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus. Hogwarts school motto Feet in Mud. Sometimes it is that Simple. Unknown [The religious view is] so pathetically absurd and … infantile that it is humiliating and embarrassing to think that the majority of people will never rise above it. Sigmund Freud They laughed at my mighty sword. Why does everyone laugh at my mighty sword? Randy Newman It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. Robert Anton Wilson Never harbor grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else. Robertson Davies Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. Frank Leahy As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folk of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron. H.L. Mencken, 1920 You can fool too many of the people too much of the time. James Thurber It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all -- in which case, you fail by default. J.K. Rowling I say that a man may as soon make a friend by his wit, or a fortune by his honesty, as win a woman with plain dealing and sincerity. William Congreve You are the music while the music lasts. TS Eliot A Road is made by People walking on it. Zhuangzi Sorcerers say that true rebellion, and humanity’s only way out as a species, is to stage a revolution against their own stupidity. As you can understand, this is solitary work. Carlos Castaneda We danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we hugged too hard, and we kissed too sweet, and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight. Pearl Cleage, what looks like crazy on an ordinary day I am apparently gentle, unstable, and full of pretenses. I will die a poet killed by the nonpoets, will renounce no dream, resign myself to no ugliness, accept nothing of the world but the one I made myself. I wrote, lived, loved like Don Quixote, and on the day of my death I will say: ‘Excuse me, it was all a dream,’ and by that time I may have found one who will say: ‘Not at all, it was true, absolutely true.’ Anais Nin On Impermanence Only for sleep we come, for dreams. Lie! It is a lie. We come to live on Earth. As a weed we become each springtime, swell green, our hearts open, the body makes a few flowers and drops away withered somewhere. (Poems of the Aztec Peoples) A centipede was happy quite, until a frog in fun said: "Pray tell which leg comes after which?" This raised her mind to such a pitch, She lay distracted in a ditch, Considering how to run. Anonymous In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. Ellen Goodman Cognitive scientists have been seduced by the computer model of the mind, forgetting that, in reality, the brain’s wetware is awash in a messy, pulsating puddle of neurochemicals, nothing like the sanitized, orderly silicon that has spawned the guiding metaphor for mind. Daniel Goleman The duty of man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads and … attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency. Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040 CE) The greatest of faults … is to be conscious of none. Thomas Carlyle We do everything by custom, even believe by it; our very axioms, let us boast of free-thinking as we may, are oftenest simply such beliefs as we have never heard questioned. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus When the values that support a moral stance are parochial, it is impossible to reach universal agreement on what is good or bad. The only value that all human beings can readily share is the continuation of life on Earth. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it. Unknown The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. Brooks Atkinson There is probably no such thing as a conscious hypocrite. Aldous Huxley Theology is … ignorance with wings. Sam Harris To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle. George Orwell Carl and I knew we were the beneficiaries of chance, that pure chance could be so kind that we could find one another in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. We knew that every moment should be cherished as the precious and unlikely coincidence that it was. Annie Druyan Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an unidentified source. Ron Nesen It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this. Bertrand Russell You cannot force someone to comprehend a message they are not ready to receive. Still, you must never underestimate the power of planting a seed. Unknown What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people? Jeph Jacques Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. Oscar Wilde Why Did God Create Atheists? There is a famous story told in Chassidic literature that addresses this very question. The Master teaches the student that God created everything in the world to be appreciated, since everything is here to teach us a lesson. One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?” The Master responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all – the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs and act of charity, visits someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because of some religious teaching. He does not believe that god commanded him to perform this act. In fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.” “This means,” the Master continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist, imagine that there is no God who can help, and say 'I will help you.’” Tales of Hasidim Vol. 2 by Mar Science: If you don’t make mistakes, you’re doing it wrong. If you don’t correct those mistakes, you’re doing it really wrong. If you can’t accept that you’re mistaken, you’re not doing it at all. Unknown Don't believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that - thoughts. Allan Lokos Don't believe everything you think - or feel. Anna Chancellor An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead. Carl G. Jung The lie is that writing is a meritocracy. The truth is that it's a crap shoot. It's not a fist-fight. It's not a weightlifting contest. It's not a sprint. It's not any "may the best man win," because there is no objective standard for judging writing. At all. The idea that you're not a writer until you're published is a lie. The idea that you are a writer because you're published is also a lie. Andrew Vachss Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy Shit, what a ride!" Hunter S. Thompson or Mavis Leyrer Christianity is a diagnosis. Varg Vikernes If you never change your mind, why have one? Edward de Bono The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. H. L. Mencken Lost are the mists of a moment ago! All the joys of this world are like this, The many-evented past a river flowing east. I leave you now—when will I return?— To loose the white deer among green bluffs, In my wandering to ride them in search of famed hills. How can I knit brows, bend back to serve influence and power, Never dare to wear an open-hearted face? Song of a Dream Visit To T’ian-mu: Farewell to Those I Leave Behind Li Po, tr. Burton Watson The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. Sir Winston Churchill You really should have stolen the whole book because the warnings... The warnings come *after* the spells. Doctor Strange A big part of emotional intelligence is being able to feel an emotion without having to act on it. Sounds like Daniel Goleman, but not verified This evening silence, It is not silence. Listen, listen! Everything is black Victor Hugo Now [America is] just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over. … The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody’s who’s already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who’s just a challenger. Jimmy Carter Human brains are really good at the kinds of cognition you need to run around the savannah throwing spears. Daniel Dewey Shrink the domain, spread out the people. Let there be tens and hundreds of people with specialties, but unemployed. Let the people feel the weight of death and not wander far. Though there be boats and wagons, no place to ride them. Though there be armor and weapons, no reason to show them. Let the people return to knotting cords and counting on these, to sweetening their own food, embroidering their own clothing, secure in their own homes, rejoicing in their own customs. Neighboring realms overlook one another. The sounds of each other’s roosters and dogs are heard. The people grow old and die without comings and goings between them. Laozi, Ch 80 I want an avowed atheist in the White House. When time comes to push that button, I want whoever's making the decision to understand that once it's pushed, it's over. Finito. They're not gonna have lunch with Jesus. Won't be deflowering 72 virgins on the great shag carpet of eternity, or reincarnated as a cow. I want someone making that decision who believes life on this Earth isn't just a dress rehearsal for something better -- but the only shot we get. Quentin R. Bufogle A little stupid is like a little forest fire. If you happen upon some stupid, please stomp it out before it spreads. Quentin R. Bufogle I must give myself permission not to like myself. It's ok. Plenty of other people don't like me either. And I have much higher standards. Quentin R. Bufogle Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not? Epicurus Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. Franklin P. Jones Without the aid of prejudice and custom I should not be able to find my way across the room. William Hazlitt Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal. Robert A. Heinlein Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between “the devil’s peace” and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired of fighting that all seems calm. But true peace does not exist until there is justice, restoration, forgiveness. Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free. Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after. Wallace Stevens Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. it is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free. Peacemaking is about being able to recognize in the face of the oppressed our own faces, and in the hands of the oppressors our own hands. Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals God is in the detail. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Aby Warburg, or Gustave Flaubert. “The Devil is in the details,” a later saying, soon became ten times as common. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that, not man apart from that. Robinson Jeffers Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding. Martin Luther The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. Robert Swan You have to accept that you'll never be good enough for some people. Whether that is going to be your problem or theirs is up to you. Bryant McGill We can't sit around like a bunch of nitwits just watching the planet burn down around us. If a radical political alternative is not opened up, then I think we are essentially going to amuse and entertain ourselves into extinction. Business as usual at this point is a death sentence on the human race. Terence McKenna Part of what psychedelics do is they decondition you from cultural values. This is what makes it such a political hot potato. Since all culture is a kind of con game, the most dangerous candy you can hand out is one which causes people to start questioning the rules of the game. Terence McKenna If you're helping someone and expecting something in return, you're doing business not kindness. Unknown The reality is we have more In Common With the people we're bombing than the people were bombing them for. Russell Brand That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane. Erich Fromm No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so after his day's work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community, to help in carrying the general load. Theodore Roosevelt Did you ever wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and think, “That can’t be right!”? Aunty Acid The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy. Stan Grof, MD. My thoughts cannot move an inch without bumping into some piece of you. Unknown Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. Khalil Gibran Huge amounts of global civilization are functioning on automatic pilot. You think if you were to walk into the world trade center, or the pentagon or NATO headquarters in Brussels, that there would be smart people furiously running things. No; there are idiots everywhere! At every level of organization. Terence McKenna Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand. Ezra Pound If you thought science was certain – well, that was just an error on your part. Richard Feynman The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretense, infringed. James Madison, original draft of the Bill of Rights Some people have a way with words and other people - uh, not have way. Steve Martin A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can. He can hold in his beak Enough food for a week! But I'm damned if I see how the helican! Dixon Lanier Merritt (misattributed to Ogden Nash) There are three things that terrify religion: free speech, free thought, and free women. Combine these three elements and you'll witness a remarkable woman who freely and intelligently speaks her mind. Ayaan Hirsi Ali The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm. Aldous Huxley I don’t know how to save the world. I don’t have the answers or The Answer. I hold no secret knowledge as to how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all of Earth’s inhabitants, none of us will survive—nor will we deserve to. Leonard Peltier I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I ain’t a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns. Woody Guthrie There is no limit to what a man can do so long as he does not care a straw who gets the credit for it. Charles Edward Montague, Disenchantment (1922) You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works. Pope Francis Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses. Plato Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. Socrates The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about and refuse to investigate. Dr. Wayne Dyer I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy. Kahlil Gibran In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us. Thich Nhat Hanh Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war. Martin Luther King Jr. You know the sad thing about betrayal? It never comes from an enemy. Unknown The problem with religion, because it has been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics would believe in isolation. Sam Harris Your God controls the laws of physics, ten thousand billion billion stars. But what he really cares about is who you sleep with. Richard Dawkins You don't remember the times your dad held your handle bars. You remember the day he let go. Lenore Skenazy Many people think that being spiritual means being positive, but being spiritual means being conscious and aware. To become conscious is a much different thing than to become positive. To become conscious and aware, we must become authentic. Authenticity includes both positive and negative. Teal Swan Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth is radiant with triumphant calamity. Enlightenment’s program was the disenchantment of the world. Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno Experience is the hardest kind of teacher Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward. Oscar Wilde You probably wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do. Olin Miller The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. Ralph Nader If I am traitor, who did I betray?” he asked. “I gave all my information to the American public, to American journalists who are reporting on American issues. If they see that as treason, I think people really need to consider who they think they’re working for. The public is supposed to be their boss, not their enemy. Edward Snowden I think it's obvious that the psychedelics are demonized and illegalized by our society because somewhere in our society are controlling minds that realize that these substances have the potential, have the power to unpick the controlling hierarchy. Graham Hancock You can't have a war on terrorism because that's not a actual enemy, it's an abstract. It's like having a war on dandruff. That war will be eternal and pointless. It's idiotic. That's not a war, it's a slogan. it's a lie. It's advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented in America. And we use it to sell soap, wars and presidential candidates in the same fashion. Gore Vidal Politics is the art of making your selfish desires seem like the national interest. Thomas Sowell To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it! Charlie Chaplin. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. James Keller Enough is abundance to the wise. Euripides I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag. I ain’t running to Canada. I’m staying right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for 4 or 5 more, but I ain’t going no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my rights here at home. Muhammad Ali When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. attributed to Sinclair Lewis, unverified The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. Tom Waits I want to be alone with someone else who wants to be alone. Dimitri Zaik We ain’t a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that. Justin Halpern’s dad You have to be odd to be number one. Dr. Seuss Had I not created my whole world, I would certainly have died in other people’s. Anais Nin I am blooming from the wound where I once bled. Rune Lazuli Crawl inside this body- find where I am most ruined, love me there. Rune Lazuli We should not underestimate the capacity of well-run propaganda systems to drive people to irrational, murderous, and suicidal behavior. Noam Chomsky Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how one international summit after another takes place without any significant result. There exists a clear, definite and pressing ethical imperative to implement what has not yet been done. We cannot allow certain interests – interests which are global but not universal – to take over, to dominate states and international organizations, and to continue destroying creation. People and their movements are called to cry out, to mobilize and to demand – peacefully, but firmly – that appropriate and urgently-needed measures be taken. Pope Francis Nobody sees the obvious, nobody observes the ordinary. There are more miracles in a square yard of earth than in all the fables of the Church. Robert Anton Wilson We want to be fixed by the same people who broke us and that’s the worst kind of pain imaginable. r.h. Sin Make no mistake about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true. Adyashanti We inherit every one of our genes, but we leave the womb without a single microbe. As we pass through our mother's birth canal, we begin to attract entire colonies of bacteria. By the time a child can crawl, he has been blanketed by an enormous, unseen cloud of microorganisms--a hundred trillion or more. They are bacteria, mostly, but also viruses and fungi (including a variety of yeasts), and they come at us from all directions: other people, food, furniture, clothing, cars, buildings, trees, pets, even the air we breathe. They congregate in our digestive systems and our mouths, fill the space between our teeth, cover our skin, and line our throats. We are inhabited by as many as ten thousand bacterial species; those cells outnumber those which we consider our own by ten to one, and weigh, all told, about three pounds--the same as our brain. Together, they are referred to as our microbiome--and they play such a crucial role in our lives that scientists … have begun to reconsider what it means to be human. Michael Specter How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one. Richard Dawkins A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at. Bruce Lee Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system. Bruce Lee Children must be taught how to think, not what to think. Margaret Mead Education isn’t something you can finish. Isaac Asimov There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done. Theodore Roosevelt, New Nationalism Speech I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned. attributed to Richard Feynmen A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Greek Proverb Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. Robert Heinlein I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling. Frida Kahlo Always make the audience suffer as much as possible. Alfred Hitchcock The magic of the street is the mingling of the errand and the epiphany. Rebecca Solnit Choosing to spend our tax money on building our nation instead of endless war is not magical thinking. Magical thinking is when you believe bombing strangers makes you safe. Bernie Sanders My spirituality is that we are all in this together Bernie Sanders There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along. Elizabeth Warren Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants. Dorothy Parker The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog. GK Chesterton The point is, there is no feasible excuse for what are, for what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality, dividends before decency, fanaticism before fairness, and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others. Iain Banks, Complicity Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Pema Chodron If serving is beneath you, leadership is beyond you. Unknown An old man said "Erasers are made for those who make mistakes" A youth replied "Erasers are made for those who are willing to correct their mistakes!" Unknown Nationalism does nothing but teach you to hate people you never met, and to take pride in accomplishments you had no part in. Doug Stanhope Ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil. No community where every member possesses the art can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms. Abraham Lincoln Beliefs are dangerous. Beliefs allow the mind to stop functioning. A non-functioning mind is clinically dead. Believe in nothing. Maynard James Keenan An early objection I had with Christianity at school was being told I was part of a flock. Shepherds don't just look after sheep because they like them. They either want to fleece them, fuck them, or eat them. Christopher Hitchens The greatest danger to our future is apathy. Jane Goodall A basic principle of modern state capitalism is that costs and risks are socialized to the extent possible, while profit is privatized. Noam Chomsky Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation.... As a matter of fact I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." Richard Feynman Virtue and intelligence belong to human beings as individuals freely associating with other individuals in small groups. So do sin and stupidity. But the subhuman mindlessness to which the demagogue makes his appeal, the moral imbecility on which he relies when he goads his victims into action, are characteristic not of men and women as individuals, but of men and women in masses. Aldous Huxley My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. John Dominic Crossan Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. James A. Baldwin If you want to understand any problem in America, you need to focus on who profits from that problem, not who suffers from the problem. Dr Amos Wilson The biggest concern for any organization should be when their most passionate people become quiet. Tim McClure If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you. Zig Ziglar I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. Robert A. Heinlein I don't run from my demons. I learn their names. Unknown You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic. Robert Heinlein Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses. Juvenal Your head's like mine, like all our heads; big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there! But what do we choose to keep in this miraculous cabinet? Little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over. The world turns our key and we play the same little tune again and again and we think that tune's all we are. Grant Morrison Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. Arundhati Roy While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens, I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth. Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother. You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic. But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains. And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master. There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught – they say – God, when he walked on earth. Robinson Jeffers, Shine, Perishing Republic (1887-1962) It doesn’t stop being magic just because you know how it works. Terry Pratchett Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the aeroplane, the pessimist the parachute. George Bernard Shaw A businessman cannot force you to buy his product; if he makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences; if he fails, he takes the loss. A bureaucrat forces you to obey his decisions, whether you agree with him or not ... If he makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences; if he fails, he passes the loss on to you, in the form of heavier taxes. Ayn Rand Innumerable suns exist; innumerable earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun. Living beings inhabit these worlds. Giordano Bruno (1546-1600) burned for heresy As you advance in social hierarchy the percentage of smart people does not increase. … Every human situation is bedeviled by morons. No matter how high you rise you’re surrounded by fools, and you’re lucky if you’re not one of them. That’s the basic thing to guard against. Terence McKenna, McKenna’s Law The chief lesson to be learned from the psychedelic experience is the degree to which unexamined cultural values and limitations of language have made us the unwitting prisoners of our own assumptions. Terence McKenna Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult…. All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And when they become discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontentment led nowhere, because being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four If you have a dysfunctional institution, don't try to change it. Rather, determine what that institution was supposed to deliver and design a better system to actually deliver that purpose or service. If you have done the thing correctly, then people will come to you for that. The old institution will eventually wither and die. Bill Mollison Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up but what problems they want to solve. This changes the conversation from who do I want to work for, to what do I need to learn to be able to that. – Jaime Casap, Google Global Education Evangelist I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. Dwight D. Eisenhower Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not. Mooji Science is a method of investigation and not a belief system. John Cleese The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another. Joan Halifax You don’t measure love in time. You measure love in transformation. Sometimes the longest connections yield very little growth, while the briefest of encounters change everything. The heart doesn’t wear a watch - it’s timeless. It doesn’t care how long you know someone. It doesn’t care if you had a 40 year anniversary if there is no juice in the connection. What the heart cares about is resonance. Resonance that opens it, resonance that enlivens it, resonance that calls it home. Jeff Brown There are poems inside of you that paper can't handle. Y.Z. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, and that is how it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Steve Jobs It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe. Muhammad Ali (Robert Service had “grain of sand”) My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage. Alice Hoffman, Aunt Frances in Practical Magic If you are filled with pride you will have no room for wisdom. African proverb It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world well be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines. Wendell Berry The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickled down. Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands. Will Rogers Uma no mimi ni nembutsu A sutra in a horse's ear Japanese phrase Juu-nin to-iro Ten people, ten colours Japanese phrase Grief is just love with no place to go. Jamie Anderson Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. Marcus Tullius Cicero However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. George Washington, Farewell Address By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth! Dr. Strange The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go to erase it. Glaser and Way If you don’t like my peaches, don’t shake my tree. Get out of my orchard, let my peaches be. William Harris “Hot Time Blues” I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me. Dave Barry A family - all leaning on staves and white-haired visiting the graves Basho What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to. Hansell B. Duckett A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. Sir Barnett Cocks We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely. E. O. Wilson The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light. Stanley Kubrick If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Abraham Maslow Biological evolution employs no author, but only a patient and extremely effective editor. Andrew Bard Schmookler, Parable of the Tribes “It begins with an appetite,” he said, describing the way he started a song, “to discover my self-respect. To redeem the day. So the day does not go down in debt.“ Leonard Cohen To get back to the warning that I received. You may take it with however many grains of salt that you wish. That the brown acid that is circulating around us isn't too good. It is suggested that you stay away from that. Of course it's your own trip. So be my guest, but please be advised that there is a warning on that one, ok? Chip Monck As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H. L. Mencken The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. Steven Weinberg O Lord if I worship you out of fear of hell, burn me in hell. If I worship you in the hope of paradise, forbid it to me. Rabia There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee. Lester J. Pourciau Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices. Laurence J. Peter When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken, and that he only failed to see all sides. Now, no one is offended at not seeing everything; but one does not like to be mistaken, and that perhaps arises from the fact that man naturally cannot see everything, and that naturally he cannot err in the side he looks at, since the perceptions of our senses are always true… .People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others. Blaise Pascal The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous. Shana Alexander Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have. Saul Alinksky, Rules for Radicals The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. Saul Alinksky, Rules for Radicals Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority. James Thurber So it's gonna be forever / Or it's gonna go down in flames You can tell me when it's over / If the high was worth the pain … 'Cause we're young and we're reckless / We'll take this way too far It'll leave you breathless / Or with a nasty scar Taylor Swift Anything which is troubling you, anything which is irritating you, THAT is your teacher. Ajahn Chah Efficiency is intelligent laziness. Anonymous The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it's a ... satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible. Salman Rushdie The State that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools. Thucydides When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary. William Wrigley Jr. Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something. Pancho Villa’s last words A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. John Gaule I will miss having someone to command me and require things of me, someone to demand the old western possessive love. That great cultural malady; we miss the erotic caresses our mothers were too well brought up to give us, the bare nipples and scent of sex and excretion, the honesty of pain. All of life that was hidden, we must crave in our lovers. Mary Sativa, Acid Temple Ball We need anything politically important rationed out like Pez: small, sweet, and coming out of a funny, plastic head. Dennis Miller What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. John Ruskin I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicions. Robert Anton Wilson You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light. Vicomte de Chateaubriand Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? Unknown Write a wise saying and your name will live forever. Anonymous So plant your own gardens and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. Jorge Luis Borges It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. John Andrew Holmes As soon as you begin to believe in something, then you can no longer see anything else. The truth you believe in and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new. Pema Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal. Lord Byron Nothing, then, can happen in Nature to contravene her own universal laws, nor anything that is not in agreement with these laws or that does not follow from them. Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677) Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake. Marie Beyon Ray As long as you live, keep learning how to live. Lucius Annaeus Seneca Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length. Robert Frost The sound of rain needs no translation. Morimoto Roshi Bad things happen when you get hands, dolphin. Franz Wright We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true. Robert Wilensky Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy. Robert Anthony Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. It is possible to live and not know. Rainer Maria Rilke To be willing to die for an idea is to set a rather high price on conjecture. Anatole France I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore Words are not truth. Truth is like the moon, and words are like my finger. I can point to the moon with my finger, but my finger is not the moon. Chan Master Huineng A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members. David Coblitz More important than enlightenment is the practice of the understanding gained from it Billy Moffat As the Buddha taught, we suffer only when we cling to or resist experience; when we want life different than it is. As the saying goes: “Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” When painful sensations arise and we can simply meet them with clarity and presence, we can see that pain is just pain. We can listen to pain’s message and respond appropriately—taking good care. If we are mindful of pain rather than reactive, we do not contract into the experience of a victimized, suffering self. Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance. p. 106 All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today. Indian Proverb I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale. Marie Curie The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. Rabindranath Tagore And so being young and dipped in folly I fell in love with melancholy. Edgar Allan Poe "Nobushige, a great samurai, sought out Zen master Hakuin and asked him: "Is there really a heaven and a hell?" "Who are you?" asked Hakuin. "I am a samurai," Nobushige replied. "You?" Hakuin snorted. "What lord would employ you? You look like a beggar!" Furious Nobushige began to draw his sword, but then Hakuin said, "Here open the gates of hell." Nobushige took the point, sheathed his sword, and bowed. "Here open the gates of heaven," said Hakuin." A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel. Robert Frost Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind. Jeffrey Eugenides What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. John Ruskin Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings. Laurence J. Peter We are in and of nature from our very beginning. Human society and our relationships with one another are important, but our selves are richer in the continuum of interconnections, not only with other humans and the human community as a whole but also with creatures, plants, and the bioregion that we inhabit. Joan Halifax, "The Fruitful Darkness” How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. Marcus Aurelius April Fools Day is the one day of the year that people critically evaluate news articles before accepting them as true. Unknown Today’s Tip for Fiction Writers: A good way to “liven up” the plot of a novel is to give the characters some romantic interest. WRONG: Doreen entered the room. RIGHT: Doreen entered the room and had sex with Roger. Dave Barry, Ask Mr. Language Person Propaganda in favor of action dictated by the impulses that are below self-interest offers false, garbled or incomplete evidence, avoids logical argument and seeks to influence its victims by the mere repetition of catchwords, by the furious denunciation of foreign or domestic scapegoats, and by cunningly associating the lowest passions with the highest ideals, so that atrocities come to be perpetrated in the name of God and the most cynical kind of Realpolitik is treated as a matter of religious principle and patriotic duty. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited The UK air dropped matchbooks into enemy lines which contained instructions on how a soldier could fake illnesses to get sent home. Once the Nazi leaders caught wind of this, they stopped sending their troops home who claimed to have said illnesses. Not only did this get healthy enemy troops sent home, it eventually ended with genuinely ill troops being sent back into combat, to spread real disease among their ranks. Unknown She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that 80 percent could be moved in either direction. Kurt Vonnegut quoting Susan Sontag We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colors and all cultures are distinct & individual. c. joybell I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it. Edith Sitwell Liberty is the power that we have over ourselves. Hugo Grotius You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension. Nicola Tesla Rules preclude initiative. Regimentation precludes evolution. Letting accidents happen, mistakes be made, results in new ideas. Trial and error is the key to all progress. Philip K. Howard, The Death of Common Sense. Enjoyment follows from the balance of challenge and skills. The word challenge has embedded in its meaning the possibility of failure; take away that possibility, and the possibility of enjoyment goes with it. Take away the possibility of failure, and the concept of measuring up that underpins self-respect is meaningless. Charles Murray paraphrasing Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Rights are, therefore, predominantly about preventing others from constricting our choices, and as long as our choices do not interfere substantially with others, then they are purely our own. Patrick Hopkins Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise. James Madison, 1774 After being turned down by numerous publishers, he had decided to write for posterity. George Ade Everyone else is waiting for eternity and the shamans are saying,”How about tonight?” Alberto Villoldo The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. Brooks Atkinson Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring. Nuremberg trials, 1945 By preserving the method of nature in the conduct of the State, in what we improve, we are never wholly new; in what we retain, we are never wholly obsolete. Edmund Burke If you cannot say what you are going to say in twenty minutes you ought to go away and write a book about it. Lord Brabazon Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot. Ayn Rand Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Voltaire Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. Doug Larson The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before. Thorstein Veblen One general pulling out a victory leaves ten thousand corpses to rot. Ts’ao Sung We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing. R. D. Laing We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. Khalil Gibran I thought growing old would take longer. Unknown Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? Mary Oliver Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly. Khaled Hosseini And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. John Steinbeck Let the wild rumpus start! Maurice Sendak Whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist. Lysander Spooner You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too. John Kenneth Galbraith The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it. Frank Herbert Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet. L. M. Montgomery To fathom hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of Psychedelic. Humphry Osmond Then I said to myself, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" Ecclesiastes 2:15 Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there. E. H. Gombrich You have to accept that everything in life is not a symbol. Everything that happens to you is not a metaphor. You will drive yourself crazy by constantly digging for a deeper significance. Some things just are. Ellen Hardin Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart. Douglas Adams Those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood, whether they have spoken in simple assurance or professional affectation, have therein done philosophy and the sciences great injury for as they have been successful in inducing belief, so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry; and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men’s efforts than good by their own. Francis Bacon, 1620 Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it. Noam Chomsky I prefer a short life with width to a narrow one with length. Ibn Sina Butterflies are self propelled flowers. Robert A. Heinlein Whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in every country. Hermann Goering Peace be on the hand that turned the key, for it taught me my most essential art, which is not that of writing but the domestic art of knowing how to wait; how to save up the crumbs, how to turn the worst into the not so bad...how to lose and recover in a single instant that frivolous thing: a taste for life Colette Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict -- alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence. Dorothy Thompson Humans make the mistake of believing that it is their right to survive. Species die out on this planet all the time without anyone noticing. The planet will still be there, and we must lose this attitude of divine right, that something will save us... Sting I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. G. K. Chesterton Those who don’t understand history are doomed to repeat it, those that do understand are doomed to watch in horror while everyone else repeats it. Unknown The bigger you build your bonfire of knowledge, the more darkness is revealed to your startled eye. Another way to say it is that as your sphere of knowledge grows in size, the surface area of ignorance grows ever larger. Terence Mckenna Loneliness is failed solitude. Sherry Turkle There is nothing more important than appearing to be religious. Niccolò Machiavelli I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other. Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet What you get away with is who you tend to be. John Gorka It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help. Judith Martin The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity .…They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, April 9, 1944. Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost. Kahlil Gibran Not what we have but what we 'Enjoy', constitutes our abundance. Epicurus Denique (quid verbis opus est?) spectemur agendo! Finally (what is the use of words?) let us be judged by our actions! Ovid, Metamorphoses The only thing worse than a man you can't control is a man you can. Margo Kaufman You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind. Timothy Leary From those to whom much is given, much will be required. Luke 12:48 Therefore the knowledge that stops at what it does not know is the greatest. Zhuangzi A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five. Groucho Marx Do for the future what you're grateful the past did for you. Danny Hillis, Golden Rule of Time Mysteriously, as elusive as it is, this moment--where the eye is what it sees, where the heart is what it feels--this moment shows us that what is real is sacred. Mark Nepo The difficulty is to realize the groundlessness of our believing. Ludwig Wittgenstein The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos. Stephen Jay Gould One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. C.G. Jung There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg You will kill ten of us, we will kill one of you, but in the end, you will tire of it first. Hồ Chí Minh Dance like it hurts, Love like you need money, Work when people are watching. Scott Adams An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible. Unknown I like coconuts You can break them open And they smell like ladies lying in the sun Widespread Panic, Coconut That the birds of worry and care Fly high above your head This you cannot help. That they build their nests in your hair This you can prevent. San Juan Horseshoe (newspaper) I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability. Oscar Wilde Religious belief consists of the belief that there is an unseen order and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting to that order. William James What if this weren't a hypothetical question? Unknown The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance. Laurence J. Peter We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams. Proverb of Gypsy: Bulgaria Old World Without speculation there is no good and original observation. Darwin to Wallace No matter how many years you sit doing zazen, you will never become anything special. Kodo Sawaki It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. Arthur C. Clarke Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion. Robertson Davies The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value. Theodore Roosevelt The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. Thomas H. Huxley Doctors pour drugs of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, into human beings of whom they know nothing. Voltaire Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror....Just keep going No feeling is final Rainer Maria Rilke Then Vacchagotta the wanderer went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings and courtesies, he sat down to one side. As he was sitting there he asked the Blessed One, 'Now then, master Gotama, is there a self?' When this was said, the Blessed One was silent. 'Then is there no self?' The second time the Blessed One was silent. Then Vacchagotta the wanderer got up from his seat and left. "Then not long after Vacchagotta the wanderer had left, Venerable Ānanda said to the Blessed One, 'Why, Lord, did the Blessed One not answer when asked a question by Vacchagotta the wanderer?'" And here's the Buddha's response: "Ānanda, if I, being asked by Vacchagotta the wanderer if there is a self were to answer that there is a self, that would be conforming with those brahmans and contemplatives who are exponents of eternalism. If I, being asked by Vacchagotta the wanderer if there is no self were to answer that there is no self, that would be conforming with those brahmans and contemplatives who are exponents of annihilationism. If I, being asked by Vacchagotta the wanderer if there is a self were to answer that there is a self, would that be in keeping with the arising of knowledge that all phenomena are not-self?" And Venerable Ānanda said, "No, Lord." Then the Buddha said, "And if I, being asked by Vacchagotta the wanderer if there is no self, were to answer that there is no self, the bewildered Vacchagotta would become even more bewildered: 'Does the self that I used to have now not exist?'" SN 44.10 If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. African proverb People ask me, what is special in my mentorship which has made Malala so bold and so courageous and so vocal and poised? I tell them, don't ask me what I did. Ask me what I did not do. I did not clip her wings, and that's all. .Ziauddin Yousafzai Consciousness begins when brains acquire the power, the simple power I must add, of telling a story without words, the story that there is life ticking away in an organism, and that the states of the living organism, within body bounds, are continuously being altered by encounters with objects or events in its environment, or, for that matter, by thoughts and by internal adjustments of the life process. Consciousness emerges when this primordial story - the story of an object causally changing the state of the body - can be told using the universal nonverbal vocabulary of body signals. The apparent self emerges as the feeling of a feeling. When the story is first told, spontaneously, without it ever having been requested, and forevermore after that when the story is repeated, knowledge about what the organism is living through automatically emerges as the answer to a question never asked. From that moment on, we begin to know. I suspect consciousness prevailed in evolution because knowing the feeling caused by emotions was so indispensable for the art of life, and because the art of life has been such a success in the history of nature. But I will not mind if you prefer to give my words a twist and just say that consciousness was invented so that we could know life. The wording is not scientifically correct, of course, but I like it. Antonio R. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens, 30-31 When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket. Tesla, 1926 I hope that you will listen, but not with the memory of what you already know; and this is very difficult to do. You listen to something, and your mind immediately reacts with its knowledge, its conclusions, its opinions, its past memories. It listens, inquiring for a future understanding. Just observe yourself, how you are listening, and you will see that this is what is taking place. Either you are listening with a conclusion, with knowledge, with certain memories, experiences, or you want an answer, and you are impatient. You want to know what it is all about, what life is all about, the extraordinary complexity of life. You are not actually listening at all. You can only listen when the mind is quiet, when the mind doesn't react immediately, when there is an interval between your reaction and what is being said. Then, in that interval there is a quietness, there is a silence in which alone there is a comprehension which is not intellectual understanding. If there is a gap between what is said and your own reaction to what is said, in that interval, whether you prolong it indefinitely, for a long period or for a few seconds - in that interval, if you observe, there comes clarity. It is the interval that is the new brain. The immediate reaction is the old brain, and the old brain functions in its own traditional, accepted, reactionary, animalistic sense. When there is an abeyance of that, when the reaction is suspended, when there is an interval, then you will find that the new brain acts, and it is only the new brain that can understand, not the old brain. Jiddu Krishnamurti Don't be the one in charge of wisdom. or: do not be a proprietor of wisdom. Zhuangzi, ch 7 Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness. Robertson Davies Once you have understood the union of emptiness and the dependent arising of phenomena, you will see clearly how deluded and deceiving the ways of the world really are, and, like an old man forced to play children’s games, you will find them very tiresome. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Usually when we hear or read something new, we just compare it to our own ideas. If it is the same, we accept it and say that it is correct. If it is not, we say it is incorrect. In either case, we learn nothing. Thich Nhat Hanh The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. F. Scott Fitzgerald It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person. Bill Murray (?) The future will be better tomorrow. Dan Quayle If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve. Emily Dickinson The wages of sin are unreported. Unknown The logic behind magic is that we create what we are imagining. Mary Faulkner Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing. Anais Nin Creationism in the U.S. is an embarrassment and a shame, a religious superstition that does real harm to children. Creationism is a symptom of a willful ignorance and an anti-intellectualism that thwarts scientific progress at home and humiliates the U.S. abroad. Bill Nye You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad. Aldous Huxley There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless. Fyodor Dostoevsky The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. Ernest Hemingway Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte When you talk, you repeat what you already know; when you listen, you often learn something. Jared Sparks (1789-1866) When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. J. P. McEvoy, “Passing the hot potato” (1947) I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't. Jules Renard Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind. Kurt Vonnegut There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good. Samuel Johnson I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each other. Katharine Hepburn Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1817 During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. James Madison If you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet, and you can find a lot of people there who don't like you. Tina Fey You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the one who'll decide where to go. Dr. Seus The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude. Aldous Huxley With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much, much better. Laurie Anderson You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful. Marie Curie If you begin to understand who you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation. Jiddu Krishnamurti Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. ...live in the question. Rainer Maria Rilke Love her, but leave her wild. To Kill a Mockingbird screenplay. This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in — an interesting hole I find myself in — fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for. Douglas Adams Eventually I think there will be a real shamanism, a new shamanism, a shamanism practiced in the full light of science and in the full light of a global data processing capacity, to heal and balance what is otherwise an extremely neurotic and violence prone species. Terence McKenna The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese proverb Let the wild rumpus start. Maurice Sendak Find what you love and let it kill you. Charles Bukowski Only in America can you be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-unmanned drone bombs, pro-nuclear weapons, pro-guns, pro-torture, pro-land mines, and Still call yourself 'Pro-Life'." John Fugelsang If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupery The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. Banksy Destroying rainforests for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. Edward O. Wilson If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Tony Robbins All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. Noam Chomsky I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. Stephen Jay Gould Asking, ‘If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?’ is like asking, ‘If there is no master, whose slave will I be?’ Dan Barker Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Xun Kuang, not Ben Franklin Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. Thomas Merton I don't count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, that's when I start counting, cause that's when it really counts. Muhammad Ali If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's. Joseph Campbell To what shore would you cross, O my heart? there is no traveler before you, there is no road: Where is the movement, where is the rest, on that shore? There is no water; no boat, no boatman, is there; There is not so much as a rope to tow the boat, nor a man to draw it. No earth, no sky, no time, no thing, is there: no shore, no ford! There, there is neither body nor mind: and where is the place That shall still the thirst of the soul? You shall find naught in that emptiness. Be strong, and enter into your own body: for there your foothold is firm. Consider it well, O my heart! go not elsewhere. Kabir says: "Put all imaginations away, and stand fast in that which you are." "Songs of Kabir" Translated by Rabindranath Tagore Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body. Roger Corless (often attributed to George Carlin) There are men running governments who shouldn’t be allowed to play with matches. Will Rogers If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. Charles Darwin If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said “faster horses”. Henry Ford The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I? Bob Marley Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. George Orwell Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9:10 ‘Do unto others…’ is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is - a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. ‘Do this or you’ll burn in hell.’ You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway. Ricky Gervais I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. Sarah Williams What is the purpose of life? It's quite simple : it is to live a life of purpose. It is taking what you love and what you're passionate about and making a difference. Sue Fitzmaurice The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. Noam Chomsky The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. Thomas Merton The closer you get to excellence in your life, the more friends you'll lose. People love you when you're average because it makes them comfortable. But when you pursue greatness it makes people uncomfortable. Be prepared to lose some people on your journey or even walk alone. Tony A. Gaskins Jr The best chief is not the one who persuades people to his point of view. It is instead the one in whose presence most people find it easiest to arrive at the truth. Mohawk I said I was the greatest, not the smartest! Muhammad Ali It isn’t the mountain ahead to climb that wears you down. It’s the pebble in your shoe. Muhammad Ali If governments are involved in covering up the knowledge of aliens, then they are doing a much better job of it than they seem to do at anything else. Stephen Hawking Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding. Betty White For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. Cynthia Occelli Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world of conformists. Nicola Tesla Being honest may not get you many friends, but it will always get you the right ones. John Lennon Play is the answer to how anything new comes about. Jean Piaget Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own. Bruce Lee This place will always be too small for all the dreams inside my head. I'm sorry but I cannot stay. Unknown Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.” Warsan Shire And the rest is rust and stardust. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet. L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’ Isaac Asimov She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together. J. D. Salinger, “A Girl I Knew” A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Sometimes I can feel my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Beauty is an enormous, unmerited gift given randomly, stupidly. Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted. Frank Herbert Dune What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Hitchen’s Razor Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. Viktor E. Frankl You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Jane Goodall There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket… . I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. Major General Smedley Butler When a well-packed web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations the Truth will seem utterly preposterous and it's speaker a raving lunatic. Dresden James The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown. Theodore Roosevelt Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. Leonardo da Vinci There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi My faith demands--this is not optional--my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. President Jimmy Carter It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings. Ann Landers baka ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai No medicine for stupidity. Japanese proverb The one who tells the stories rules the world. Hopi Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. Mary Oliver You will love and not be loved back. Give and not receive. Help and be left helpless. Teach and not be taught. Forgive and be forgotten. Trust and be doubted. Pray and be cursed by others. You will be unnoticed, unliked, unloved and unappreciated... But NEVER EVER NEVER let anyone else stop you from being YOU. Because YOU are the one stretching, growing and rising to a better job, career, love, relationship, opportunity. Never subtract the best of you to add the worst of anyone else. Howard Britt The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it. Alberto Brandolini Real food doesn’t have ingredients. Real food Is ingredients. Jamie Oliver Whatever is happening is the path to enlightenment. Pema Chodron You can tell the size of a man by the size of the things that bother him. Unknown If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room. Richard Tirendi The shaman is a person who is able to transcend the dimensional confines of cultural existence. They know more than the people they serve. The people they serve are like children within the game of culture. Only the shaman knows that culture is a game. Everyone else takes it seriously. That’s how he can do his magic. Terence McKenna The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question. Stephen Jay Gould For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks and its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction... Cynthia Ocelli People are not machines but in every opportunity where they are allowed to behave like machines, they will so behave. Ludwig von Bertalanffy The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. Muhammad Ali The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward. e.e. cummings Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come. Matt Groening Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music. Marcus Brigstocke Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. John Howard Payne My goal is to achieve a little less injustice in Uruguay, to help the most vulnerable and to leave behind a political way of thinking, a way of looking at the future that will be passed on and used to move forward. There’s nothing short-term, no victory around the corner. I will not achieve paradise or anything like that. What I want is to fight for the common good to progress. Life slips by. The way to prolong it is for others to continue your work. Jose Mujica I’m not the poorest president. The poorest is the one who needs a lot to live. My lifestyle is a consequence of my wounds. I’m the son of my history. There have been years when I would have been happy just to have a mattress. Jose Mujica Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. I maintain that one should always talk of philosophy with a smile. William James If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. John Cage Even duct tape can't fix stupid ... but it can muffle the sound! John Wayne (?) The kids text me "plz" which is shorter than please. I text back "no" which is shorter than "yes". Unknown To romanticize the world is to make us aware of the magic, mystery and wonder of the world; it is to educate the senses to see the ordinary as extraordinary, the familiar as strange, the mundane as sacred, the finite as infinite. Novalis The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. Nelson Henderson I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light. Glenn Greenwald The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. Brooks Atkinson That is the greatest fallacy, the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful. Ernest Hemingway When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind. C. S. Lewis Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things. Dan Quayle The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him. Russell Baker The Sunni and the Shiite lived together in mixed neighborhoods until democracy taught them to pick sides. Unknown They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds. Mexican Proverb Body, like the mountain Heart, like the ocean Mind, like the sky. Dogen A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure. Segal's Law Tranquilizers work only if you follow the advice on the bottle: Keep Away From Children. Phyllis Diller We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve years telling them to sit down and shut up. Phyllis Diller If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience. George Bernard Shaw The mystical experience does not confer ontological status upon its content. Agehananda Bharati So this is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause. George Lucas People want economy and they will pay any price to get it. Lee Iacocca He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. Douglas Adams Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening. Barbara Tober Play fair, be prepared for others to play dirty, and don’t let them drag you into the mud. Richard Branson Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it. Stephen Vizinczey Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not on our side. Halifax Softness is not weakness. It takes courage to stay delicate in a world this cruel. Beau Taplin I'm glad I didn't have to fight in any war. I'm glad I didn't have to pick up a gun. I'm glad I didn't get killed or kill somebody. I hope my kids enjoy the same lack of manhood. Tom Hanks Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. Carl Jung Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species. Desmond Morris As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. M. Cartmill It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. William Blake A century ago, scarcity had to be endured. Today, it has to be enforced. Murray Bookchin I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs. Samuel Goldwyn When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Eric Hoffer Mysteries profaned and made public fade and lose their grace. Therefore, cast not pearls before swine, nor spread roses for the ass. Johann V. Andrae, 1616 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Matthew 7:6, KJV It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis. Margaret Bonnano You never hear from the people the dolphins didn’t save ... Aeon Magazine America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there. Laurence J. Peter All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. Gandalf Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free. Edward Snowden We give thanks for our friends. Our dear friends. We anger each other; We fail each other. We share this sad earth, this tender life, this precious time. Such richness. Such wildness. Together we are blown about. Together we are dragged along. All this delight. All this suffering. All this forgiving life. We hold it together. Michael Leunig Antigonish Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today, I wish, I wish he'd go away... Hughes Mearns Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. Dr. Seuss LSD is a psychedelic drug which occasionally causes psychotic behavior in people who have not taken it. Timothy Leary Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it. Samuel Johnson We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders. Chesterton The skeptical fences are there for a reason—to keep the borderlands of science from shading too far into pseudoscience, non-science, and nonsense. For every Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein, there were a thousand cons, cranks, and quacks with their revolutionary theories that turned out to be flummery and flapdoodle. Scientists don't have the time or resources to shilly-shally with every new idea that comes down the pike. That is what the skeptics do, and as part of the scientific process this is the power of positive skepticism. Michael Shermer, 2005 Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear. Alan Corenk The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois. Gustave Flaubert It's all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back. Mick Jagger Rearmament These grand and fatal movements toward death: the grandeur of the mass Makes pity a fool, the tearing pity For the atoms of the mass, the persons, the victims, makes it seem monstrous To admire the tragic beauty they build. It is beautiful as a river flowing or a slowly gathering Glacier on a high mountain rock-face, Bound to plow down a forest, or as frost in November, The gold and flaming death-dance for leaves, Or a girl in the night of her spent maidenhood, bleeding and kissing. I would burn my right hand in a slow fire To change the future ... I should do foolishly. The beauty of modern Man is not in the persons but in the Disastrous rhythm, the heavy and mobile masses, the dance of the Dream-led masses down the dark mountain. Robinson Jeffers, 1935. Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons. Popular Mechanics, March 1949 Leave it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination. Bill Watterson The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. Steven Weinberg Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it. David Sedaris I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. Sir Winston Churchill It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. Thomas Sowell It is spring again. The earth is like a child who knows poems by heart. Rilke Certification from one source or another seems to be the most important thing to people all over the world. A piece of paper from a school that says you’re smart, a pat on the head from your parents that says you’re good or some reinforcement from your peers that makes you think what you’re doing is worthwhile. People are just waiting around to get certified. Frank Zappa If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it. Frank Zappa I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own. Nikola Tesla Every Warrior of the Light has felt afraid of going into battle. Every Warrior of the Light has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone. Every Warrior of the Light has trodden a path that was not his. Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light. Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties. Every Warrior of the Light has said ‘yes’ when he wanted to say ‘no.’ Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved. That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is. Paulo Coelho Man is a rational animal. So at least we have been told. Throughout a long life I have searched diligently for evidence in favor of this statement. So far, I have not had the good fortune to come across it. Bertrand Russell If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair you're fooling yourself that's like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn't eat him. Unknown Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born. Fyodor Dostoevsky We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns. Tom Waits Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, then, like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your way alone. Buddha Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen. Robert Bresson Patience is not the ability to wait but how you act while you’re waiting. Joyce Meyer I have no right to call myself one who knows. I was one who seeks, and I still am, but I no longer seek in the stars or in books; I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant, it's not sweet and harmonious like the invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves. Hermann Hesse, This view that the Almighty considers women to be inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or tradition. Its influence does not stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue, or temple. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths, creating an environment in which violations against women are justified. The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. Jimmy Carter Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another's life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity. Sitting Bull The act of forgiveness takes place in our own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person. Louise Hay There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. Goethe “I do not believe anything.” This remark was made, in these very words, by John Gribbin, physics editor of New Scientist magazine, in a BBC-TV debate with Malcolm Muggeridge, and it provoked incredulity on the part of most viewers. It seems to be a hangover of the medieval Catholic era that causes most people, even the educated, to think that everybody must "believe" something or other, that if one is not a theist, one must be a dogmatic atheist, and if one does not think Capitalism is perfect, one must believe fervently in Socialism, and if one does not have blind faith in X, one must alternatively have blind faith in not-X or the reverse of X. My own opinion is that belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence. The more certitude one assumes, the less there is left to think about, and a person sure of everything would never have any need to think about anything and might be considered clinically dead under current medical standards, where absence of brain activity is taken to mean that life has ended. Robert Anton Wilson It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. Dave Barry A society surviving on the creation of artificial needs and the manufacturing of unnecessary products will not be able to face the challenges resulting from the destruction of our environment. Pierre Joliot We Americans live in a nation where the medical-care system is second to none in the world, unless you count maybe 25 or 30 little scuzzball countries like Scotland that we could vaporize in seconds if we felt like it. Dave Barry Under the relentless thrust of accelerating over-population and over-organization, and by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms--elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest--will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial- but democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit. Aldous Huxley If there is a Creator-God, it has used methods of creation that are indistinguishable from nature, it has declined to make itself known for all of recorded history, it doesn't intervene in affairs on earth, and has made itself impossible to observe. Even if you believe in that God... why would you think it would want to be worshiped? David G. McAfee, The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone. They would make fine servants… . With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do what ever we want. Christopher Columbus Instead of sending guns, send pens. Instead of sending tanks, send books. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers. Malala Yousafzai We don't need a law against McDonald's or a law against slaughterhouse abuse--we ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse. Joel Salatin Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy Not my circus, not my monkeys. Polish Proverb If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day. John A. Wheeler Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it. Patricia A. McKillip The best way to predict your future is to create it. Abraham Lincoln The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Alan Kay The technique of infamy is to invent two lies and to get people to argue heatedly over which one of them is true. Ezra Pound The best way to predict the future is to design it. R. Buckminster Fuller Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you. Ali ibn abi Talib The symbolism of the Goddess is not a parallel structure to the symbolism of God the Father. The Goddess does not rule the world. She is the world. Manifest in each of us, She can be known internally by every individual, in all her magnificent diversity. Starhawk War is when your government tells you who the enemy is, revolution is when you figure it out for yourself. Unknown There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela Red meat is NOT bad for you. Now blue-green meat, THAT'S bad for you! Tommy Smothers Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them. My mother cleans them. Rita Rudner God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire Worlds on Worlds are rolling over, From creation and decay, Like bubbles on a river, Sparkling, bursting, borne away. Shelley The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears or the sea. Isak Dinesen It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper. Rod Serling Antonio, by Laura E. Richards Antonio, Antonio Was tired of living alonio. He thought he would woo Miss Lissamy Lu Miss Lissamy Lucy Molonio. Antonio, Antonio
Rode off on his polo-ponio. He found the fair maid In a bowery shade, A-sitting and knitting alonio. Antonio, Antonio Said, "If you will be my ownio, I'll love you true, And I'll buy for you And icery creamery conio." "Oh, nonio, Antonio! You're far too bleak and bonio! And all that I wish, You singular fish, Is that you would quickly begonio." Antonio, Antonio He uttered a dismal moanio. Then he ran off and hid, (Or I'm told that he did) In the Antecatarctical Zonio. You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour. Zen saying The third-rate mind is only happy when it's thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it's thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it's thinking. A. A. Milne It is the duty of every man to provide for himself a competency. It is essential to happiness to be above want. Anon, 1837 Whatever you may say something is, it is not ! ... the map is not the territory ... the word is not the thing. Alfred Korzybski Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. Dr. Seuss Propaganda works best when those who are manipulated are confident that they are acting on their own free will. Joseph Goebbels The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who loves his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair. H.L. Mencken I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute. Rebecca West She's mad but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire. Charles Bukowski A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea. John Ciardi You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got. And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever. And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives. And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen. Aaron Freeman The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. Steve Furtick Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. Arundhati Roy As long as enough people can be frightened, then all people can be ruled. That is how it works in a democratic system and mass fear becomes the ticket to destroy rights across the board. James Bovard Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. Stephen R. Covey Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. Wendell Berry You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice. Bob Marley When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. Frederic Bastiat To His Coy Mistress, by Andrew Marvell. 1621–1678 HAD we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love's day. Thou by the Indian Ganges' side Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the Flood, And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow; An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze; Two hundred to adore each breast, But thirty thousand to the rest; An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart. For, Lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song: then worms shall try That long preserved virginity, And your quaint honour turn to dust, And into ashes all my lust: The grave 's a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may, And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power. Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball, And tear our pleasures with rough strife Thorough the iron gates of life: Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run. If your everyday life seems poor, don't blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no indifferent place. Rilke The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think. Gregory Bateson I believe in the separation of church and planet. Eric Idle A child educated only at school is an uneducated child. George Santayana We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy. Chris Hedges [For Tesla fans - at the time the idea was a lot less controversial] The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal. Nikola Tesla, Liberty magazine, February, 1935. Gullibility and credulity are considered undesirable qualities in every department of human life – except religion. Christopher Hitchens We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination. David Lynch The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, pays the freight both ways. John F. Kennedy Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln If you seek some special life outside of daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water. Wu-chun Science does not aim at establishing immutable truths and eternal dogmas; its aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved. Bertrand Russell The Earth is not dying, it is being killed. And the people who are killing it have names and addresses. Utah Phillips Peace it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise trouble or hard work it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart Unknown Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience … . Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. Howard Zinn True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. Kurt Vonnegut The cure for poverty has a name, in fact: it's called the empowerment of women. If you give women some control over the rate at which they reproduce, if you give them some say, take them off the animal cycle of reproduction to which nature and some doctrine—religious doctrine condemns them, and then if you'll throw in a handful of seeds perhaps and some credit, the floor of everything in that village, not just poverty, but education, health, and optimism will increase. Christopher Hitchens For those of us who desire a great transformation in this world, we must remember this: We do not need to put forth any energy at all towards changing the system which now ‘exists’. It will fall of its own weight. It is already falling. The cracks and fissures inherent within its structure ensure the inevitability of its collapse. All we need to do is to decide what it is that we want to create to stand in its place. When all of our energy is focused on that, we will be standing in this transformed world we all want to see. Teal Scott The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. Charles Bukowski We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. Charles Bukowski The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours -- it is an amazing journey -- and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. Bob Moawad Journalism is the only profession explicitly protected by the U.S. Constitution, because journalists are supposed to be the check and balance on government. We’re supposed to be holding those in power accountable. We’re not supposed to be their megaphone. That’s what the corporate media have become. Amy Goodman When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible. Jomo Kenyatta Only in America can you be Pro-Death Penalty, Pro-War, Pro-Unmanned Drone Bombs, Pro-Nuclear Weapons, Pro-Guns, Pro-Torture, Pro-Land Mines, and Still call yourself 'Pro-Life'. John Fugelsang Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. ” Arundhati Roy, A basic principal of modern state capitalism is that costs and risks are socialized to the extent possible, while profit is privatized. Noam Chomsky They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price. Kahlil Gibran There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. Don Miguel Ruiz Those who o not move do not notice their chains. Rosa Luxemburg Little by little, one travels far. Tolkien I think that presidents don't give up power that has accrued to them by the precedent of previous presidents. Even when they say they would like to, I think once they get there they don't give it up. Rachel Maddow Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities — the political, the religious, the educational authorities — who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing — forming in our minds — their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself. Timothy Leary If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction.” Judith Hayes Plenty of rich folks want to fight. Give them the guns. Woody Guthrie Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. Howard Zinn It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead. Dame Rose Macaulay A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. Bertrand Russell If you thought before that science was certain―well, that is just an error on your part. Richard Feynman Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglas This dead of midnight is the noon of thought, And Wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars. Mrs. Barbauld. 1743-1825, A Summer's Evening Meditation Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available...a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose. Fred Hoyle, 1948 I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die. Blade Runner, Batty soliloquy Fear prophets ... and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them. Umberto Eco It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it. Henry Allen The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. Steven Weinberg On the main gateway an Islamic inscription written in Persian reads "Isa (Jesus), son of Mary said: 'The world is a Bridge, pass over it, but build no houses upon it. He who hopes for a day, may hope for eternity; but the World endures but an hour. Spend it in prayer for the rest is unseen.' inscription on the Buland Darwaza Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. Bertrand Russell An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously. Charles F. Kettering A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. Daniel Webster It will be a happy day for the nation when the corporations shall be excluded from political activity and vast accumulations of capital cannot be employed in an attempt to control government. George W.P. Hunt (Arizona's First Governor) Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care. William Safire All alone a sweet apple reddens on the topmost branch, high on the highest branch, the apple pickers did not notice it, they did not truly forget it, but they could not reach it. (Fr. 105) Sappho The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Arthur Dent (Hitchhiker's Guide) The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. Abbie Hoffman There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey. John Ruskin If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. Isaac Asimov Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. Daniel Webster If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. Anatole France If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Laurence J. Peter Live Better, Help Often, and Wonder More Sunday Assembly Motto A swami kept a cat in his ashram. There were very few occasions when the cat and the swami were not seen together. The only time there was ever any problem was at Evening Puja, when the cat sometimes upset the oil lamps. After a few incidents, the swami decided the cat could not be present during the Puja any more and took to putting it out just before the ritual began. This solved the problem comfortably and Puja went on for years without interruption. Eventually the swami passed away. All the faithful devotees continued doing Puja and continued to put the cat out before it began. One day the cat died. There was no question in the minds of the devotees: they immediately went out to the market and found another cat for the ashram. It would not be possible to do Puja properly without the ritual of putting the cat outside. Unknown If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you. Don Marquis The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. Fyodor Dostoevsky Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. Pablo Picasso Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility. Pablo Picasso The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. Joy J. Golliver, often attrributed to Picasso, or even Shakespeare. Seems to be lifted. paraphrased, and rearranged from David Viscott's 1993 "Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times," where the original reads: The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away. (I think purpose and meaning fit better in these positions) Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong. Terence McKenna A compass, I learned when I was surveying, it'll... it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp... What's the use of knowing True North? From the movie Lincoln, 2012 Too many people buy things they don't need with money they don't have trying to impress people they don't even like. Ali-Azri Hassan (attrib) The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts Marcus Aurelius The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men. George Eliot Scientists praise the "plausibility" and "beauty" of theories, making value judgments on the basis of how they think things work, or ought to work. Science is in fact so value laden that Albert Einstein denied that all we do is observe and measure, saying that what we think exists is a product almost as much of theory as of observation. When theories change, observations follow suit. Franz de Waal Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. Ernest Benn (not Groucho Marx) The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "eureka!" but "that's funny … ." Isaac Asimov Life is just a mess, full of tall children, grown stupider, less alert and resilient, and nobody knows what makes it go — as a whole, or any part of it. But nobody ever tells. Kenneth Rexroth A state which dwarfs men, in order that they be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes - will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished. J. S. Mill, On Liberty When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. John Lennon Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living. Doug Larson Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate. Mark B. Cohen The increase of wealth is not boundless. The end of growth leads to a stationary state. The stationary state of capital and wealth...would be a very considerable improvement on our present condition...a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the art of living, and much more likelihood of it being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on. John Stuart Mill The most formidable military machine depends ultimately on the obedience of its soldiers, the most powerful corporation becomes helpless when its workers stop working, when its customers refuse to buy its products. The strike, the boycott, the refusal to serve, the ability to paralyze the functioning of a complex social structure, these remain potent weapons against the most fearsome state of corporate power. Howard Zinn On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions, who, at the Dawn of Victory, sat down to wait, and waiting--died! George W. Cecil Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come. Carl Sandburg We're actors - we're the opposite of people. Tom Stoppard Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. Kurt Vonnegut The secret in life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do. Henry Moore On highroads on winter nights, without roof, without clothes, without bread, a voice gripped my frozen heart: "Weakness or strength: there you are, it's strength. You do not know where you are going, nor why you are going: enter anywhere, reply to anything. They will no more kill you than if you were a corpse." Rimbaud, Saison en Enfer Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone. George Gordon Byron Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that great gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born. Fyodor Dostoevsky And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:18 We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle The greatest miracle of life is that although we all know we will die tomorrow, we can live today as if we will live forever Mahabharata The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Winston Churchill Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. Ellen Goodman It is impossible to love, and to be wise. Francis Bacon There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally. Don Miguel Ruiz Oh, lady with your legs so fine, oh, stranger at your wheel You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal. Leonard Cohen Let us enlighten, then, our earthly burdens, By going back to school, this time in gardens. Wendell Berry We are not here concerned with hopes and fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it. Charles Darwin I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either. Jack Benny Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! P. J. O'Rourke If you're really successful at bullshitting, it means you're not hanging around enough people smarter than you. Neil deGrasse Tyson Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. Dr. Suess. I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in harmony with all creatures. I will restore the earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me. M. J. Slim Hooey In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Margaret Atwood You think you do right to hide little things in big ones, and yet they get away from you. But if you were to hide the world in the world, so that nothing could get away, this is the ever-enduring aspect of things that transcends circumstance. Zhuangzi But leave the Wise to wrangle, and with me The Quarrel of the Universe let be: And, in some corner of the Hubbub couch'd, Make Game of that which makes as much of Thee. Omar Khayyam Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon. Woody Allen The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. Bertrand Russell Some people are lying to you. Sometimes they know it. Sometimes they don't and can't help it. You get to spend your whole life sorting these people out from one another. Have fun. Oh, and sometimes you're one of them. Have even more fun. Barry Smith “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Some people swear by this philosophy. If you know someone like that, it's best not to invite them to a magic show. Especially not to see Shame-O the Magnificent! Barry Smith "Wrong' is one of those concepts that depends on witnesses. Scott Adams The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. William James If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Laurence J. Peter We exist in a bizarre combination of Stone Age emotions, medieval beliefs, and god-like technology. E.O. Wilson. College isn't the place to go for ideas. Helen Keller It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. Voltaire The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. Psalms 53 I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. Abraham Maslow You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. Leviticus 19:19 Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. Bernard Berenson The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Samuel Johnson "Heaven and Earth revolve and interpenetrate; the myriad things bustle about and yet form a unity. If one is able to know this unity, then there is nothing that cannot be known; if one cannot know this unity, then there is not even one thing that can truly be known." Huainanzi 7: 夫天地運而相通，萬物總而為一。能知一，則無一之不知也；不能知一，則無一之能知也。 Christianity is discovered in the desire to blame weakness on universal innate defects, to claim the strengths of others are irrelevant and false, and to exchange one's natural pursuit of strength with a supernatural solution that is far easier to achieve. The weak become the strong, and through rejection of the religion, the strong become the weak. It is the antithesis of Darwinism and a psychosis of petulance. Tom Swan There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Sir Francis Bacon Why is it so difficult to take the first, necessary, close-in, courageous step to claiming our happiness in life? Perhaps, because taking that step immediately leads to a kind of radical internal simplification, where, suddenly, large parts of us, parts of us that had been kept gainfully employed for years; parts of us we thought absolutely necessary to the story, are suddenly out of a job. There occurs in effect a massive form of internal corporate downsizing, where the naysayers in us that do not wish to participate are let go, with all of the accompanying death-like trauma, and where the last fight occurs, a rear guard disbelief that this new, less complicated self, is equal to the new possibilities ahead. –It is always hard to believe that the courageous step is so close to us, that it is closer in than we could imagine, that in fact, we already know what it is, and that that step is simpler, more radical than we had thought: which is why we so often prefer the story to be more complicated, our identities equally clouded by fear and the answer safely in the realm of impossibility. David Whyte Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept. Calvin & Hobbes Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon. Susan Ertz Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction. Blaise Pascal It is a poor poet that falls silent when he finds out that the sun is actually a massive sphere of hydrogen fusing into helium Richard Feynmann A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kickboxing. Emo Philips The best cure for sea sickness is to sit under a tree. Spike Milligan As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder. John Glenn Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown. John Prine It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper." Rod Serling If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim". Lyndon B. Johnson Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. Aldous Huxley The only thing that makes it a part of your life is that you keep thinking about it. Unknown Most people would rather be certain they're miserable than risk being happy. Robert Anthony You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light. Vicomte de Chateaubriand The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair. Douglas Adams Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority. James Thurber There was a boundary to us then, when we was on the land. Paraphrased, Steinbeck, screenplay of Grapes of Wrath Be yourself - everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell Money passed from your left hand to your right is not a gift. Ludwig Wittgenstein We no longer live in a society, we live in an economy, where right and wrong is determined not by fairness, but by profitability — and where the law no longer dictates corporate behavior, but corporate behavior dictates the law. Dave Beerman I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. Rebecca West Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it's just sort of a tired feeling. Paula Poundstone Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. Friedrich von Schiller Just because some of can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe. Kurt Vonnegut The pathways that have led to our evolution are quirky, improbable, unrepeatable and utterly unpredictable. Human evolution is not random; it makes sense and can be explained after the fact. But wind back life’s tape to the dawn of time and let it play again–and you will never get humans a second time. Stephen Jay Gould It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it. Upton Sinclair I Am Not There Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow. I am the sun on ripened grain. I am the gentle Autumn rain. When you awake in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft starlight at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die. by Mary Elizabeth Frye (1932) The shadows of the bamboos brush the temple steps The dust is not stirred Unknown Nevertheless, flowers fall with our attachment, and weeds spring up with our aversion. Dogen True terror is knowing that the country is run by your high school class. Kurt Vonnegut A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. Alfred E. Wiggam When a Zen master and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made so much noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later when the master died, the monks continued to tie up the cat during the meditation session. When the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up during the evening meditation. Centuries later learned descendants of the Zen master wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat during meditation practice. As told by Morgan Rosenberg, Dark Buddhism The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. Frank Zappa The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter—for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. Nikola Tesla, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy (1900) Or is it your reputation that's bothering you? But look at how soon we're all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of those applauding hands. Marcus Aurelius: Sexual selection may produce traits that natural selection would never permit Charles Darwin (paraphrase?) The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot. And then, just possibly, hopefully, it goes on. Audre Lorde Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials. Lin Yutang If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live. Lin Yutang When Small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set. Lin Yutang I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness of experience emerges a symphony of colours, richer than all, its green speaking of life and strength, its orange speaking of golden content and its purple of resignation and death.( My Country and My People) Lin Yutang A vague hope of immortality detracts from our wholehearted enjoyment of this earthly existence. Lin Yutang Belief in our mortality, the sense that we are eventually going to crack up and be extinguished like the flame of a candle, I say, is a gloriously fine thing. It makes us sober; it makes us a little sad; and many of us it makes poetic. But above all, it makes it possible for us to make up our mind and arrange to live sensibly, truthfully and always with a sense of our own limitations. It gives peace also, because true peace of mind comes from accepting the worst. Psychologically, I think it means a release of energy. Lin Yutang The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang I cannot think of any American whom I know or have heard of, who is not contributing in some way to destruction. The reason is simple: to live undestructively in an economy that is overwhelmingly destructive would require of any one of us, or of any small group of us, a great deal more work than we have yet been able to do. How could we divorce ourselves completely and yet responsibly from the technologies and powers that are destroying our planet? The answer is not yet thinkable, and it will not be thinkable for some time—even though there are now groups and families and persons everywhere in the country who have begun the labor of thinking it. Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, p. 18. Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do. Wendell Berry We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough? Wendell Berry It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are. Wendell Berry It is a horrible fact that we can read in the daily paper, without interrupting our breakfast, numerical reckonings of death and destruction that ought to break our hearts or scare us out of our wits. Wendell Berry I am speaking of the life of a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children; who has undertaken to cherish it and do it no damage, not because he is duty-bound, but because he loves the world and loves his children; whose work serves the earth he lives on and from and with, and is therefore pleasurable and meaningful and unending; whose rewards are not deferred until "retirement," but arrive daily and seasonally out of the details of the life of their place; whose goal is the continuance of the life of the world, which for a while animates and contains them, and which they know they can never compass with their understanding or desire. Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness (1971) Individualism is going around these days in uniform, handing out the party line on individualism. Wendell Berry, A Continuous Harmony (1972), Think Little Though I can see no way to defend the economy, I recognize the need to be concerned for the suffering that would be produced by its failure. But I ask if it is necessary for it to fail in order to change: I am assuming that if it does not change it must sooner or later fail, and that a great deal that is more valuable will fail with it. As a deity the economy is a sort of egotistical French monarch, for it apparently can see no alternative to itself except chaos, and perhaps that is its chief weakness. For, of course, chaos is not the only alternative to it. A better alternative is a better economy. But we will not conceive the possibility of a better economy, and therefore will not begin to change, until we quit deifying the present one. Wendell Berry, A Continuous Harmony By this time, the era of cut-and-run economics ought to be finished. Such an economy cannot be rationally defended or even apologized for. The proofs of its immense folly, heartlessness, and destructiveness are everywhere. Its failure as a way of dealing with the natural world and human society can no longer be sanely denied. That this economic system persists and grows larger and stronger in spite of its evident failure has nothing to do with rationality or, for that matter, with evidence. It persists because, embodied now in multinational corporations, it has discovered a terrifying truth: If you can control a people’s economy, you don’t need to worry about its politics; its politics have become irrelevant. If you control people’s choices as to whether or not they will work, and where they will work, and what they will do, and how well they will do it, and what they will eat and wear, and the genetic makeup of their crops and animals, and what they will do for amusement, then why should you worry about freedom of speech? In a totalitarian economy, any "political liberties" that the people might retain would simply cease to matter. If, as is often the case already, nobody can be elected who is not wealthy, and if nobody can be wealthy without dependence on the corporate economy, then what is your vote worth? The citizen thus becomes an economic subject. Wendell Berry, Another Turn of the Crank (1996) Conserving Forest Communities We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. David Brower Loggers losing their jobs because of Spotted Owl legislation is, in my eyes, no different than people being out of work after the furnaces of Dachau shut down. David Brower They simply don't know that much about what they're doing. There isn't enough control. There isn't enough capability in ordinary people to tinker with such a complicated piece of machinery. David Brower Understanding how DNA transmits all it knows about cancer, physics, dreaming and love will keep man searching for some time. David Brower If greed were not the master of modern man--ably assisted by envy--how could it be that the frenzy of economism does not abate as higher "standards of living" are attained, and that it is precisely the richest societies which pursue their economic advantage with the greatest ruthlessness? How could we explain the almost universal refusal on the part of the rulers of the rich societies--where organized along private enterprise or collective enterprise lines--to work towards the humanisation of work? It is only necessary to assert that something would reduce the "standard of living" and every debate is instantly closed. That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, monotonous, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of of "bread and circuses" can compensate for the damage done--these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence--because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity. E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful Any intelligent fool can invent further complications, but it takes a genius to retain, or recapture, simplicity. E.F. Schumacher Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation to man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations: as long as you have not shown it to be "uneconomic" you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper. E.F. Schumacher Every increase of needs tends to increase one's independence on outside forces over which one cannot have control and therefore increases existential fear. E.F. Schumacher It might be said that it is the ideal of the employer to have production without employees and the ideal of the employee is to have income without work. E.F. Schumacher After all, for mankind as a whole there are no exports. We did not start developing by obtaining foreign exchange from Mars or the moon. Mankind is a closed society. E.F. Schumacher Why should we tolerate a diet of weak poisons, a home in insipid surroundings, a circle of acquaintances who are not quite our enemies, the noise of motors with just enough relief to prevent insanity? Who would want to live in a world which is just not quite fatal? Rachel Carson,Silent Spring As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life - a fabric on the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways. These extraordinary capacities of life have been ignored by the practitioners of chemical control who have brought to their task no "high-minded orientation," no humility before the vast forces with which they tamper. Rachel Carson,Silent Spring This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring We have looked first at man with his vanities and greed and his problems of a day or a year; and then only, and from this biased point of view, we have looked outward at the earth he has inhabited so briefly and at the universe in which our earth is so minute a part. Yet these are the great realities, and against them we see our human problems in a different perspective. Perhaps if we reversed the telescope and looked at man down these long vistas, we should find less time and inclination to plan for our own destruction. Rachel Carson (1952) I believe in time, matter and energy, which make up the whole of the world. I believe in reason, evidence and the human mind, the only tools we have; they are the product of natural forces in a majestic but impersonal universe, grander and richer than we can imagine, a source of endless opportunity for discovery. I believe in the power of doubt; I do not seek out reassurances, but embrace the question, and strive to challenge my own beliefs. I accept human mortality. e have but one life, brief and full of struggle, leavened with love and community, learning and exploration, beauty and the creation of new life, new art and new ideas. I rejoice in this life I have, and in the grandeur of the world that preceded me, and an earth that will abide without me. PZ Meyers The very expression "scientifically proven" is a contradiction in terms. There is nothing that is scientifically proven. The core of science is the deep awareness that we have wrong ideas, we have prejudices. Science is not about certainty. Science is about finding the most reliable way of thinking at the present level of knowledge. In fact, not only is it not certain, but it's lack of certainty that grounds it. Scientific ideas are credible not because they are sure, but because they are the ones that have survived all the possible past critiques, and they are the most credible because they were put on the table for everybody's criticism. Carlo Ravelli All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law. Theodore Roosevelt If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. H. P. Lovecraft We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return. Richard Dawkins Humility does not mean you think less of yourself. It means you think of yourself less. Ken Blanchard For fast-acting relief, try slowing down. Lily Tomlin Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid. John Wayne If you seek some special life outside of daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water. Wu-chun Reexamine all you have been told. Dismiss what insults your soul. Walt Whitman It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. wrongly attributed to Charles Darwin, possibly Leon C. Megginson I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. Richard Dawkins During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food. Wendell Berry Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. . . .It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless. Lincoln, letter to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864. Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them. Hypatia of Alexandria One for whom the pebble has value will be surrounded by treasures wherever he goes. Par Lagerkvist Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. Dr. Seuss Two percent of the people think. Three percent of the people Think they think. And ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think. George Bernard Shaw There is pleasure in the pathless woods There is rapture on the lonely shore There is society where none intrudes By the deep sea, and music in its roar I love not man the less but nature more. Lord Byron Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error. Linus Pauling The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane. Eric Fromm Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Attributed to the Buddha A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Martin Luther King The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater. Frank Zappa Loving someone who doesn't love you is like waiting for a ship at the airport. Unknown You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing about the bird. So let's take a look at the bird and see what it's doing. Richard Feynman It's an incredible con job when you think about it, to believe something now in exchange for something after death. Even corporations with their reward systems don't try to make it posthumous. Gloria Steinham Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn't there, and finding it. Oscar Wilde “Another area of fuzzy thinking out there is the movement called Intelligent Design. It asserts that somethings are too marvelous or too intricate to explain. The contention is that these things defy common scientific accounts for cause and effect, and so they’re ascribed to an intelligent, purposeful designer… . So let’s start a movement called Stupid Design, and we’ll see where that takes us. For example, what’s going on with your appendix? It’s much better at killing you than it is at anything else. That’s definitely a stupid design. What about your pinky toenail? You can barely put nail polish on it; there’s no real estate there. how about bad breath, or the fact that you breathe and drink through the same hole in your body, causing some fraction of us to choke to death every year? And here’s my last one. Ready? Down there between our legs, it’s like an entertainment complex system in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?” Neil DeGrasse Tyson Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will. Yoda Size matters not. Yoda You must unlearn what you have learned. Yoda Named must be your fear before banish it you can. Yoda Too any people spend money they haven't earned, to buy thinks they don'e want, to impress people they don't like. Will Smith What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. Thomas Carlyle "Flowing water -- my mind doesn't try to keep up; lingering clouds -- my thoughts match their slowness." 水流心不竞，云在意俱迟 Du Fu 杜甫, Tang Dynasty It is a great tragedy that science, this wonderful process for finding out what is true, has ceded the spiritual uplift of its central revelations: the vastness of the universe, the immensity of time, the relatedness of all life, and life’s preciousness on our tiny planet. Ann Druyan interviewed by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, The masses regard sufficient food as their heaven. 民以食為天 Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. Thomas Sowell To stop leaving tracks is easy. Not to walk upon the ground is hard. Zhuangzi If you run after things, nothing will come to you. Let things run after you. The sea never sends an invitation to the rivers. That’s why they run to the sea. The sea is content. It doesn’t want anything. That’s the secret in life. Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. Probably falsely attributed to Zhuangzi (could be Osho?) Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. Niels Bohr The size of the bubble is determined by the responsibility you assume, and this size determines whether something is within you or outside you. Definitions eventually integrate. If you assume a very small, infinitely small, level of being, then everything appears to be outside of you. That's maximum separation from awareness. You have become a particle! On the other hand, if you assume a level of being that is expansive enough to contain the universe, then the universe is within you. Harry Palmer, from Living Deliberately Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. Thomas H. Huxley With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. Steven Weinberg The environmental movement is consumed with trying to preserve the planet forever. But we know that isn't in God's plan. The earth we inhabit is not a permanent planet. It is, frankly, a disposable planet -- it is going to have a very short life. It's been around six thousand years or so - - that's all -- and it may last a few thousand more. And then the Lord is going to destroy it. I've told environmentalists that if they think humanity is wrecking the planet, wait until they see what Jesus does to it. ... This earth was never ever intended to be a permanent planet -- it is not eternal. We do not have to worry about it being around tens of thousands, or millions, of years from now because God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth." John MacArthur To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Macbeth A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world." Edmond de Goncourt This book fills a much-needed gap. Moses Hadas There is no good lighting that is healthy and for our well being without proper darkness. Roger van der Heide We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities. Walt Kelly Quafak observed that Earthlings did not like to think, and especially disliked being called upon to think for themselves. They would have you believe that thinking actually caused them physical pain. They were resentful and suspicious of their own minds, and wished to be rid of them. Source: Ed Taylor (ET) via Thomas Foster One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways." Bertrand Russell Do not teach a monkey to climb trees. 毋教猱升木 Wú jiào náo shēng mù Shijing The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking. A. A. Milne Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Hanlon's Razor I like rice. Rice is great if you're hungry and want 2000 of something. Mitch Hedberg I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a flower and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a flower. At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.” Richard P. Feynman Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience. Doug Larson Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible. Edward Teller There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Peter Drucker Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Michael Crichton If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim." Lyndon B. Johnson The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler Like its politicians and its wars, society has the teenagers it deserves. J. B. Priestley Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority. James Thurber Studies suggest if you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced. That's why people with no sense of humor have an increased sense of self-importance. Shawn Kirby (?) You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do. Henry Ford I can explain this to you. I can't comprehend it for you. Ed Koch I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me! Dr. Seuss Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise, there wouldn't be religious people. Doris Egan In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite. Paul Dirac Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them. Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country. Hermann Goering The wages of sin are unreported. Unknown If you don't know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere. Henry A. Kissinger The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. Henry A. Kissinger No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar. Donald Foster This story from Jiddu Krishnamurti, I think, explains it best: "You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of Truth', said the devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then', said his friend. 'Oh, not at all', the devil replied, "I am going to help him organize it." I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. Richard Feynman Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. Friedrich von Schiller The cause of most of man's unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most, for what he wants now. Gordon B. Hinkley And now it is us. We are the ones they spoke of long ago... They say this is the hardest time to live, but they say to be alive, to come into creation and to live upon the earth at this time is also the greatest honor. Lee Brown, Continental Indigenous Council I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other. Unknown Heaven is Where: The Police are British, The Chefs are French, The Mechanics are German, The Lovers are Italian, and It's all organized by the Swiss. Hell is Where: The Police are German, The Chefs are British, The Mechanics are French, The Lovers are Swiss, and It's all organized by the Italians. Unknown Idols are the profoundest fallacies of the mind of man. Nor do they deceive in particulars [that is, objects in the external world] … but from a corrupt and crookedly-set predisposition of the mind; which doth, as it were, wrest and inject all the anticipations of the understanding. For the mind of man … is so far from being like a smooth, equal, and clear glass, which might sincerely take and reflect the beams of things, according to their true incidence; that it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstitions, apparitions, and imposture. Francis Bacon, Great Instauration, 1620, 1674 translation bu Gilbert Wats If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator there is no poverty. Rilke A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. Sir Barnett Cocks As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls. Matt Cartmill A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. Bruce Lee Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. Robert Frost The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. David Friedman Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. Barry Goldwater A man who is born into a world already possessed - if he cannot get subsistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food. At nature's mighty feast there is no vacant cover for him. She tells him to be gone, and will quickly execute her own orders, if he does not work upon the compassion of some of her guests. If these guests get up and make room for him, other intruders immediately appear demanding the same favour. The plenty that before reigned is changed into scarcity; and the happiness of the guests is destroyed by the spectacle of misery and dependence in every part of the hall. Thomas Malthus' Essay on Population, 1803 edition: Marriage changes passion. Suddenly you are sleeping with a relative. Anonymous We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong. Bill Vaughan Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer Soil is the basis for human health, and agriculture is the basis for civilization and there is great historical evidence that most of the great ancient civilizations fell as a result of decline in their soil. John Crawford The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. George Bernard Shaw 2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2. Grabel's Law I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific. Lily Tomlin The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness. Andre Malraux The World Is a Beautiful Place The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always being so very much fun if you don't mind a touch of hell now and then just when everything is fine because even in heaven they don't sing all the time The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind some people dying all the time or maybe only starving some of the time which isn't half bad if it isn't you Oh the world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't much mind a few dead minds in the higher places or a bomb or two now and then in your upturned faces or such other improprieties as our Name Brand society is prey to with its men of distinction and its men of extinction and its priests and other patrolmen and its various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations that our fool flesh is heir to Yes the world is the best place of all for a lot of such things as making the fun scene and making the love scene and making the sad scene and singing low songs and having inspirations and walking around looking at everything and smelling flowers and goosing statues and even thinking and kissing people and making babies and wearing pants and waving hats and dancing and going swimming in rivers on picnics in the middle of the summer and just generally 'living it up' Yes but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling mortician Lawrence Ferlinghetti My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along. Elizabeth Warren Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. Bertrand Russell Father William Lewis Carroll "You are old, Father William," the young man said, "And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head— Do you think, at your age, it is right?" "In my youth," Father William replied to his son, "I feared it might injure the brain; But now that I'm perfectly sure I have none, Why, I do it again and again." "You are old," said the youth, "As I mentioned before, And have grown most uncommonly fat; Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door— Pray, what is the reason of that?" "In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks, "I kept all my limbs very supple By the use of this ointment—one shilling the box— Allow me to sell you a couple?" "You are old," said the youth, "And your jaws are too weak For anything tougher than suet; Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak— Pray, how did you manage to do it?" "In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law, And argued each case with my wife; And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw, Has lasted the rest of my life." "You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose That your eye was as steady as ever; Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose— What made you so awfully clever?" "I have answered three questions, and that is enough," Said his father; "don't give yourself airs! Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!" Eletelephony Laura E. Richards Once there was an elephant Who tried to use the telephant. No, No! I mean an elephone Who tried to use the telephone! (Dear me I am not certain quite that even now I've got it right!) However it was, he got his trunk Entangled in the telefunk. The more he tried to get it free, The louder buzzed the telefee! I fear I'd better drop the song Of Elephop and telephong. A Ballad Of China Laura E. Richards Her Name was Dilliki Dolliki Dinah; Niece she was to the Empress of China; Fair she was as a morning in May, when Hy Kokolorum stole her away. Hy was a wizard, I'd have you know; Wicked as weasels and black as a crow; Lived in castle a-top a hill; Had a panther who's name was Bill; Used to ride him around and around, creeping and peeping close to the ground; Working mischief wherever he could; Nothing about him in anyway good! Saw the maiden one midsummer morn, (sweetest creature that ever was born!), Creeped and peeped in his wizardly way, Catched her and snatched her and stole her away! All through China arose a cry: "Some one has stolen out Dilliki Di!" People gathered in every Forum, Crying, "it must be Hy Kokolorum!" All the Barons in China land, Ling the lofty and Bing the Bland, Kong the Kingly and Bond the brave, Vowed a vow to find and save Darling Dilliki Dolliki Dinah (niece you know to the empress of china; Fair you know as a morning in May), Whom Hy Kokolorum had stolen away. Now in a kingly, ringly row, Round and about the hill they go, Ling the lofty, Bing the bland, Kong and Bong, and there they stand, Weaving a weird and spinning a spell, All with intent to quash and quell Hy Kokolorum, worker of woe, Wicked as weasels and black as a crow. Dilliki Dinah was weeping her fill, When stepped up softly the panther Bill; Whispered," if you will give me a kiss, I'll turn your sorrow into bubbling bliss!" she, to animals always kind, Said," No! Really? Well, i don't mind!" Dropped a kiss on his nose so pink, And-goodness gracious! what do you think? He turned into a beautiful Golden King, Crown and sceptre and everything! Ran the old wizard through and through, Saying, "now there is an end of you!" Caught the maiden up in his arms, Broke through the net of spells and charms, Cried to the barons Bold and Brave, "I've had the honor to find and save Darling Dilliki Dolliki Dinah Niece (I learn) to the Empress of china, Fair (I swear) as a morning in May And she is my queen to this very day!" Benjamin Jones Goes Swimming Aileen Fisher Benjamin Jones in confident tones told his wife, "On the fourth of July I think I'll compete in the free-for-all meet. I bet I can win, if I try." But his wife said "My word! How very absurd! You haven't gone swimming for years. With others so fast, you're sure to be last, And I'll blush to the tip of my ears." Well, the Fourth quickly came, and waiting acclaim Were wonderful swimmers galore, Each poised in his place for the start of the race, While spectators crowded the shore. The contest began, and Bengy, poor man, Was passed on the left and the right. His pace was so slow that a crab saw his toe And thought it would venture a bite. Ben noticed the crab as it started to grab And--perhaps the result can be guessed: The thought of his toe in the claw of his foe Made him swim like a swimmer possessed! And the crowd on the shore sent up a great roar As Ben took the lead in the dash, While his wife on the dock received such a shock She fell in the lake with a splash. Sonnet XXV As in the midst of battle there is room For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth; As gossips whisper of a trinket’s worth Spied by the death-bed’s flickering candle-gloom; As in the crevices of Caesar’s tomb The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth: So in this great disaster of our birth We can be happy, and forget our doom. For morning, with a ray of tenderest joy Gilding the iron heaven, hides the truth, And evening gently woos us to employ Our grief in idle catches. Such is youth; Till from that summer’s trance we wake, to find Despair before us, vanity behind. George Santayana 1863–1952 It's all right letting yourself go as long as you can let yourself back. Mick Jagger Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men. George Eliot One can ask what might it take to have an agriculture that does not degrade the soils, a fishery that does not deplete the ocean, a forestry that keeps watersheds and ecosystems intact, population policies that respect human sexuality and personality while holding the numbers down, and energy policies that do not set off fierce little wars. These are the key questions worth our lifetimes and more. Gary Snyder We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us day and night. To see this truth is to realize that the sacred and secular cannot be divided. Even the most transcendent visions of spirituality must shine through the here and now and be brought to life in how we walk, eat, and love one another. Jack Kornfield It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. Voltaire Acceptance without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western religion, rejection without proof is the fundamental characteristic of Western science. Gary Zukav I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. John Cage There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted. James Branch Cabell The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russell You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others. John Andrew Holmes It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. Samuel Adams If little else, the brain is an educational toy. Tom Robbins Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions. G. K. Chesterton" A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer." Robert Frost It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them. Pierre Beaumarchais Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called 'rain'." Michael McClary Most advances in science come when a person for one reason or another is forced to change fields. Peter Borden When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. R. Buckminster Fuller The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you. Rita Mae Brown There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. Bertrand Russell No good deed goes unpunished. Clare Booth Luce We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are - that is the fact. Jean-Paul Sartre Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again. Unknown I think the freezer deserves a light as well. Unknown I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. Unknown For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. Rainer Maria Rilke Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills. Voltaire It is bad luck to be superstitious. Andrew W. Mathis Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. H. L. Mencken What luck for rulers that men do not think. Adolf Hitler On the principle that the public knows what's best, the prole will always go where others go, preferably to stand in line once he's there. Paul Fussell, "Class" I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. It's just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade. Morticia Addams Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff. Falsely attributed to Mariah Carey http://www.snopes.com/quotes/carey.asp Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. Laurens Van der Post If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame this; blame yourself: admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth it’s riches: because for the creator there is no poverty and no indifferent place. Rainer Maria Rilke. Money can't buy happiness, but neither can poverty. Leo Rosten Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that! Matt Frewer I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science. Ron Burgundy The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever. Anatole France [Mal is disconcerted to find Saffron in his bed, wearing only a bedsheet.] Saffron: But we've been wed. Aren't… we to become one flesh? Mal: Well, no, uh… we're still two fleshes here, and... I think... that your flesh oughta… sleep somewhere else. Saffron: I'm sorry. When we talked, I'd hoped, but I— [She gestures with her hands, losing the sheet. Mal turns away.] Mal: Whoa, hey! Flesh. Um... Saffron... i-it... it ain't a question of pleasing me. It's more a question of what's... [Mal, breathing heavily, strains not to look at the naked woman.] Mal: ...um... of what's morally right. Saffron: I do know my Bible, sir. "On the night of their betrothal, the wife shall open to the man as the furrow to the plow, and he shall work in her, in and again, till she bring him to his fall, and rest him then upon the sweat of her breast." [Cut to Mal, who is openly staring now.] Mal: Whoa. Good Bible. Firefly, Our Mrs. Reynolds (the quotation is actually from an Islamic Hadith) Communism is like one big phone company. Lenny Bruce Most people ignore most poetry / because / most poetry ignores most people. Adrian Mitchell It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. James Thurber I think the world is run by 'C' students. Al McGuire There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. Franz Kafka Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories. Arthur C. Clarke Who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet's heart when caught and tangled in a woman's body? Virginia Woolf I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness. Unknown Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Unknown The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on the list. Unknown We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public. Unknown Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Unknown I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks. Unknown I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you. Unknown You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice. Unknown The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas! Unknown I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a great white shark or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot. Unknown You're never too old to learn something stupid. Unknown The un-lived life s not worth examining. Sheldon Kopp or Tom Morris? The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. Chinese (African?) Proverb Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. Albert Camus The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. Edwin Schlossberg Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. Aldous Huxley Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. Will Rogers There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works. Will Rogers If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Will Rogers Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Will Rogers The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Will Rogers Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved. Will Rogers I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top. Will Rogers After all, my erstwhile dear, My no longer cherished; Need we say it was not love, Just because it perished? Edna St. Vincent Millay A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. Daniel Webster Getting caught is the mother of invention. Robert Byrne This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. Wolfgang Pauli In Her Praise This they know well: the Goddess yet abides. Though each new lovely woman whom she rides, Straddling her neck a year or two or three, Should sink beneath such weight of majesty And, groping back to humankind, gainsay The headlong power that whitened all her way With a broad track of trefoil—leaving you, Her chosen lover, ever again thrust through With daggers, your purse rifled, your rings gone— Nevertheless they call you to live on To parley with the pure, oracular dead, To hear the wild pack whimpering overhead, To watch the moon tugging at her cold tides. Woman is mortal woman. She abides. Robert Graves Discretion is not the better part of biography. Lytton Strachey People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest. Hermann Hesse Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. Richard Feynman Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity. Robertson Davies There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Sir Francis Bacon The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness. Nikos Kazantzakis Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality. Nikola Tesla A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking. Thomas Edison One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A. A. Milne Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines. R. Buckminster Fuller Even in the valley of the shadow of death two and two do not make six, Tolstoy There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking. Thomas A. Edison Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Seneca the Younger 4 b.c.- 65 a.d. The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. Herbert Agar Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them. Franklin P. Adams Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man. Leon Trotsky Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want. Clive Barnes I would like to beg you, dear Sir, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Rainer Maria Rilke's Advice to a Young Poet Careful. We don't want to learn from this. Bill Watterson It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. Enrico Fermi Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. Lily Tomlin I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. Stephen Roberts The only paradise is paradise lost. Marcel Proust The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin You can never get enough of what you don’t really need. Eric Hoffer Discipline is just choosing between what you want now and what you want most. Unknown Author When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion. Abraham Lincoln Earth's the right place for love. I don't know where it's likely to go better. Robert Frost The problem with the designated driver program, it's not a desirable job, but if you ever get sucked into doing it, have fun with it. At the end of the night, drop them off at the wrong house. Jeff Foxworthy Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. Laurens Van der Post Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Martin Luther King Jr. I have four great vows: When I'm hungry, I eat; when it's cold, I put on more clothes; when I'm tired, I stretch out and sleep; when it gets warm, I like to find a cool breeze. Baiyun Shouduan, quoted by John Tarrant A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Baltasar Gracian No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why. Mignon McLaughlin Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary – they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be. Henri-Frederic Amiel The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself. Sir Richard Francis Burton Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes. Elizabeth Barrett Browning Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard. Daphne de Maurier One for whom the pebble has value must be surrounded by treasures wherever he goes. Par Lagerkvist My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened. Michel de Montaigne (used by Mark Twain) The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention, like phlogiston, after the fact of fire. Marge Piercy It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it. Anais Nin Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car. Unknown source Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. Unknown source If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential, that word would be meetings. Unknown source There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness. Unknown source No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar. Donald Foster Which of the Himalayas is the shortest? Steve Connelly I heard that in relativity theory space and time are the same thing. Einstein discovered this when he kept showing up three miles late for his meetings. Alex Kirlik Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening. Barbara Tober The true measure of a man is what he would do if he knew he would never be caught. Lord Kelvin To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent. Robert Copeland In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying. Bertrand Russell Self-knowledge is an elusive thing, for the self changes in the knowing Joseph Levenson The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. William James It's a category error, like trying to define fruit in miles per hour. Peter H. Butterworth CREDO My friend from Asia has powers and magic, he plucks a blue leaf from the young blue-gum And gazing upon it gathering and quieting The God in his mind, creates an ocean more real than the ocean, the salt, the actual Appalling presence, the power of the waters. He believes that nothing is real except as we make it. I humbler have found in my blood Bred west of Caucasus a harder mysticism. Multitude stands in my mind but I think that the ocean in the bone vault is only The bone vault’s ocean: out there is the ocean’s; The water is the water, the cliff is the rock, come shocks and flashes of reality. The mind Passes, the eye closes, the spirit is a passage; The beauty of things was born before eyes and sufficient to itself, the heart-breaking beauty Will remain when there is no heart to break for it. Robinson Jeffers (b. 10 January 1887) A committee can make a decision that is dumber than any of its members. David Coblitz Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? Jay Leno I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. Umberto Eco Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate. Mark B. Cohen It's easy to be brave from a distance. Lakota Soul has its own inner law of growth. was retranslated loosely in Cold Souls as: The soul is its own source of unfolding. Heraclitus It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. H. L. Mencken Character is easier kept than recovered. English Proverb It's mutual interest, not trust, that will be the bond of our relationship. The International (film) Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a clear question. Albert Camus The course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. John F. Kennedy Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Eric Hoffer So, we'll go no more a-roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright. For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And love itself have rest. ... . Lord Byron Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. Bertrand Russell Some people are better than others - smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace. William A. Henry III, In Defense of Elitism In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from. Peter Drucker There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause. P. J. O'Rourke The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible George Burns I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.. W. C. Fields We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress. Will Rogers Things are going to get unimaginably worse, and they're never, ever going to get better again. Kurt Vonnegut If you are thinking 1 year ahead, plant seeds If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people. Chinese Emperor Kuan Tsu, 5th century BC 11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet wealth to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of knowledge; for time and chance will happen to them all. 12 For surely man also knows not his time: as fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as birds that are caught in a snare; even thus the sons of men are snared at an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them. Ecclesiastes 9:11 The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. Sir Winston Churchill Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Martin Luther King Jr. Dance like it hurts,/ Love like you need money,/ Work when people are watching. Scott Adams One of my favorite scenes from the movies- Streep's character in Out of Africa has just driven off a lion with a bullwhip, but not before the lion has killed one of the wagon's oxen, and Streep herself has got tangled in a thorn bush. Her muslim manservant is pulling the thorns from her back and pondering: "Memsahib is bleeding - she does not have this ox. The lion is hungry - he does not have this ox. The wagon is heavy - it does not have this ox. God is Happy, Sabu- he plays with us." Out of Africa The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution. Hannah Arendt "Junsei nana korobi, Ya oki" (Such is life - Seven times down, Eight times up!) Zen saying, Daruma doll Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution. Bertrand Russell The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. Edwin Schlossberg Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff. Frank Zappa The main things which seem to me important on their own account, and not merely as means to other things, are knowledge, art, instinctive happiness, and relations of friendship or affection. Bertrand Russell After waiting for years to have a child, a Japanese feudal Lord was at last blessed by the birth of a son. A Zen master renowned for his exquisite calligraphy was commissioned by the Lord to create a fine work of art and a blessing of the birth, to be presented at a grand celebration.. The Master arrived at the festivities three days later and unrolled a small scroll that read: "Grandfather dies, father dies, son dies." The Lord was enraged and had the Roshi seized and dragged before him, demanding either a satisfactory account or a severed head. The Master explained "Sir, the greatest blessing is to be accord with the natural order of things, but I can write these in any other order you might prefer." Zen lore Raise no more devils than you can lay down. Blackheart, Ghost Rider, from ??? Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Napoleon Bonaparte Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. John Andrew Holmes Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either. Gore Vidal What's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh. Latin proverb I'm a godmother, that's a great thing to be, a godmother. She calls me god for short, that's cute, I taught her that. Ellen DeGeneres It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. William G. McAdoo When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. P. J. O'Rourke Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. Ben Hecht Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. H. L. Mencken Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars. Unknown source When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and asked him to forgive me. Unknown source Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none. Jules Renard It's a lot like nature. You only have as many animals as the ecosystem can support and you only have as many friends as you can tolerate the bitching of. Randy K. Milholland Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking. Clement Atlee You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious, nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave. Sydney Smith 1. Never tell everything at once. Ken Venturi Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some. Alfred Hitchcock There are no whole truths; all truths are half- truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil. Alfred North Whitehead Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything. Henri Poincare The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous. Shana Alexander With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. Steven Weinberg When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth. George Bernard Shaw Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. Blaise Pascal When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him. Thomas Szasz The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow. Woodrow Wilson Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. Aldous Huxley Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. Robert Frost 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. Isaac Asimov Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile. Life is short, [the] art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment dangerous, judgment difficult. Hippocrates Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there. E. H. Gombrich Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it. David Sedaris Clouds are so beautiful I could bite my toes! Matthew Howe (age 4) In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. Johann von Neumann Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know 'why' I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved. Will Rogers Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain. Unknown, sometimes attributed to a greeting card maker, Vivian Greene Give a man a match, and he'll be warm for a minute, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life Unknown Alone From childhood's hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone. Then- in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life- was drawn From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold, From the lightning in the sky As it passed me flying by, From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view. Poe, 1830 Empty Headed Athenians St. Paul spoke up on the Hill of Mars To the empty-headed Athenians; But I would rather talk to the stars Than to empty-headed Athenians; It’s only too easy to form a cult, To cry a crusade with “Deus Vult”— But you won’t get much of a good result From empty-headed Athenians. The people of London much resemble Those empty-headed Athenians. I could very easily make them tremble, Those empty-headed Athenians. A pinch of Bible, a gallon of gas, And I, or any otherguess ass, Could bring to our mystical moonlight mass Those empty-headed Athenians. In fine, I have precious little use For empty-headed Athenians. The birds I have snared shall all go loose; They are empty-headed Athenians. I thought perhaps I might do some good; But it’s ten to one if I ever should— And I doubt if I would save, if I could, Such empty-headed Athenians. So (with any luck) I shall bid farewell To the empty-headed Athenians. For me, they may all of them go to hell, For empty-headed Athenians. I hate your idiot jolts and jars, You monkeys grinning behind your bars— I’m more at home with the winds and stars Than with empty-headed Athenians. Aleister Crowley Messenger My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird — equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. The phoebe, the delphinium. The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture. Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here, which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam, telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever. Mary Oliver Peonies This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart as the sun rises, as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers and they open --- pools of lace, white and pink --- and all day the black ants climb over them, boring their deep and mysterious holes into the curls, craving the sweet sap, taking it away to their dark, underground cities --- and all day under the shifty wind, as in a dance to the great wedding, the flowers bend their bright bodies, and tip their fragrance to the air, and rise, their red stems holding all that dampness and recklessness gladly and lightly, and there it is again --- beauty the brave, the exemplary, blazing open. Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life? Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath? Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, and softly, and exclaiming of their dearness, fill your arms with the white and pink flowers, with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling, their eagerness to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are nothing, forever? Mary Oliver, New And Selected Poems Timeline Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It was what I was born for - to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world - to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant - but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these - the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean's shine, the prayers that are made out of grass? Mary Oliver Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place in the family of things. Mary Oliver Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die. Mary Elizabeth Frye (attrib) If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star. For there is many a small betrayal in the mind, a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood storming out to play through the broken dyke. And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail, but if one wanders the circus won't find the park, I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty to know what occurs but not recognize the fact. And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy, a remote important region in all who talk: though we could fool each other, we should consider— lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark. For it is important that awake people be awake, or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep; the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe— should be clear: the darkness around us is deep. William Stafford The Man Watching I can tell by the way the trees beat, after so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes that a storm is coming, and I hear the far-off fields say things I can't bear without a friend, I can't love without a sister The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on across the woods and across time, and the world looks as if it had no age: the landscape like a line in the psalm book, is seriousness and weight and eternity. What we choose to fight is so tiny! What fights us is so great! If only we would let ourselves be dominated as things do by some immense storm, we would become strong too, and not need names. When we win it's with small things, and the triumph itself makes us small. What is extraordinary and eternal does not want to be bent by us. I mean the Angel who appeared to the wrestlers of the Old Testament: when the wrestler's sinews grew long like metal strings, he felt them under his fingers like chords of deep music. Whoever was beaten by this Angel (who often simply declined the fight) went away proud and strengthened and great from that harsh hand, that kneaded him as if to change his shape. Winning does not tempt that man. This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings. Rainer Maria Rilke One evening, an old native American told his grandson a story about the inner struggle taking place in Man's soul. "You see, my child, this inner conflict, the struggle, is between two wolves inside us all: One wolf is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, vanity, self-pity, guilt, offense, inferiority, lies and arrogance. The other wolf is pleasure, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kind-heartedness, generosity, empathy, truth, mercy and faith. The grandson thought for a moment and asked his grandfather: "And which wolf wins?" Grandfather smiled and answered simply: "The one you feed." Source unknown New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high. Bill Maher New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge asshole. Bill Maher Dao is the dynamic field of natural law in whose context all else takes place Bruce Hamerslough A man is exactly as great as the tide surging beneath him Bismarck The injustice we seed grows a poison fruit, one that we inevitably end up eating. Gerry Spence "Secret? There is no secret. "Anyone with eyes can see the way to live: by watching life, observing nature and cooperating with it, making common cause with the process of existence. "By living life for itself, don't you see, deriving pleasure from the gift of pure being. "Life is its own answer. Accept it and enjoy it day by day. Live as well as possible; expect no more. Destroy nothing; humble nothing; look for fault in nothing. Leave unsullied and untouched all that is beautiful. Hold that which lives in all reverence; for life is given by the sovereign of our universe, given to be savored, to be luxuriated in, to be respected. "But that's no secret. You're intelligent. You know, as well as I, what has to be done. Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met. Abraham Lincoln Americans have a curiosity a mile wide and an inch deep. Russian visitor Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges! Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Seventeen times of trying to commit suicide, I think it’s time to give up. Sam Ross, a disabled Iraq veteran now in a mental hospital. God made mud. God got lonesome. So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!" "See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars." And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around. Lucky me, lucky mud. I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done. Nice going, God. Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn't have. I feel very unimportant compared to You. The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around. I got so much, and most mud got so little. Thank you for the honor! Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep. What memories for mud to have! What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met! I loved everything I saw! Good night. The Last Rites of the Bokononist faith, Kurt Vonnegut, jr., Cat’s Cradle Freedom and equality require some capacities internal to the individual, and these the more removal of external barriers can never assure. Lawrence M. Mead, Beyond Enlightenment Rich enough to buy another, poor enough to sell oneself Rousseau As Nietzsche himself observed, the flip side of an urge to dominate is an urge to submit and then to construe victimization as a claim to privilege. National Review, 1992, p 25 668: the neighbor of the Beast The test of anything in the Victorian mind was "does society approve?" Pirsig They conferred, as against the government, the right to be left alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men Justice Brandeis It is my belief that there are absolutes in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be absolute. Justice Hugo Black It is true that liberty is precious. So precious that it must be rationed. Lenin Ethical values cannot be separated from biological facts Potter, Bioethics Whether a democracy addicted to excesses can reform itself Richard Lamm The general rule is that a democratic politician had better not be right too soon. Walter Lipmann Where they make a desert, they call it peace. Tacitus. Strange game, professor Falkan. The only winning move is not to play. War Games The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting. David Nolan. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman, Song of Myself Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn's rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die . . . Mary Elizabeth Frye I take a bottle of wine and I go drink it among the flowers. We are allways three ... counting my shadow and my friend the shimmering moon Happily the moon knows nothing of drinking, and my shadow is never thirsty When I sing, the moon listens to me in silence. When I dance, my shadow dances too. After all festivities the guests must depart. This sadness I do not know. When I go home, the moon goes with me and my shadow follows me. Li Po, The Little Fete Quis hic locus? Quae regio? Quae mundis plaga? What world is this? What Kingdom? What shores of what worlds? Lucius Annaeus Seneca Minor Quis hic locus, quae regio, quae mundi plaga? ubi sum? sub ortu solis, an sub cardine glacialis ursae? What place is this, what region, what quarter of the world? Where am I? Under the rising of the sun or beneath the wheeling course of the frozen bear? Seneca, _Herucles Furens_ line 1138 Quoted in T.S. Eliot's "Marina" It's what Hercules says when he comes to his senses after killing his wife & children. I've wondered how such lines made their way to Hollywood. Probably through Eliot's "Marina," where Eliot quotes Seneca. It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch. found on a tombstone Biological man does not create his society any more than soil creates a tree....Biological man is exploited and devoured by social patterns that are essentially hostile to his biological values. Robert Pirsig Representative government in the United States represents money, not people, and therefore forfeited our allegiance and moral support. Edward Abby And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. Jeremiah 2:7 Bioethics - ethical values cannot be separated from biological facts. Van Rensselaer Potter Dover Beach The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægæan, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Matthew Arnold If a builder build a house for some one and complete it, he shall give him a fee of two shekels in money for each sar of surface. If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. If it kill the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death. If it kill a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house. If it ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means. If a builder build a house for some one, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means. First Building Code, Hammurabi, c. 1810 BCE – 1750 BCE Thou knowest I am not wicked ... yet thou dost destroy me. Job He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts -- for support rather than for illumination. Andrew Lang (oft quoted as history for statistics) The Invisible Foot term coined by Milton Friedman Everything not forbidden is compulsory. T. H. White The authority of a chief is permanently established by continuity of war. Herbert Spencer There are no phenomena which a society presents but what have there origins in the phenomena of individual human life, which again have their roots in vital phenomena at large. Herbert Spencer A large class of officiously humane people, can never see any social evil, but they propose to pass some law for its future prevention. It never strikes them that the misfortunes of one are lessons for thousands - that the world generally learns more by its mistakes than by its successes. Herbert Spencer Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control. Jack Hugh, Cato Institute People smart enough to want to learn are smart enough to tune the selector button to the channel that has what they want. Mary Ruwart It is wrong to demand that the individual subordinate himself to the collectivity or merge in it, because it is by its most advanced individuals that the collectivity progresses and they can really advance only if they are free.... The individual is indeed the key of the evolutionary movement. Sri Aurobindo, The Future Evolution of Man The law, aspiring to the perfect housing abode, has accumulated so many good ideas that the only type of new building that is permitted must satisfy middl- class standards. A law that dictates either a model home or no home is probably fine for some, but what about those trying to provide housing for the poor? Philip K. Howard, The Death of Common Sense We have invented a hybrid government form that achieves near perfect inertia. No one is in control. No one makes decisions. Only the massive weight of accumulated laws keeps everyone in check. Philip K. Howard Just as life preservers are not the preferred means of keeping passengers afloat, judicial review was not the preferred means of protecting the liberties of the people. Randy E. Barnett All the varied rights of man were threatened with submergence in a single right, that of belonging to a popular majority, or more accurately, of being represented by a legislative majority. Randy E, Barnett Law sufficiently complex is indistinguishable from no law at all. Charles Murray An essential element of lawfulness is law which is simple, objective and consistently applied. Charles Murray What is deadening to the soul is not to lose but to be forbidden to win. Charles Murray A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested - Frank Rizzo A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged - Tom Wolfe Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges! Treasure of the Sierra Madre, film quote When you look at the long an gloomy history of man, you will find far more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ben committed in the name of rebellion. C. P. Snow "Either-Or" From childhood's hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone. Poe The astrological zodiac was not founded on the stars, but on symbolic motifs of our inner nature. Aratos (3rd cent. BCE) Little people are entitled to little justice. Gerry Spence God against man. Man against man. Man against woman. Man against nature. Very strange religion. D. T. Suzuki, on Christianity History is a long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. M.L King The legitimate object of government is to do for a community what they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. Abraham Lincoln, 1854 If you don't know where you're going, slow down. Herman E. Daley and John B. Cobb, Jr. For the Common Good What has posterity ever done for me? Kenneth Boulding It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose. William A. Henry III, In Defense of Elitism Generals always prepare for the last war proverb, author unknown How lucky it is for tyrants that one half of mankind doesn't think and the other half doesn't feel. J. G. Seume, quoted by Auden The censorial power is in the people over government, not the government over the people. James Madison From each according to his ability, to each according to his work Gorbachev The real problem is what to do with the problem-solvers after the problems are solved. Gay Talese Long experience has taught us that it is dangerous in the interest of truth to suppress opinions and ideas; it has further taught us that it is foolish to imagine that we can do so. It is far easier to meet an evil in the open and defeat it in fair combat in people's minds, than to drive it underground and have no hold on it or proper approach to it. Evil flourishes far more in the shadows than in the light of day. Jawaharlal Nehru, The Unity of India, 1937 To live and work as bid by conscience Political maturity of the people Gorbachev phrases From time to time it is necessary that pestilence, famine and war prune the luxuriant growth of the human race. Aristotle Tough Love Garret Hardin We do not know what we are and cannot agree on what we want to be Vercours, You Shall Know Them Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglass: A poor man shames us all Gambra saying We shall achieve justice in Athens when those who are not wronged are more indignant than those who are. Unknown Greek philosopher aprender en cabeza ajena - Spanish saying, to learn in another's head Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong Lord Acton Freedom is the luxury of self-discipline Lord Acton ??? The State has our instincts without our restraints Will &Ariel Durant, Lessons of History Government has been a giant pyramid scheme, a chain letter to the future Richard Lamm On the tablet of history we will have ti confess "It happened on our watch" Richard Lamm Hell is truth seen to late John Locke Immortality is one of the qualities we ascribe to people without having a sufficient understanding of their meaning. Other qualities of this kind are individuality, in the sense of an inner unity, a permanent and unchangeable I, consciousness and will. All these qualities can belong to man, but this certainly does not mean that they do belong to him, or belong to each and every one. Gurdjieff, quoted by Ouspensky, p. 39 Man is not born with the finer bodies ... they can only be artificially cultivated in him provided favorable conditions but internal and external are present. Gurdjieff, quoted by Ouspensky, In Search, p. 41 What may be called the astral body is obtained by means of fusion, that is, by means of terribly hard inner work and struggle, Man is not born with it. And only very few men acquire an astral body. If it is formed it may continue to live after the death of the physical body, and it may be born again in another physical body. This is reincarnation. If it is not reborn, then in the course of time it also dies. Gurdjieff, quoted by Ouspensky, In Search, p. 32 Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government. George Washington, letter, Oct. 31, 1786 I see dead people walking around like regular people they don't see each other they only see what they want to see they don't know they're dead The Sixth Sense I see dumb people walking around like regular people they don't see each other they only see what they want to see they don't know they're dumb anon In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite. Paul Dirac A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested Georgios Seferis, via Maria Year after year in Washington, budget debates seem to come down to an old, tired argument: on one side, those who want more government, regardless of the cost; on the other, those who want less government, regardless of the need. Jeff Kallman That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Aristotle Evolution is recklessly opportunistic Ernst Mayer One could almost define life as the organized disobedience to the law of gravity. Pirsig Wilderness was just a scenic consideration, just a decoration at the edges of the human world. Dave Foreman Yes, we have a soul, but it's made of lots of tiny robots! Giulio Giorello, Italian philosopher During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequence of any misfortune. William James Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy. Vaclav Havel Making a living is not the same thing as making a life. Maya Angelou Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. Fielding Sanctified afflictions are spirititual promotions. Matthew Henry Anybody can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Greatness of soul is shown as well by what is attempted as by what is achieved. C. Nestell Bovee In the power of fixing the attention lies the most precious of the intellectual habits. Robert Hall Well begun is half done. Horace Carpe Diem. Horace The world has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood. Lyndon B. Johnson Caution, though very often wasted, is a good risk to take. H.W. Shaw Chance favors the prepared mind. Louis Pasteur If we don't change our direction we'll end up where we're headed. Chinese Proverb Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand how hard it is to change others. Arnold Glasow Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof. John Kenneth Galbraith Christ has no body now on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks out upon the world, yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good, yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now. St. Theresa To me it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography. George Santayana Are you out to win an argument or an agreement? Jim Lytle Conservatives are not ncessarily stupid people, but most stupid people are conservative. J.S. Mill Formula for contentment: just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you had right now - and then got it back again. Frances Rodman True contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. Gilbert K. Chesterton The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a creative mind to spot wrong questions. A. Jay In a calm sea every man is a pilot. John Ray (1627-1705) To escape criticism: do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. Elbert Hubbard The trouble with most people is that that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than their minds. Walter Duranty First deserve, then desire. Proverb Enthusiasm- etym. en theos, possessed by a god The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. Anatole France The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) Experience is the name people give to their mistakes. Jewish proverb The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. Theodore Hesburgh He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little. Horace Genius is the capacity for seeing relationships where other men see none. William James Beware of the man whose God is in the skies. G.B. Shaw Everone desires long life, not one old age. Johnathan Swift The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. John Milton A cottage will hold as much happiness as would stock a palace. James Hamilton Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we think up to hide them. La Rouchefoucauld Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. O.W. Holmes It is not enough to aim - you must hit. Italian proverb How many joys are crushed because people look up at the sky and disregard what is at their feet. Goethe's mother Justice: a decision in your favor. Harry Kaufman He who laughs, lasts. Mary Pettibone Poole Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism, distrust of the people tempered be fear. Gladstone So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot. George Orwell You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. Evan Esar A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something. Wilson Mizner Men do not trip on mountains, they trip on small stones. Chinese Luck - where preparation meets opportunity. Earl Nightengale The harder you work the luckier you get. Gary Player Learn from the mistakes of others- you can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Martin Vanbee Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think and thinking where we ought to feel. J. Collins How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. Annie Dillard Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. Henry Ford An optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist knows it is. Robert J. Oppenheimer A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. Reginald Mansell We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. Talmud QBLH Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny. Elbert Hubbard Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans. Thomas La Mance People are not afraid of death per se, but of the incompleteness of their lives. Lisel Marburg Goodman There has been a lot of progress during my lifetime, but I'm afraid it's heading in the wrong direction. Ogden Nash In leaving nothing to chance you will do few things wrong. You will also do few things. ??? Reason is a very light rider, and easily shook off. Johnathan Swift People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness. John Wanamaker True repentance is to cease from sin. St. Ambrose One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. Andrew Gide Nothing splendid was ever achieved except by those who dared to believe that something within them was superior to circumstances. Bruce Barton Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. Eric Hoffer Rabbi Zusya said that on the day of judgment God would ask him not why he had not been Moses but why he had not been Zusya. Rabbi Zusya If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. Proverb quoted by Sam Levinson It is a pleasure to have someone to whom we can say, from time to time, that solitude is a fine thing. Balzac A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices. William James Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. Winston Churchill Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Virtue is doing it. David Starr Jordan Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. Wordsworth These Macedonians are a rude and clownish people; they call a spade a spade. Plutarch No one can ascend onto a higher step until he places another man in his own place. What a man received he must immediately give back; only then can he receive more. Otherwise from him will be taken even what he has already been given. G. I. Gurdjieff "More than any time in history, mankind now faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly." -- Woody Allen, Side Effects There was once a Wise Sage who wandered the countryside. One day, as he passed near a village, he was approached by a woman who saw he was a Sage, and told him of a sick child nearby. She beseeched him to help this child, as he may. The Sage came to the village, and a crowd gathered around him, for such a man was a rare sight. One woman brought the sick child to him, and he said a prayer over her. "Do you really think your prayer will help her, when medicine has failed?" yelled a man from the crowd. "You know nothing of such things! You are a stupid fool!" said the Sage to the man. The man became very angry with these words, and his face grew hot and red. He was about to say something, or perhaps strike out at him, when the Sage walked over to him and said: "If one word has such power as to make you so angry and hot, may not another have the power to heal?" And thus, the Sage healed two people that day. Unknown If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they can't be very important gods. Arthur C. Clarke Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced -- even a proverb is no proverb till your life has illustrated it. -- John Keats When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. Charles Evans Hughes There in the water Color of water moves fishes... Raizan The Baptists believe in The Right to Life before you're born. They also believe in Life After Death, but that is a privilege and you have to earn it by spending the interim in guilt-ridden misery. At an early age I decided that living a life of pious misery in the hope of going to heaven when it's over is a lot like keeping your eyes shut all through a movie in the hope of getting your money back at the end. A. Whitney Brown, "The Big Picture" Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes. Murray Edelman, Politics as Symbolic Action You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand. Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924) I know not, sir whether Bacon wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he missed the opportunity of his life. J.M. Barrie (1860 - 1937) We realize too late that we never taught our students what ducks know without knowing, that "we must love life before loving its meaning," as Dostoyevsky told us. We must love life, and some meaning may grow from that love. A marsh at nightfall is life loving itself. Nothing more. But nothing less, either, and we should not be fooled into thinking this is a small thing. Kathleen Dean Moore, Holdfast Political and social institutions of all kinds, as viewed by Chuang Tzu, serve only to impose suffering on man. This is because the natures of different things are not identical, and each individual has its own special likings. Hence, they neither need be, nor should they be, forcibly made identical. Since things are thus different, it is right that they should remain different. In this way uniformity is made out of difference. All political and social institutions, however, decide upon a single Good as a standard for conduct, and make all men follow this standard. This is to constrain difference to a forced uniformity, in which case what is intended to help people results only in harming them. Fung Yu-Lan, A History of Chinese Philosophy Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting. Alan Dean Foster, "To the Vanishing Point" Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. William Pitt Liberty don't work as good in practice as it does in speeches. Will Rogers (1879 - 1935) Black drinks the sun and draws all colours to it. Robert Graves Remember the generational battles twenty years ago? Remember all the screaming at the dinner table about haircuts, getting jobs and the American dream? Well, our parents won. They're out living the American dream on some damned golf course in Vero Beach, and we're stuck with the jobs and haircuts. P. J. O'Rourke It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. Sally Kempton on the twelfth floor a life's work holds open the book-reviewer's door Martin Burke A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) For every living creature that succeeds in getting a footing in life there are thousands or millions that perish. There is an enormous random scattering for every seed that comes to life. This does not remind us of intelligent human design. "If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousand casual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather - assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence. J.W.N. Sullivan There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we have met the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us. Walt Kelly The idea that men are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other. David Riesman If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. Frank Herbert Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. General Colin Powell Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual? Pliny the Elder (23 AD - 79 AD) To us, the moment 8:17 A.M. means something - something very important, if it happens to be the starting of our daily train. To our ancestors, such an odd eccentric instant was without significance - did not even exist. In inventing the locomotive, Watt and Stevenson were part inventors of time. Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it. It may help us to escape all criticism, we may even be able to deceive ourselves in the belief of our obvious righteousness. But deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, "There is something not right," no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code. Carl G. Jung, intro to Frances G. Wickes' "Analysis der Kinderseele" (The Inner World of Childhood), 1931 The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles. Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 1966 I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. Lillian Hellman (1907 - 1984) The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873), "On Liberty", 1859 The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards. Alexander Jablokov, The Place of No Shadows Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. W. B. Yeats Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening. Edwin Hubbel Chapin Science progresses one funeral at a time. (not a quote, but a paraphrase of:) A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them to see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Max Planck It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us. Peter De Vries One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. A. A. Milne We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)å A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design abuilding, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, giveorders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love" What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes. Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings-- they are so trite, so threadbare. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders his life according to their teachings cannot be far wrong. Has any man ever attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through fire. Norman Douglas When you determined what you want, you have made the most important decision of your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it. Douglas Lurtan We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like. Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980) Too many people have decided to do without generosity in order to practise charity. Albert Camus, The Fall Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going. Christopher Darlington Morley Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (But who will guard the guards?) Juvenal There was a young woman named Jenny, Whose limericks weren't worth a penny. Her rhythm and rhyme Were perfectly fine But whenever she tried to write any, She always had one line too many. Anonymous There once was a man from Dundoo Whose limericks stopped at line two. Anonymous Hypocrisy is the vaseline of political intercourse. Billy Connolly on ABC's "Head Of the Class" The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community. William James (1842 - 1910) The more I work with the body, keeping my assumptions in a temporary state of reservation, the more I appreciate and sympathize with a given "disease." The body no longer appears as a sick or irrational demon, but as a process with its own inner logic and wisdom. Dr. Thomas Arnold Mindell One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'. Dan Quayle, 12/6/89 To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one's responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. Paul Valery (1871 - 1945) The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life. Daniel Boorstin After several minutes of utterly dull conversation I began to think of her not as a woman but as a human, then not as a human but as an animal, then not as an animal but as a source of high-grade protein. Mark Gooley Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. P.J. O'Rourke Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations [It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system. Dan Quayle I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. Richard Feynman It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that. G. H. Hardy I don't believe in intuition. When you get sudden flashes of perception, it is just the brain working faster than usual. But you've been getting ready to know it for a long time, and when it comes, you feel you've known it always. Katherine Anne Porter, 1989 Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling into at night. I miss you like hell. Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950), Letters, 1952 The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!' John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963) Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time. Rabbinical Saying Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. Edward Everett Hale I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. Herbert Bayard Swope A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation. Saki He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator. Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) It was mentioned on CNN that the new prime number discovered recently is four times bigger than the previous record. John Blasik God does not play dice with the universe; he plays an ineffible game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. Gaiman and Pratchett's "Good Omens" In Biblical times, a man could have as many wives as he could afford. Just like today. Abigail Van Buren Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it. Moses Hadas (1900 - 1966) Sometimes when I look at my children I say to myself, "Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin." Lillian Carter, mother of Jimmy and Billy Sex is the biggest nothing of all time. Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) It cost about 75 cents to kill a man in Ceasar's time. The price rose to about $3,000 per man during the Napoleonic wars; to $5,000 in the American Civil War; and then to $21,000 per man in World War I. Estimates for the future wars indicate that it may cost the warring countries not less than $50,000 for each man killed. Senator Homer T. Bone It is a very lonely life that a man leads, who becomes aware of truths before their times. Thomas Brackett Reed A well cultivated mind is made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only the one single mind educated by all previous time. Fontenelle It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before. Author Unknown A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the full value of time and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. Rambler I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by a dryrot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in a magnificient glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time. Jack London, Personal Credo Time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves. We lose as much to life as we do to death. Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, 'A Woman of Independent Means' Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1809 - 1894) That all our knowledge begins with experience, there is indeed no doubt....but although our knowledge originates WITH experience, it does not all arise OUT OF experience. Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards. Arthur Koestler Originality is simply a pair of fresh eyes. Thomas Wentworth Higginson In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Douglas Adams The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. Bertrand Russell, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader To emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on Heaven is to create hell. In their desperate longing to transcend the disorderliness, friction, and unpredictability that pesters life; in their desire for a fresh start in a tidy habitat, germ-free and secured by angels, religious multitudes are gambling the only life they may ever have on a dark horse in a race that has no finish line. Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All A great philosophy is not one that passes final judgments and establishes ultimate truth. It is one that causes uneasiness and starts commotion. Charles Peguy Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States (1928) Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do; and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) When shit becomes valuable, the poor will be born without assholes. Henry Miller (1891 - 1980) Somewhere on this globe, every ten seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped. Sam Levenson (1911 - 1980) The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom. Justice William O. Douglas Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe. Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change. Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value. Hermann Hesse Models are to be used, not believed. H. Theil `Principles of Econometrics' Somebody once asked Niels Bohr why he had a horseshoe hanging above the front door of his house. "Surely you, a world famous physicist, can't really believe that hanging a horseshoe above your door brings you luck?". "Of course not," Bohr replied, "but I have been reliably informed that it will bring me luck whether I believe in it or not." Neils Bohr Etymology, n.: Some early etymological scholars come up with derivations that were hard for the public to believe. The term "etymology" was formed from the Latin "etus" ("eaten"), the root "mal" ("bad"), and "logy" ("study of"). It meant "the study of things that are hard to swallow." Mike Kellen One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business. Tom Robbins Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an unidentified source. Ron Nesen I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy. Richard Feynman Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. Unknown A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice. Bill Cosby Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. General Colin Powell Stay away from needle drugs. Richard Nixon is the only dope worth shooting. Abbie Hoffman You teach best what you most need to learn. Richard Bach The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it! (It's rather like getting tenure.) Daniel Dennett, from Consciousness Explained Penicillin was indeed the product of accidental discovery, but the discovery was made, and the knowledge developed, because certain scientists had definite goals in mind. "Chance," Pastuer wrote, "favors only the prepared mind." The mind must be prepared not only by scientific training and technological know-how, but also by the awareness of social needs. Saturday Review Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. Storm Jameson The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views...which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering. Doctor Who Not even the gods fight against necessity. The Seven Sages (650 BC - 550 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn't poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh not deprived but rather underprivileged) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don't have a dime. But I have a great vocabulary. Jules Feiffer Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate Occam, alternate phrasing Necessity knows no law. Publilius Syrus First things first, but not necessarily in that order. Doctor Who That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions, and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions. George Santayana (1863 - 1952) He who would rise in the world should veil his ambition with the forms of humanity. Chinese Proverb The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1890 Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams. Mary Ellen Kelly Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave. Baron Henry Peter Brougham Every man serves a useful purpose: A miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor. Laurence J. Peter The prime purpose of eloquence is to keep other people from talking. Louis Vermeil The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose. William Cowper Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Helen Keller The atom, being for all practical purposes the stable unit of the physical plane, is a constantly changing vortex of reactions. Unknown The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. James Baldwin As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found--in himself. Erich Fromm After all, what is your hosts' purpose in having a party? Surely not for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi. P. J. O'Rourke The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us. Quentin Crisp Cruel men believe in a cruel God and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case. Bertrand Russell Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Malcolm S. Forbes “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass I am not sure that God always knows who are his great men; he is so very careless of what happens to them while they live. Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934) God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. Irving Caesar You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. Eric Hoffer ...the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. Stewart L. Udall, 1965 Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. George Washington All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few. Stendhal It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that the Internet has evolved into a force strong enough to reflect the greatest hopes and fears of those who use it. After all, it was designed to withstand nuclear war, not just the puny huffs and puffs of politicians and religious fanatics. Denise Caruso, (New York Times) He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires and fears is more than a king. John Milton He that fears your presence will hate you absence. Thomas Fuller A peace that comes from fear and not from the heart is the opposite of peace. Gersonides Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted. Arthur Friedman ??? Alfred Adler ??? Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isnt clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life. Wu-Men A View of T'ai-Shan What shall I say of the Great Peak? -- The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green, Inspired and stirred by the breath of creation, With the Twin Forces balancing day and night. . . . I bear my breast toward opening clouds, I strain my sight after birds flying home. When shall I reach the top and hold All mountains at a single glance? Tu Fu In ethics, prudence is not an important virtue, but in the world it is almost everything. Mason Cooley (b. 1927) Neither moral relations nor the moral law can swing in vacuo. Their only habitat can be a mind which feels them; and no world composed of merely physical facts can possibly be a world to which ethical propositions apply. William James (1842–1910), Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) The gods, likening themselves to all kinds of strangers, go in various disguises from city to city, observing the wrongdoing and the righteousness of men. Homer (~700 BC) Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter... This is it... If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here's the place to have the experience. Joseph Campbell The right to vote is a *consequence*, not a primary cause, of a free social system -- and its value depends on the constitutional structure implementing and strictly delimiting the voters' power; unlimited majority rule is an instance of the principle of tyranny. Ayn Rand The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions. Claude Levi-Strauss I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. James Russell Lowell Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850) Then there was LSD, which was supposed to make you think you could fly. I remember it made you think you couldn't stand up, and mostly it was right. PJ O'Rourke True education makes for inequality; the inequality of individuality; the inequality of success; the glorious inequality of talent, of genius; for inequality, not mediocrity, individual superiority, not standardization, is the measure of the progress of the world. Felix Emmanuel Schelling Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up save in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. C.S. Lewis To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert (1821 - 1880) The individual's whole experience is built upon the plan of his language. Henri Delacroix Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty years can never have loved mankind. Sebastien Chamfort Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying No to any authority--literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social and even political. Ignazio Silone, The God That Failed (1950) Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. Cyril Connolly (1903 - 1974) Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy. John C. Sawhill Whatever their other contributions to our society, lawyers could be an important source of protein. Guindon cartoon caption National Health Insurance: The compassion of the IRS The efficiency of the Postal Service All at Pentagon prices!!!! Seen on a bumper sticker To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know? Socrates (469–399 B.C.), I've never understood why women love cats. Cats are independent, they don't listen, they don't come in when you call, they like to stay out all night, and when they're home they like to be left alone and sleep. In other words, every quality that women hate in a man, they love in a cat. Jay Leno At night, the moon is hunting wearing silver Indians are its easy prey Arthur Sze "Lament" If you think you're too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. Bette Reese The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That's the essence of inhumanity. GB Shaw Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have! But they have one thing you haven't got - a diploma. Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitatus Committeatum E Pluribus Unum, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Th. D...that's Doctor of Thinkology. The Wizard of Oz It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end one has no more to offer by way of advice than "try to be a little kinder." Aldous Huxley Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose. Baltasar Gracian You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Jeanette Rankin The best things in life are not things. Ann Landers To me life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside. Rita Rudner You have to be very religious to change your religion. Comtesse Dianne, Maximes de a Vie What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable. Louise Nevelson Like all dreamers, I confuse disenchantment with truth. Sartre Men hate those to whom they have to lie. Victor Hugo Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. Solzhenitsyn He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft. James Russell Lowell If men could forsee the future they would still behave as they do now. Russian proverb A man with no future will always run to his past. Due South Experience is something you do not get until just after you need it. Oliver's law It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. Stuart's law of retroaction You can't fall off the floor. Paul's law An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing. Weber's definition This I believe: to oppose Is the only fine thing in life. To oppose is to live. To oppose is to get a grip on the very self. Kaneko Mitsuharu I am this world and I eat this world. Who knows this knows. Taittreya Upanishad The strongest are those who renounce their own times and become a living part of those yet to come. The strongest, and the rarest. Milovan Djilas To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee. William Walton Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came prepared to be forgiven. Charles William There is no escape - man drags man down or man lifts man up. Booker T. Washington There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both save us from thinking. Alfred Korzybski New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. John Locke The soul has more diseases than the body. Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) Water tells a tale as it goes. Busson There must be more to life than having everything. Maurice Sendak Things are not untrue just because they never happened. Dennis Hamley The answers aren't important really. What's important is knowing all the questions. Zilpha Keatley Snyde Deep Peace of the Running Wave to You Deep Peace of the Flowing Air to You Deep Peace of the Quiet Earth to You Deep Peace of the Shining Stars to You Deep Peace of the Gentle Night to You Moon and Stars pour their Healing Light on You Deep Peace to You Celtic Blessing Man is stark raving mad. He cannot make a worm, but he makes gods by the dozen. Montaigne Woe is wondrously clinging: the clouds ride by. Anon. Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite. Every nation gets the government it deserves. Joseph de Maistre, 1811 Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than minority of them - never become conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through? C. S. Lewis I can’t understand why people are frignhtened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones. John Cage Nothing can be attained without suffering, but at the same time we must begin by sacrificing suffering. Gurdjieff In the fight between you and the world, back the world. Frank Zappa Pay no attention to what the critics say... Remember, a statue has never been set up in honor of a critic! Jean Sibelius Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood. Logan Pearsall Smith Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. John Kenneth Galbraith You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers. John J. Plomp One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. Andre Gide Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority. Ralph W. Sockman When man wanted to make a machine that would walk he created a wheel, which does not resemble a leg. Apollinaire You don't get anything clean without getting something else dirty. Cecil Baxter The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness. Andre Malraux It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. Abraham Lincoln Everyone has their first date and the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then you're married and it's about hiding your sins. The Dollhouse Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day. Bertrand Russell Speech is conveniently located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for both. John Andrew Holmes I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. Bill Cosby This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. Rene Descartes Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. Leonardo da Vinci The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action. Frank Herbert Some things have to be believed to be seen. Ralph Hodgson God's an imaginary friend for grownups. Elmore Leonard, Big Bounce If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Abraham Maslow I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. Will Rogers In just two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday. Unknown I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.. Unknown Red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is bad for you. Unknown Heaven is Where: The Police are British The Chefs are Italian, The Mechanics are German, The Lovers are French and It's all organized by the Swiss. Hell is Where: The Police are German, The Chefs are British, The Mechanics are French, The Lovers are Swiss and It's all organized by the Italians. Making duplicate copies and computer printouts of things no one wanted even one of in the first place is giving America a new sense of purpose. Andy Rooney For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three. Alice Kahn worth paraphrasing Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. Doug Larson The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. H. L. Mencken Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. Charles Mackay I have seen the future and it doesn't work. Robert Fulford Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? Jay Leno Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Iris Murdoch Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity. Flaubert Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke, Clarke's Third Law For every one of them that dies, ten of us may die and in the end it is they who will tire of war. Ho Chi Minh? Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. Steven Weinberg Love like green signal in traffic jam, Sahib From a movie "My Faraway Bride" The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it. Emerson Pugh "Life's tough... it's even tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning. Sir Winston Churchill A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors. William Ralph Inge It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. Soren Kierkegaard Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas A. Edison In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D. Eisenhower Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog. Doug Larson The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. George F. Will The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. Samuel Johnson One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. Andrew Carnegie Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. […] Is there no other way the world may live? Dwight David Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech, 1953 Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Martin Luther King Jr. From The New Atlantis, 1626 We have also furnaces of great diversities, and that keep great diversity of heats; fierce and quick, strong and constant, soft and mild, blown, quiet, dry, moist, and the like. But above all we have heats, in imitation of the sun's and heavenly bodies' heats, that pass divers inequalities, and as it were orbs, progresses, and returns whereby we produce admirable effects. Besides, we have heats of dungs, and of bellies and maws of living creatures and of their bloods and bodies, and of hays and herbs laid up moist, of lime unquenched, and such like. Instruments also which generate heat only by motion. And farther, places for strong insulations; and, again, places under the earth, which by nature or art yield heat. These divers heats we use as the nature of the operation which we intend requireth. We have also perspective houses, where we make demonstrations of all lights and radiations and of all colors; and out of things uncolored and transparent we can represent unto you all several colors, not in rainbows, as it is in gems and prisms, but of themselves single. We represent also all multiplications of light, which we carry to great distance, and make so sharp as to discern small points and lines. Also all colorations of light: all delusions and deceits of the sight, in figures, magnitudes, motions, colors; all demonstrations of shadows. We find also divers means, yet unknown to you, of producing of light, originally from divers bodies. We procure means of seeing objects afar off, as in the heaven and remote places; and represent things near as afar off, and things afar off as near; making feigned distances. We have also helps for the sight far above spectacles and glasses in use; we have also glasses and means to see small and minute bodies, perfectly and distinctly; as the shapes and colors of small flies and worms, grains, and flaws in gems which cannot otherwise be seen, observations in urine and blood not otherwise to be seen. We make artificial rainbows, halos, and circles about light. We represent also all manner of reflections, refractions, and multiplications of visual beams of objects. We have also precious stones, of all kinds, many of them of great beauty and to you unknown, crystals likewise, and glasses of divers kind; and among them some of metals vitrificated, and other materials, besides those of which you make glass. Also a number of fossils and imperfect minerals, which you have not. Likewise loadstones of prodigious virtue, and other rare stones, both natural and artificial. We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmony which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly; we have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and, as it were, tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances. ... We have also engine-houses, where are prepared engines and instruments for all sorts of motions. There we imitate and practise to make swifter motions than any you have, either out of your muskets or any engine that you have; and to make them and multiply them more easily and with small force, by wheels and other means, and to make them stronger and more violent than yours are, exceeding your greatest cannons and basilisks. We represent also ordnance and instruments of war and engines of all kinds; and likewise new mixtures and compositions of gunpowder, wild-fires burning in water and unquenchable, also fire-works of all variety, both for pleasure and use. We imitate also flights of birds; we have some degrees of flying in the air. We have ships and boats for going under water and brooking of seas, also swimming-girdles and supporters. We have divers curious clocks and other like motions of return, and some perpetual motions. We imitate also motions of living creatures by images of men, beasts, birds, fishes, and serpents; we have also a great number of other various motions, strange for equality, fineness, and subtilty. ... These are, my son, the riches of Salomon's House. Frances Bacon, The New Atlantis, 1626 One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person. William Feather Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. Ellen Goodman Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Sir Winston Churchill Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones. Bertrand Russell The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. Steven Weinberg The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. e e cummings The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever. Anatole France There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. Sir Francis Bacon Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions. Evan Esar Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this, that you are dreadfully like other people. James Russell Lowell I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. George Bernard Shaw In all recorded history there has not been one economist who has had to worry about where the next meal would come from. Peter Drucker For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing. H. L. Mencken The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest. Kilgore Trout The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Ronald Reagan To survive is sometimes a leap into madness. The fingers of saints are still hot from miracles, but can they save themselves? Joy Harjo, In Mad Love and War Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it George (Santayana If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me Jimmy Buffett There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry. Martin Gardner The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. HL Mencken My work is a game, a very serious game. MC Escher The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught. Marquis de Vauvenargues Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there. E. H. Gombrich If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst. Thomas Hardy Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. Friedrich von Schille It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. William G. McAdoo Every politician on earth claims to support freedom. The problem is so few of them understand the simple meaning of the word. Ron Paul The greater the hold of government upon the life of the individual citizen, the greater the risk of war. John Hospers We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities. Walt Kelly, From Pogo Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. Philip K. Dick Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it. Harry S. Truman Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. Faith Whittlesey What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better. Sydney J. Harris Never knock on Death's door: ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that! Matt Frewer Today's Tip for Fiction Writers: A good way to 'liven up" the plot of a novel is to add some romantic interest. Wrong: Doreen entered the room. Right: Doreen entered the room and had sex with Roger. Dave Barry I like coconuts, you can break them open & they smell like ladies lyin' in the sun Panic Widespread The first day was golden and she colored the Sun and she named it Hyperion and she made it a day of light and healing The second was silver and she colored the Moon and she named it Phoebe and she made a day of enchantment and the living waters And the third was many-colored and she colored the Earth and she made a day of joy with the scarlet strength of seed In the fourth the black and white were mingled into quicksilver and she colored Mercury and she made a day of wisdom and the signs that are placed in the firmament The fifth was bright blue and she envisaged Jupiter and she made a day of awe and circles, circles and she set it to dye the blood of the universe The sixth was burning with icy green flames that glowed white and of her beauty she made Venus and she made a day of love whereby all beings are united The seventh was rich purple, of the mollusks and she colored Chronos and she made a day of idleness and repose whereby all beings cease from struggle Incredible String Band Asking which contributes more to intelligence, heredity or environment, is like asking which contributes more to the area of a field - its length or it width? Neither can contribute anything by itself. Donald Hebb Nature gets credit which should in truth be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent: the nightingale for his song: the sun for his radiance. The poets are entirely mistaken. They should address their lyrics to themselves, and should turn them into odes of self-congratulation on the excellency of the human mind. Nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly. (S.M.W. P. 80) A.N. Whitehead A man with no future will always run to his past Due South (TV show) If this were a church, you could shush me. Since this is a bar, these are my genitals. Steve Pagano Most men are within a finger's breadth of being mad. Diogenes the Cynic He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors. Rudyard Kipling Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so. Bertrand Russell Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. Kurt Vonnegut The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. George Bernard Shaw What was there in those sovereigns to entitle them to your laudatory mention? Their sophistical reasonings (resembled) the reckless breaking down of walls and enclosures and planting the wild rub us and wormwood in their place; or making the hair thin before they combed it; or counting the grains of rice before they cooked them . They would do such things with careful discrimination; but what was there in them to benefit the world? If you raise the men of talent to office, you will create disorder; making the people strive with one another for promotion; if you employ men for their wisdom, the people will rob one another (of their reputation) 1. These various things are insufficient to make the people good and honest. They are very eager for gain;--a son will kill his father, and a minister his ruler (for it). In broad daylight men will rob, and at midday break through walls. I tell you that the root of the greatest disorder was planted in the times of Yâo and Shun. The branches of it will remain for a thousand ages; and after a thousand ages men will be found eating one another. Zhuangzi, Ch 23 One of the great dreams of man must be to find some place between the extremes of nature and civilization where it is possible to live without regret. Barry Lopez I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific. Jane Wagner (and Lily Tomlin) As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. Josh Billings (1818 - 1885) The trouble ain't that people are ignorant. It's that they know so much that ain't so. Josh Billings Common sense and sense of humor are the same thing moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. Clive Jones Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. Ayn Rand Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Alfred North Whitehead The follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity. Helen Rowland It is an error to imagine that evolution signifies a constant tendency to increased perfection. That process undoubtedly involves a constant remodelling of the organism in adaptation to new conditions; but it depends on the nature of those conditions whether the directions of the modifications effected shall be upward or downward. Thomas H. Huxley Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good; try to use ordinary situations. Jean Paul Richter The imperfect is our paradise. Note that, in this bitterness, delight, Since the imperfect is so hot in us, Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds. Wallace Stevens As the bonfires of knowledge grow brighter, the more the darkness is revealed to our startled eyes. Terrence McKenna The success of the masterpieces seems to lie not so much in their freedom from faults – indeed we tolerate the grossest errors in them all – but in the immense persuasiveness of mind which has completely mastered its perspective. Virginia Woolf The universe is made of stories, not atoms. Muriel Rukeyser What you cannot know in your body you can know nowhere else. The Upanishads “There is no use trying,’ said Alice. ‘One can't believe impossible things.’ ‘I dare say you haven't had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’” Lewis Carroll To change a major paradigm is to change our definition of what is possible. Mark B. Woodhouse The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves. Abraham Lincoln There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen. Sean O'Faolain I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King Jr. "Reality" is the only word in the English language that should always be used in quotes. Unknown For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. Richard Feynman Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky. The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrant nude differs from a nude by Manet. Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation Intuition is the source of scientific knowledge. Aristotle When a thing is new, people say: 'It is not true.' Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: 'It is not important .' Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: 'Anyway, it is not new.' " William James Dear dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night. Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost remember feeling a little different. Lewis Carroll Things are not as they appear to be. Nor are they otherwise. The Lankavatara Sutra Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. Niels Bohr The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct “actuality” of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation is impossible, however. Werner Heisenberg The smallest units of matter are, in fact, not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word; they are forms, structures or— in Plato's sense—Ideas, which can be unambiguously spoken of only in the language of mathematics. Werner Heisenberg We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. Werner Heisenberg Observation plays a decisive role in the event and . . . the reality varies, depending upon whether we observe it or not. Werner Heisenberg I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ' Bu t how can it be like that?' because you will go 'down the drain' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. Richard Feynman People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances that they want, and if they can't find them, make them. George Bernard Shaw The last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Viktor Frankl In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true. John Lilly Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw To know ourselves as this free, creative energy is to know the meaning of life in this world. Bruno Barnhart We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is awaiting us. . . . The old skin has to be shed before the new one is to come. Joseph Campbell We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Buddha Of all the creatures of earth, only human beings can change their patterns. Man alone is the architect of his destiny. . . . Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. William James We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it . . . and change it as times change, truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts. Salman Rushdie It's never too late to have a happy childhood Tom Robbins How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd." Alexander Pope "What Semiramis Said" The moon's a steaming chalice Of honey and venom-wine. A little of it sipped by night Makes the long hours divine. But oh, my reckless lovers, They drain the cup and wail, Die at my feet with shaking limbs And tender lips all pale. Above them in the sky it bends Empty and gray and dread. To-morrow night 'tis full again, Golden, and foaming red. Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), 1920 You dangle a carrot in front of her nose And she goes wherever the carrot goes. Aleister Crowley Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ; For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be, Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well, And better than thy stroke ; why swell'st thou then ? One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And Death shall be no more ; Death, thou shalt die. John Donne (1572-1631) May God us keep from Single vision & Newton’s sleep! William Blake I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue . . . "No good in a bed, but fine against a wall." Eleanor Roosevelt The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible. George Burns Santa Claus has the right idea .. Visit people only once a year. Victor Borge By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Socrates Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat. Alex Levine Money can't buy you happiness . but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery. Spike Milligan What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money. Henny Youngman Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. Herbert Henry Asquith I don't feel old. I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap. Bob Hope We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress. Will Rogers The cardiologist's diet: If it tastes good ... spit it out. Unknown Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government. Henry Kissinger Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. Ayn Rand Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha None are more hopelessly enslaved, than those who falsely believe themselves to be free. Goethe A free people should be armed and disciplined and ought to have sufficient arms and ammunition to protect themselves from all who might abuse them, including their own government. General George Washginton Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power. Benito Mussolini Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an underground dictatorship... To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic... The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom." Dr Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence It is enough that the people know there was an election;. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. Joseph Stalin Loyalty is the realization that America was born of revolt, flourished in dissent, became great through experimentation. Our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past while we silence the rebels of the present. Henry Steele Commanger I can't begin to tell you how much I love my country. I love it enough to risk its wrath by pointing out the things that will destroy it, harm it very deeply Martin Sheen, Actor Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism and find criticism subversive. Henry Steele Commager When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. Clarissa Pinkola Estes The first casualty when war comes, is Truth. Senator Hiram Johnson (1917) Why of course the people don't want war.... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Goering The greatest threat to our world and its peace comes from those who want war, who prepare for it, and who, by holding out vague promises of future peace or instilling fear of foreign agression, try to make us accomplices to their plans. Herman Hesse (1877-1962) Mental floss prevents Truth decay. St. Germain Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals. O Pioneer War is a confession that we don't believe in ourselves, that we have more belief in the instruments of violence. Dennis J. Kucinich He who fails to assert his rights - has none. Author Unknown What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible. Theordore Roethke If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for life is even greater than their fear. People who can open to the web of life that called us into being, and who can rest in the vitality of that larger body... Joanna Macy When they came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) An old Navajo was telling his grandson about the fight that is going on inside of him. He said it is between two wolves: one is evil (anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, superiority, etc) and the other is good (joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, empathy, etc). The grandson thought about it and asked, "Which wolf wins?" He replied, "The one I feed." Anon He who dies in the Lie is destined to repeat it. Cmdr. Gyeorgos Ceres Hatonn There is no such thing as a friendship between nations. No nation can be trusted beyond its perceived self-interest. George Washington The greatest purveyor of violence on the planet is my own government. Dr. Martin Luther King Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate (but) that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light - not our darkness - that frightens us. We ask ourselves Who am I to be brilliant/gorgeous/talented/fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be! You are a child of god. Your playing small does not save the world. We are born to manifest the glory of God within us. (It is) within everyone. Marianne Williamson The measure of our lives does not depend solely on how we have lived, but upon how much we leave behind. Charlton Heston All the water in the sea can't sink the ship that doesn't let the water in. Mary Baker Eddy We are forgetting that we are a part of that which we mindlessly destroy and, as such, we will be our own last victims. Paul Watson, Co-Founder, Greenpeace. We cannot allow the state an autocratic right to govern outside the Constitution. Boyd E. Graves, J.D What luck for the rulers that men do not think. Adolph Hitler Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. Voltaire Scientific criticism has no nobler task than to shatter false beliefs. Ludwig von Mises All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across. Julian Simon What Goes Around... His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life. "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did. Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, he graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill. He who does not enjoy solitude will not enjoy freedom. Arthur Schopenhauer This assembly of life took a billion years to evolve. It has eaten the storms - folded them into its genes - and created the world that created us. E.O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life The big bang of the human psyche - the recognition of death. Northern Exposure Clouds are so beautiful I could bite my toes! Matthew Howe (age 4) since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you: totally to be a fool while Spring is in the world my blood approves, and kisses are a better fate than wisdom lady I swear by all flowers. Dont cry -the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids' flutter which says we are for each other: then laugh, leaning back in my arms for life's not a paragraph And death I think is no parenthesis ee cummings "You are a great and powerful nation. Are you not ashamed that you give so much time to the pursuit of money, and reputation, and honors, and care so little for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul?" Socrates, Apology 'And he said unto them, "If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God answered and told him what he must do, should the man do as he is told?" "Of course, Master!" cried the many. "It should be pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of hell itself, should God ask it!" "No matter what those tortures, no matter how difficult the task?" "Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned, if so be that God has asked," said they. "And what would you do," the Master said unto the multitude, "if God spoke directly to your face and said, 'I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.' What would you do then?" And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood.' Richard Bach, Illusions Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing. Redd Foxx To speak of the love of humanity is meaningless. There is no such thing as humanity. What we call humanity has a name, was born, lives on a street, gets hungry, needs all the particular things we need. As an abstract, it has no reality whatsoever Howard Thurman There once was a secluded village in the middle of a forest. Ocassionally travelers came by and it was decided they should have a wise old person standing at the crossroads greeting strangers. The first day a traveler came by. The traveler asked the old person, "I am looking for a new village to live in. What kind of people do you have in your village?" The greeter replied, "What kind did you have in your old village?" "Oh, they were mean and rotten, they were just awful horrible people. I couldn't wait to leave." The greeter said, "we have the same kind here." The next day another traveler came by and asked the same question, "what kind of people do you have here?" Again the greeter answered, "what kind did you have in your old village?" The traveler answered, "they were just wonderful people, fully loving caring, I just hated to leave." The wise old greeter said, "We have same kind here." ??? The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet. William Gibson And as a private citizen, believe me, you are looked on as a major nuisance. The facts are, you now have a government that comes at you and you're supposed to have a government that comes from you. Ross Perot, presdential debates, 1992 Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable. ??? Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you. Sheng-yen 2 Blondes A blond woman is driving her car and gets pulled over at an intersection by a blond woman cop. The blond lady cop walks up to the blond driver's car and says, "May I see your license, please?" The blond driver asks, "Excuse me, officer, but what does it look like?" The cop says, "It has your picture on it." After rifleing through her purse for several minutes, the driver hands the cop her compact. The cop opens the compact, looks at the mirror, hands it back to the driver and says, "Well, ma'am, I stopped you because you failed to come to a complete stop at that stop sign behind you; but, I am going to let you go with a warning this time as a professional courtesy." The blond driver says, "Thank you very much, officer, but why is it a 'professional courtesy'?" The blond cop says, "I didn't realize you were a police officer until I saw your license!" ??? Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut the bitch up with cookies. ??? Old age ain't no place for sissies. Bette Davis I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. Jennifer Unlimited Heaven has French cooks, English police, German mechanics, Italian lovers, and it’s all run by the Swiss. Hell, in contrast, has English cooks, German police, French mechanics, Swiss lovers and the whole damn place is run by the Italians. ??? Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman Start with the Sun, and everything else will slowly, slowly happen. D.H. Lawrence It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Jiddu Krishnamurti. Political ability is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen. Winston Churchill Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same thing. Oscar Wilde I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. Woody Allen. After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. H. L. Mencken, on Shakespeare. Love ... The delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering she looks like a haddock. John Barrymore The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. Robert Maynard Hutchins Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. G.M. Trevelyan Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. Robert Louis Stevenson Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. Thomas Huxley We live and we learn. But, sadly, at different rates. Alan Magid Man's mind stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards. Vernor Sanders Words are tools which automatically carve concepts out of experience. Julian S. Huxley Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. G.K. Chesterton Adults are obsolete children. Dr. Seuss If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. Ignacio Estrada If you want to see what children can do, you must stop giving them things. Norman Douglas If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. Chinese proverb The best teachers are those that show you where to look but don't tell you what to see. Alexandra K. Trenfor The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do. John Stuart Mill A teacher affects eternity; no one can tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done. Jean Piaget Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value to its scarcity. Samuel Butler A prudent question is one-half of wisdom. Sir Francis Bacon Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. Edward Everett The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions. Anthony Jay I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework. Edith Ann [Lily Tomlin] I forget what I was taught. I only remember what I have learnt. Patrick White Let early education be a sort of amusement, you will then better be able to find out the natural bent of the child. Plato I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow. Woodrow Wilson Don't worry that children are never listening to you. Worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent. John F. Kennedy The freedom to make mistakes provides the best environment for creativity. ??? There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. Buckminster Fuller In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. Eric Hoffer I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. Harry S. Truman Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. Leonardo da Vinci Education is understanding relationships. George Washington Carver Education's responsibility is to replace an empty mind with an open one. Malcolm Forbes If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Derek Bok, President, Harvard University Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. Cardinal Wolsey What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher...? It is to be able to say "the children are now working as if I did not exist. Maria Montessori The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. Amos Bronson Alcottl The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said. Peter F. Drucker One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer. Stephen Hawking Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a flame. W.B. Yeats The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. G.K. Chesterton Discovery consists of seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought. Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education...The human mind is our fundamental resource. John F. Kennedy It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think. To improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, rather than to load the memory with thoughts of other men. Bill Beattie Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. John W. Gardner Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back. Chinese Proverb The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another. Marva Collins Never help a child with a task that they feel they can complete themselves. Maria Montessori The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Henri L. Bergson Inside every older lady is a younger lady -- wondering what the hell happened. Cora Harvey Armstrong Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut her up with cookies. Cora Harvey Armstrong Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult. Charlotte Whitton If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning. Catherine When I was young, I was put in a school for retarded kids for two years before they realized I actually had a hearing loss. And they called ME slow! Kathy Buckley Behind every successful man is a surprised woman. Maryon Pearson Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. Eleanor Roosevelt There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman...neither works. Will Rogers Never miss a good chance to shut up. Will Rogers If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Will Rogers Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Will Rogers The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Will Rogers Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved. Will Rogers I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top. Will Rogers A fool and his money are soon elected. Will Rogers Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me, but things vary, and adopt a new form. The phrase "being born" is used for beginning to be something different from what one was before, while "dying" means ceasing to be the same. Though this thing may pass into that, and that into this, yet the sums of things remains unchanged. Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD), Metamorphoses Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple. Barry Switzer Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground. Peacemaker, founder of the Iroquois Confederacy, (ca. 1000 AD) It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self. Agnes Repplier Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Helen Keller A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) The idea that men are created free and equal is both true and misleading: men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy in seeking to become like each other. David Riesman One way of looking at the history of the human group is that it has been a continuing struggle against the veneration of 'crap.' Our intellectual history is a chronicle of the anguish and suffering of men who tried to help their contemporaries see that some part of their fondest beliefs were misconceptions, faulty assumptions, superstitions, and even outright lies. Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner, Teaching as a Subversive Activity I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. Gerry Spence The mind can assert anything and pretend it has proved it. My beliefs I test on my body, on my intuitional consciousness, and when I get a response there, then I accept. D. H. Lawrence The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) Some things have to be believed to be seen. Ralph Hodgson, on ESP It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away. Kenich Ohmae A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes. James Feibleman If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe. Lord Salisbury Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. Andre Gide Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Lewis Carroll Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. Demosthenes (384 BC - 322 BC), Third Olynthiac Nothing changes more constantly than the past; for the past that influences our lives does not consist of what happened, but of what men believe happened. Gerald W. Johnston Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering’ — then you should abandon them.” And “When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them. Buddha (Kalama Sutta, AN 3.65). If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him. If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near. Sun-Tzu, The Art of War To believe with certainty we must begin by doubting. King Stanislas I of Poland We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings. Ovid As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use. William James (1842 - 1910) The source of Pyrrhonism comes from failing to distinguish between a demonstration, a proof and a probability. A demonstration supposes that the contradictory idea is impossible; a proof of fact is where all the reasons lead to belief, without there being any pretext for doubt; a probability is where the reasons for belief are stronger than those for doubting. Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686–1743), Scottish philosopher This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as I live it is my privilege - my *privilege* to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I've got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) The only thing you will ever be able to say in the so-called 'social' sciences is: "some do, some don't. Ernst Rutherford A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship. Aristotle When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life. Geoffrey F. Abert One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public! Bryan White, Reader's Digest Magazine 1999 Man seeketh in society comfort, use and protection. Sir Francis Bacon Conscience, in most men, is but the anticipation of the opinions of others. Taylor's Statesman Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. Charlotte Bronte Character is that which reveals moral purpose, exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids Aristotle What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) Without a doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built. Lord Samuel, "Romanes Lecture", 1947 Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it. Helen Hayes, in Roy Newquist, Showcase, 1966 The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life. Daniel Boorstin Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't as all. You can be discouraged by failure - or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that's where you will find success. Thomas J. Watson Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience. James F. Clarke Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. Raymond Lindquist Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Scott Adams, 'The Dilbert Principle' Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. William Plomer Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Karl Menninger Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. Ray Bradbury All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) The mainspring of creativity appears to be the same tendency which we discover so deeply as the curative force in psychotherapy, man's tendency to actualize himself, to become his potentialities. By this I mean the organic and human life, the urge to expand, extend, develop, mature - the tendency to express and activate all the capacities of the organism, or the self. Carl Rogers The heatlh of an environmental system is directly proportionate to its diversity. An Axiom in Ecology There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity. Michel Eyquem, seigneur de Montaigne (1533–1592) There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and other people. Montaigne The war we have to wage today has only one goal and that is to make the world safe for diversity. U Thant, Burma, UNSecretary-General Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour. William Cowper, The Task, Bk ii, `The Timepiece', 606 Order, unity and continuity are human inventions just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) Hell is other people. Jean Paul Sartre Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992) Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. William Plomer The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created--created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination. John Schaar, futurist Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Karl Menninger All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) As it must not, so genius cannot be lawless; for it is even that constitutes its genius-- the power of acting creatively under laws of its own origination. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) The war we have to wage today has only one goal and that is to make the world safe for diversity. U Thant, Burma, UNSecretary-General Order, unity and continuity are human inventions just as truly as catalogues and encyclopedias. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) Laws, religions, creeds, and systems of ethics, instead of making society better than its best unit, make it worse than its average unit, because they are never up to date. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Everywhere, the ethical predicament of our time imposes itself with an urgency which suggests that even the question “Have we anything to eat?” will be answered not in material but in ethical terms. Hugo Ball (1886–1927), It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly. Margaret Mead Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences. Midori Koto The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed. Susan Sontag (b. 1933), The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior. Earl Warren My belief is that no being and no society composed of human beings ever did, or ever will, come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way. John Viscount Morley, of Blackburn The task of the educator lies in seeing that the child does not confound good with immobility and evil with activity. Maria Montessori Evil is unspectacular and always human And shares our bed and eats at our own table. W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden, Herman Melville Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings. Helen Keller, My Religion Nothing is evil which is according to nature. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room. Blaise Pascal, Pensées There is no law of progress. Our future is in our own hands, to make or to mar. It will be an uphill fight to the end, and would we have it otherwise? Let no one suppose that evolution will ever exempt us from struggles. 'You forget,' said the Devil, with a chuckle, 'that I have been evolving too.' William Ralph Inge This survival of the fittest which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called "natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life." Herbert Spencer: Principles of Biology. Indirect Equilibration.. The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, Ch. 4 We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting. Samuel Johnson Long ailments wear out pain, and long hopes, joy. Stanislaus I of Poland A man's character is his fate. Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC) How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is. Wilhelm von Humboldt Nature is at work.. Character and destiny are her handiwork. She gives us love and hate, jealousy and reverence. All that is ours is the power to choose which impulse we shall follow. David Seabury Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny. John Oliver Hobbes One can always point to a time, a choice, an act that set the tone for a life and changed a personal destiny. Carol O'Connel An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn't happen today. Laurence J. Peter Fortune favors the brave. Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC), Aeneid He who finds Fortune on his side should go briskly ahead, for she is wont to favor the bold. Baltasar Gracian I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value. Hermann Hesse Fate is unalterable only in the sense that given a cause, a certain result must follow, but no cause is inevitable in itself, and man can shape his world if he does not resign himself to ignorance. Pearl S. Buck Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them. Marilyn Ferguson Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death. James F. Byrnes We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. Plato (427 AD - 347 AD) Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life. Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956), The Mother, 1932 We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears. Author Unknown The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt. Thomas Merton I saw that all things I feared, and which feared me, had nothing good or bad in them save insofar as the mind was affected by them. Spinoza, Dutch Philosopher What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it. Jiddu Krishnamurti The trouble with most people is that that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than their minds, Walter Duranty Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire. Jean de La Fontaine I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. George Eliot (1819 - 1880) The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not "to have and to hold" but "to give and serve." There can be no other meaning. Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and act. Hannah More The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881) In studying the history of the human mind one is impressed again and again by the fact that the growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and that each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. One could almost say that nothing is more hateful to man than to give up even a particle of his unconsciousness. Ask those who have tried to introduce a new idea! Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) We find comfort among those who agree with us--growth among those who don't. Frank A Clark The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice. George Eliot (1819 - 1880) Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers. John J. Plomp If you do not feel yourself growing in your work and your life broadening and deepening, if your task is not a perpetual tonic to you, you have not found your place. Orison Swett Marden Love does not dominate; it cultivates. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both. James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity. Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) One of the serious obstacles to the improvement of our race is indiscriminate charity. Andrew Carnegie Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim. William Feather, The Business of Life Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate. - All hope abandon, ye who enter here. Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, `Inferno', iii. 9 Expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of hope. Arnold H. Glasow Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. Francis Bacon, Apothegms, 36 Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords. Dr Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they're in August. Ronnie Shakes Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future. Charles F. Kettering Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for .success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good. Vaclav Havel Take hope from the heart of man, and you make him a beast of prey. Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramee) The test of a first-fate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1895) It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities... interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible.... C. G. Jung Responsiblity is a unique concept. It can only reside and inhere in a single individual. You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. You may disclaim it, but you cannot divest yourself of it. Admiral Hyman Rickover Everything without tells the individual that he is nothing; everything within persuades him that he is everything. X. Doudan We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique. John Dewey Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction. Ayn Rand, Anthem, 1946 History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965) You can't build a reputation on what you intend to do. Liz Smith Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies. Philip Dormer Chesterfield (1694 - 1773) Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening. Edwin Hubbel Chapin Every man without passions has within him no principle of action, nor motive to act. Claude A. Helvetius Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. Harriet Braiker The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck. B. C. Forbes The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep. George Stephanopolous Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner A great philosophy is not one that passes final judgments and establishes ultimate truth. It is one that causes uneasiness and starts commotion. Charles Peguy One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing is to supply light and not heat Woodrow Wilson The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. Walt Whitman We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white. Eric Hoffer He who lets the world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him, has no need of any faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan for himself, employs all his faculties. He must use observation to see, reasoning and judgment to foresee, activity to gather materials for decision, discrimination to decide, and when he has decided, firmness and control to hold to his deliberate decision. John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873), On Liberty, 1859 I have made good judgements in the Past. I have made good judgements in the Future. Dan Quayle Non Judgment: In our world where it seems we are taught to judge everything all around and about us and we spend so much of our time doing just that, it might be wise to ask if we can judge anything. To judge anything with any degree of clarity and accuracy we would need all the information past, present and future and how it will affect all concerned to make a perfect judgment. Since no one has that skill, ability or information, you might agree, it may be unwise to judge. This idea may be hard to accept, but when you look back over your life and the judgments you made, ask yourself. How many of your judgments, when you made them, were you perfectly sure they were correct, would you want to change now with the benefit of 20 20 hindsight? Since every judgment is only an opinion based on the limited information at hand, filtered through one's personal value system, it might be safe to assume no two people will judge anything exactly the same. Even concepts of right and wrong, good or bad, good or bad morals and ethics are only opinions, for what may be good in one case may be a disaster in another. Sidney Madwed And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Mat 7:3 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Mat 7:6 You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free. Clarence Darrow If you want to be free, there is but one way; it is to guarantee an equally full measure of liberty to all your neighbors. There is no other. Carl Schurz Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality. Theodor W. Adorno The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest. J.S.Mill, On Liberty Fiat Lux Deus In the beginning, there was nothing. And God said, 'Let there be Light.' And there was still nothing. But, you could see it. Dave Weinstein (dweinste@isis) You are the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. Ifyou seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency, your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end, and remain purely as a means. Dag Hammarskjold You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in. Arlo Guthrie Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets. Nido Qubein An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962) We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Charles Kingsley Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. Margaret Young Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done. Andy Rooney Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them. Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. October 3, 1952 Understand clearly that when a great need appears a great use appears also; when there is a small need there is small use; it is obvious, then, that full use is made of all things at all times according to the necessity thereof. Dogen Zenji We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it. J. M. Barrie You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. Vernon Howard Eat before shopping. If you go to the store hungry, you are likely to make unnecessary purchases. American Heart Association Cookbook I try to know what I need to know. I make sure to know what I want to know. Nero Wolfe Necessity, who is the mother of invention. Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Hans Hofmann The advertising industry is one of our most basic forms of communication and, allegedly, of information. Yet, obviously, much of this ostensible information is not purveyed to inform but to manipulate and to achieve a result -- to make somebody think he needs something that very possibly he doesn't need, or to make him think one version of something is better than another version when the ground for such a belief really doesn't exist. Marvin E. Frankel Creativity represents a miraculous coming together of the uninhibited energy of the child with it apparent opposite and enemy, the sense of order imposed on the disciplined adult intelligence. Norman Podhoretz For every living creature that succeeds in getting a footing in life there are thousands or millions that perish. There is an enormous random scattering for every seed that comes to life. This does not remind usof intelligent human design. "If a man in order to shoot a hare, were to discharge thousands of guns on a great moor in all possible directions; if in order to get into a locked room, he were to buy ten thousandcasual keys, and try them all; if, in order to have a house, he were to build a town, and leave all the other houses to wind and weather - assuredly no one would call such proceedings purposeful and still less would anyone conjecture behind these proceedings a higher wisdom, unrevealed reasons, and superior prudence." J.W.N. Sullivan Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. Henry Miller (1891 - 1980) Someone has described science as an orderly arrangement of what, at the moment, seems to be facts. Author Unknown Memory depends very much on the perspicuity, regularity, and order of our thoughts. Many complain of the want of memory, when the defect is in the judgment; and others, by grasping at all, retain nothing. Thomas Fuller It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do. C. C. Colton It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order -- and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order. Douglas Hostadter In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order. Will Durant, quoted in Time Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win. Jonathan Kozol Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919) Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. Horace Mann (1796 - 1859) Another such victory and we are lost. Pyrrhus (318 BC - 272 BC), from Plutarch, Lives The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting. Sun-tzu (~300 bce) Never fight an inanimate object. P. J. O'Rourke Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent. Euripides When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is; when we treat him as if he already were what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791 We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have done. Longfellow It may not be amiss, here, Gentlemen, to remind you of the good old rule, that on questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court to decide. But it must be observed that by the same law, which recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy. On this, and on every other occasion, however, we have no doubt, you will pay that respect, which is due to the opinion of the court: For, as on the one hand, it is presumed, that juries are the best judges of facts; it is, on the other hand, presumable, that the court are the best judges of law. But still both objects are lawfully, within your power of decision. State of Georgia v Brailsford, 3 U.S. 1 (1794) We recognize, as appellants urge, the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by the judge, and contrary to the evidence. This is a power that must exist as long as we adhere to the general verdict in criminal cases, for the courts cannot search the minds of the jurors to find the basis upon which they judge. If the jury feels that the law under which the defendant is accused, is unjust, or that exigent circumstances justified the actions of the accused, or for any reason which appeals to their logic of passion, the jury has the power to acquit, and the courts must abide by that decision. US vs Moylan, 417 F 2d 1002, 1006 (1969) No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, or disseized [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed - nor will we go upon [condemn] or send upon [imprison] him - save by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land. Magna Carta AD 1215, Clause 39 Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life. Joseph Campbell It is because nations tend towards stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for things that it moves at all. George Gissing A good deed is the best form of prayer Serbian proverb Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. Thomas Carlyle When you have given nothing, ask for nothing. Albanian Proverb The healthy, the strong individual, is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul. Rona Barrett There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers. Saint Theresa of Jesus Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out. Sydney Smith (1771 - 1845) A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. William James (1842 - 1910) From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn. Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions. Jessamyn West Five senses; an incurably abstract intellect; a haphazardly selective memory; a set of preconceptions and assumptions so numerous that I can never examine more than minority of them - never become conscious of them all. How much of total reality can such an apparatus let through? C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963) It is well, when judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior imapartiality. Arnold Bennett I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. Kahlil Gibran Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules,- Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Redeem / The time. Redeem / The unread vision in the higher dream. T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday, IV We are always in search of the redeeming formula, the crystallizing thought. Etty Hillesum Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up save in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. C.S. Lewis Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Theresa Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. Dietrich Bonhoffer We can gradually grow into any condition we desire, provided we first make ourselves in habitual mental attitude the person who corresponds to those conditions. Thomas Troward If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. Dan Quayle The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all. Jawaharlal Nehru A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own... let them take risks, for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches- that is the right and privilege of any free American. 16 Idaho Law Review 407, 420 - 1980. Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. T.S. Eliot War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stewart Mill Necessity does the work of courage. George Eliot When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life. Greg Anderson On action alone be thy interest, Never on its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be thy motive, Nor be thy attachment to inaction. Bhagavad Gita My passions were all gathered together like fingers that made a fist. Drive is considered aggression today; I knew it then as purpose. Bette Davis The link between ideas and action is rarely direct. There is almost always an intermediate step in which the idea is overcome. De Tocqueville points out that it is at times when passions start to govern human affairs that ideas are most obviously translated into political action. The translation of ideas into action is usually in the hands of people least likely to follow rational motives. Hence, it is that action is often the nemesis of ideas, and sometimes of the men who formulate them. One of the marks of the truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action. Eric Hoffer Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. Lin Yutang Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success. T. T. Munger Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards. Robert Heinlein Dishonor will not trouble me, once I am dead. Euripides (485 BC - 406 BC), Alcestis, 438 B.C. When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out. Russian proverb Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do. Voltaire (1694 - 1778) The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. John Burroughs The Paleolithic hunters who painted the unsurpassed animal murals on the ceiling of the cave at Altamira had only rudimentary tools. Art is older than production for use, and play older than work. Man was shaped less by what he had to do than by what he did in playful moments. It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities. Eric Hoffer The sensual and spiritual are linked together by a mysterious bond, sensed by our emotions, though hidden from our eyes. To this double nature of the visible and invisible world—to the profound longing for the latter, coupled with the feeling of the sweet necessity for the former, we owe all sound and logical systems of philosophy, truly based on the immutable principles of our nature, just as from the same source arise the most senseless enthusiasms. Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt Be a fountain, not a drain. Rex Hudler, quoted in 'Sports Illustrated' Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did. Lillian Hellman, An Unfinished Woman, 1969 Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. Ben Hecht Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning. Even Science, the strict measurer, is obliged o start with a make-believe unit, and must fix on a point in the stars' unceasing journey when his sidereal clock shall pretend that time is Nought. His less accurate grandmother Poetry has always been understood to start in the middle; but on reflection it appears that her proceeding is not very different from his; since Science, too, reckons backward as well as forward, divides his unit into billions, and with his clock-finger at Nought really sets off _in medias res_. No retrospect will take us to the true beginning; and whether our prologue be in heaven or on earth, it is but a fraction of that all-presupposing fact with which our story sets out. George Eliot from "Daniel Deronda" Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time. Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919) As time goes on, new and remoter aspects of truth are discovered which can seldom be fitted into creeds that are changeless. Clarence Day Life does not count by years. Some suffer a lifetime in a day, and so grow old between the rising and the setting of the sun. Augusta Jane Evans The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse time. Merrick Furst Time is what prevents everything from happening at once. John Archibald Wheeler (1911 - ), American J. of Physics, 1978, 46, 323 What is ten thousand years? Time is short for one who thinks, endless for one who yearns. Alain Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. Carl Sandburg I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me. Pooh Commit random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. Anne Herbert Nobody ever celebrates room temperature. Larry Moore A good occupational force must never crush--it must corrupt. "Shogun" One must never drive his enemy to despair-- it makes him strong. "Shogun" Label something, kill it a little. Larry Moore Some thoughts should be thrown out upon the second wearing. Larry Moore Being rich is like being ten feet tall-- it's good for some things, bad for others. Larry Moore Death is learning new tricks to living--and not being able to try them out. Larry Moore Half the art of conversation lies in silence. Larry Moore A man's memory is what he forgets with. Odell Shepard If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found. ??? Imagine this butterfly exactly as it is, but ugly instead of beautiful. Ludwig Wittgenstein My mother used to tell me, "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. "Harvey" I'm sorry--this is a scene in which I have no lines. Larry Moore Not to understand a man's purpose does not make HIM confused. "Kung Fu" It's just his style--he doesn't mean anything by it. Larry Moore Everything has two handles: one by which it can be carried and one by which it cannot. Epictetus I'm glad I don't like peas, because if I liked peas, I'd probably eat them--and I hate peas. Capote Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. Basho Unformed people delight in the gaudy and in novelty. Cooked people delight in the ordinary. Zen saying As two buddhist monks walked a muddy road, they came upon a beautiful young woman in a silk kimono, unable to cross an intersection. The first monk picked her up and carried her across. The two monks travelled on in silence. At the end of the day the second monk, obviously perturbed, said, "How could you do that? You know we are supposed to avoid women; they're dangerous!" The first monk replied, "I put her down at the side of the road; you are still carrying her." Zen lore Make each act virgin, even the repeated one. after Rene Char The word "explain" means literally to flatten out. Philip Slater There is another world, but it is in this one. Paul Eluard What if your knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like? ??? The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself. Bertrand Russell My work is done, why wait? suicide note of George Eastman, founder of Kodak Hope is the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent. Jean Kerr You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Jeannette Rankin In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace--and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock. "The Third Man" It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. Murphy's Law, Book Two Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Susan Ertz Any new venture goes through the following stages: enthusiasm, complication, disillusionment, search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent, and promotion of those who did nothing. ??? If Jesus was Jewish, how come he has a Mexican name? Truman Capote I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. Bertrand Russell Nobody speaks the truth when there's something they must have. Elizabeth Bowen Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Nick Diamos We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. Calvin Coolidge A God we can understand is no God. Professor Dillon It is a mistake to allow any mechanical object to realize you are in a hurry. Ralph's Observation Beware, gentle knight: the greatest monster of them all is reason. Don Quixote If you want something badly, that's how you get it. Petty Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity. Barbara Stanwyck I wish I had gotten as much in bed as I got in the newspapers. Linda Ronstadt Oppressed people are frequently very oppressive when first liberated. They know but two positions: Somebody's foot on their neck or their foot on somebody's neck. Florence Kennedy I've always found paranoia a perfectly defensible position. Pat Conroy Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status. L. Peters The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting. Gloria Leonard Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year. Short North Sal Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon. Woody Allen Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. Plato Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. Potter Stewart Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Soren Kierkegaard During sex I fantasize that I'm someone else. Richard Lewis Everybody has sex now. When I was a kid only women had sex and you had to get it from them. Tony Stone You might be a redneck if you've been too drunk to fish. Jeff Foxworthy Strong women leave big hickies. Madonna Complete truthfulness is one of the rarest of virtues. Even those who regard themselves as absolutely truthful are daily guilty of over-statements and under-statements. Exaggeration is almost universal. Herbert Spencer I went to a bookstore the other day. I asked a woman behind the counter where the self-help books were. She said, "If I told you that would defeat the whole purpose." Brian Kiley I can't mate in captivity. Gloria Steinem I'm walking home from school and I'm watching some men build a new house. All of a sudden the guy hammering on the roof calls me a paranoid little weirdo. In Morse code. Emo Phillips I come from a small town where the population never changes. Each time a woman gets pregnant someone leaves town. Michael Pritchard A man was arrested and when the police searched him they found he had a half-foot cobra in his pants. Apparently the guy was pretty well-endowed because when they asked him what the snake was doing in his pants, he replied, "Dating." Bill Maher I cannot afford to waste my time making money. J. Louis R. Agassiz The fuchsia is the world's most carefully spelled flower. Jimmy Barnes Deep down, I'm pretty superficial. Ava Gardner I was recently born again. I must admit it's a glorious and wonderful experience, but I can't say my mother enjoyed it a whole lot. John Wing Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. Philip K. Dick In a little over a hundred years? All new people. Anne Lamott One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams, 1923 Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences. Lewis Mumford I think I should not go far wrong if I asserted that the amount of genuine leisure available in a society is generally in inverse proportion to the amount of labor-saving machinery it employs. E.F. Schumacher What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions. Arnold Glasow Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught. Baba Dioum Mountains flow, Rivers sit Dogen There has never been an objective being. Knowing that, the rest is known. The Upanishads ...I ask you to consider—if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the Board of Directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I tell you something—the faculty are a bunch of employees and we're the raw material! But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings!...There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all. Mario Savio, 1964 What we learn from one another does not die, so we have to be careful what we hand down. Roar Any severance produces two wounds that are, among other things, the record of how the severed parts once fitted together. Wendell Berry Only at the moment of opposition does the self emerge as a function of the mind. Hua-Ching Ni The real gets buried and the false runs wild. People have all sorts of emotions, feelings and desires, developing complex and involuted psychologies. A hundred worries disturb their minds, then the thousand things tax their bodies. They think what is miserable is enjoyable, they think what is false is real. They have entirely lost the original state. Liu I-Ming The court official in one life has seven rebirths as a beggar. Chinese proverb Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry? John Adams, to Thomas Jefferson Reality is the shifting face of need. Anonymous Grafitti Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The Wizard of Oz At the ancient pond A frog plunges into The sound of water Basho Three feet of snow Enlightened, not enlightened No difference now Steve Sanfield Emptying the piss pot He notices the moon Pours it on himself Steve Sanfield Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village, though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it's queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there's some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost, Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening What is this gift that things give, senators, if it isn't in their ability to declare that they have given life to those from whom they haven't taken it? Cicero We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds. Leif Smith You can fool too many people too much of the time. James Thurber Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. Voltaire Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. Groucho Marx Sorcery is a journey of return. We return victorious to the spirit, having descended into hell. And from hell we bring trophies. Understanding is one of our trophies. Castaneda, The Power of Silence Our youth now loves luxuries. They have bad manners and contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and they love to chatter instead of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants, of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers. Socrates What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. Epictetus There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another great truth. Niels Bohr Most advances in science come when a person, for one reason or another, is forced to change fields. Peter Borden Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have. Emile Chartier More men die of their medicines than their diseases. Moliere To the question "where does the soul go when the body dies?" Jacob Boehme answered, "There is no necessity for it to go anywhere", Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. Arthur Conan Doyle These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed ... Great necessities call out great virtues. Abigail Adams. Man is not made for society, but society is made for man. No institution can be good which does not tend to improve the individual. Margaret Fuller Everybody lies but it doesn't matter since nobody listens. Randall A. Forselius The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exception of oneself. Jane Adams Assassination is the extreme form of censorship. George Bernard Shaw I don't know what the purpose of life is, but the purpose of the question, "What is the purpose of life?" is to be larger than any answer can encompass, and so teach us three things: relativity, humility and wonder. John Simon The law is an ass, an idiot. Charles Dickens Advertising has done more to cause the social unrest of the 20th century than any other single factor. Claire Booth Luce Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. Paul Valery The official buzz phrase was "existence precedes essence," but perhaps a better slogan for existentialists would have been, "We're just making this up as we go". Unknown Patriotism is your conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it. George Bernard Shaw To have doubted one's own first principles is the first mark of a civilized man. Oliver Wendell Holmes There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. Christopher Morley Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training. Anna Freud If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. Rachel Carson I am prejudiced in favor of him who, without impudence, can ask boldly. He has faith in humanity, and faith in himself. No one who is not accustomed to give grandly can ask nobly and with boldness. Johann Kaspar More persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing than by believing too much. P.T. Barnum There is a difference in degrees between men's understandings, apprehensions and reasonings, to so great a latitude that one may, without doing injury to mankind, affirm that there is a greater distance between some men and others in this respect, than between some men and some beasts. John Locke We are all citizens of history. Clifton Faldiman It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself. Betty Friedman The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned, compact, liberal majority. Henrik Ibsen Most of us love from our need to love, not because we find someone deserving. Nikki Giovanni Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Rosa Luxemburg A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. Lord Morley Seek not the favor of the multitude: it is seldom got by honest and lawful means. But seek the testimony of the few; and number not voices, but weigh them. Immanuel Kant Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the memories of having read the reviews. John Updike Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college. Lillian Smith A religion that is small enough for our understanding would not be large enough for our needs. Arthur Balfour No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right. Helen Keller We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. James Harvey Robinson Beauty is the promise of happiness. Stendahl We are acting too cowardly to survive. No one guarantees that our species will survive unless we begin to develop courage. Maya Angelou The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. Horace Walpole To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Abraham Lincoln When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered. Dorothy Thompson We have lost the idea that reasonable men can disagree. Michael Crichton Death destroys a man. The idea of death saves him. E.M. Forster There is, I think, nothing in the world more futile than the attempt to find out how a task should be done when one has not yet decided what the task is. Alexander Meiklejohn We live by encouragement and die without it - slowly, sadly and angrily. Celeste Holm Open-mindedness is not the same as empty-mindednedd. To hang out a sign saying: "come right in; there is no one at home" is not the equivalent of hospitality. John Dewey I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it. Henry Emerson Fosdick As you live, believe in life. Always human beings will live and profess to greater, broader and fuller life. The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long. W.E.B. DuBois The great myth of the 20th century was for progressive people to imagine that the state was the engine of their hopes. Michael Novak Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson's Law I cannot accept the popular usage of the word chaos to mean something disorderly. I am more inclined to think that the poverty of our vision causes certain larger orders to seem in disarray. Clarissa Pinkola Estes I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work, and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't. Lucille Ball The history of almost every civilization furnishes examples of geographic expansion coinciding with deterioration in quality. Arnold Toynbee Rights not claimed are considered waived. A presumption of law History is principally the inaccurate narration of events which ought not to have happened. Ernest Albert Hooten A true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accidents, than of that reason of which we so much boast. Peter Cooper A happiness that is sought for ourselves alone can never be found; for a happiness that is diminished by being shared is not big enough to make us happy. Thomas Merton We are all more average than we think. Gorham Munson Modern man thinks he loses something - time - when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains - except kill it. Eric Fromm History is an accumulation of error. Norman Cousins To change and to improve are two different things. German Proverb I don't know what one means by happy. I'm happy spasmodically. If I eat a chocolate turtle, I'm happy. When the box is empty, I'm unhappy. When I get another box I'm happy again. Katherine Hepburn A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice. Edgar Watson Howe We do not usually look for allies when we love. Indeed, we often look on those who love with us as rivals and trespassers. But we always look for allies when we hate. Eric Hoffer I wanted a perfect ending ... Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next, Delicious ambiguity. Gilda Radner Every ambitious man is a captive and every covetous one a pauper. Arab Proverb It is no simple matter to pause in the midst of one's maturity, when life is full of function, to examine what are the principles which control that functioning. Pearl S. Buck If you are able to state a problem it can be solved. Edwin Land We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house. Annie Dillard My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. Adrienne Rich If we will have the wisdom to survive, to stand like slow-growing trees on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it, if we will make our seasons welcome here, asking not too much of earth or heaven, then a long time after we are dead the lives our lives prepare will live here.... Wendell Berry In the struggles we choose for ourselves, in the ways we move forward in our lives and bring the world forward with us, it is right to remember the names of those who gave us strength in this choice of living. It is right to name the power of hard lives well-lived. We share a history with those lives. We belong to the same motion. They too were strengthened by what had gone before. They too were drawn on by the vision of what might come to be. Those who lived before us, who struggled for justice and suffered injustice before us, have not melted into dust and have not disappeared, they are with us still. The lives they lived hold us steady. Their words remind us and call us back to ourselves. Their courage and love evoke our own. We carry them with us: we are their voices, their hands, their hearts. We take them with us, and with them, choose the deeper path of living. Kathleen McTigue Did someone say that there would be an end, an end, Oh, an end to love and mourning? What has been once so interwoven cannot be raveled, not the gift ungiven. Now the dead move through all of us still glowing. Mother and child, lover and lover mated, are wound and bound together and enflowing. What has been plaited cannot be unplaited-- only the strands grow richer with each loss and memory makes kings and queens of us. Dark into light, light into darkness, spin. When all the birds have flow to some real haven, we who find shelter in the warmth within, listen and feel new-cherished, new-forgiven, as the lost human voices speak through us and blend our complex love, our mourning without end. May Sarton, All Souls There are times when I stand aside and wonder at the strangeness of this world of ours. The years of all of us are short, our lives precarious. Our days and nights go hurrying on and there is scarcely time to do the little that we might. Yet we find time for bitterness, for petty treason and evasion. What can we do to stretch our hearts enough to lose their littleness? Here we are -- all of us -- all of us on this planet, bound together in a common destiny, living our lives between the briefness of the daylight and the dark. Kindred in this, each lighted by the same precarious, flickering flame of life, how does it happen that we are not kindred in all things else? How strange and foolish are these walls that separate and divide us! A. Powell Davies, "A Common Destiny" With mounds of greenery, the brightest ornaments, we bring high summer to our rooms, as if to spite the somberness of winter come. In time of want, when life is boarding up against the next uncertain spring, we celebrate and give of what we have away. All creatures bend to rules, even the stars constrained. There is a blessed madness in the human need to go against the grain of cold and scarcity. We make a holiday, the rituals varied as the hopes of humanity. The reasons as obscure as ancient solar festivals, as clear as joy on one small face. Margaret Starkey We consider bibles and religions divine—I do not say they are not divine I say they have all grown out of you, and may grow out of you still It is not they who give the life—it is you who give the life Walt Whitman Allons! to that which is endless, as it was beginningless, To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights, To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to, Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys; To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it, To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it, To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you—however long, but it stretches and waits for you; To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither, To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it; To take the best of the farmer’s farm and the rich man’s elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens, To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through. To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go, To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them—to gather the love out of their hearts, To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you, To know the universe itself as a road—as many roads—as roads for traveling souls. Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road, v13 Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will. Find out what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice which will be imposed upon them. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Frederick Douglass Trees and stone seem more like me each day. Rilke To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy. Hippocrates I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me, That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea... There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute, except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters. D.H. Lawrence Know that joy is rarer, more Difficult and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation. Andre Gide What you are looking for is who is looking. St. Francis The manifesto of the person . . . marks one of the great turning points in the human story . . . We may come to see that tribe, nation, class, social movement, revolutionary masses . . . that all these have, like shadows that eclipse the sun, gained their existence at the expense of something far brighter and more beautiful: our essential and still unexplored self. And, recognizing that truth, we may seek to replace these "higher" social allegiances with an astonishing ethical proposition—that all people are created to be persons, and that persons come first, before all collective fictions. Theodore Roszak Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates. Abbott Lawrence Lowell Don Juan assured me that in order to accomplish the feat of making myself miserable I had to work in the most intense fashion, and that it was absurd.... "The trick is in what one emphasizes," he said. "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. Carlos Castaneda We have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness. Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. Buddha A preaching point is not a meeting point. Mother Theresa You are merely the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, ‘your rights’, you prevent the oil and air from meeting in the flame, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency, your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end, and remain purely as a means. Dag Hammarskjold It is a terrible thing To be so open: it is as if my heart Put on a face and walked into the world Sylvia Plath We must cultivate and defend particularity, individuality, and irregularity—life. Human beings do not have a future in the collectivism of bureaucratic states or in the mass society created by capitalism. Every system, by virtue as much of its abstract nature as of its pretension to totality, is the enemy of life. As a forgotten Spanish poet, José Moreno Villa, put it with melancholy wit: “I have discovered in symmetry the root of much iniquity.” Octavio Paz Having discovered an illness, it is not particularly useful to prescribe death as a cure. George McGovern We don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a fish. John Culkin You know you can never find out what’s happening from the company bulletin or the adult press. You know that. The king’s messengers are always telling you what they want you to know, for their own benefit. The revolutionary message, what’s really happening, has always come from outcasts. Timothy Leary There is an artistry of experience that precedes the artistry of creation. Matthew Lipman Marriage is not a matter of creating a quick community of spirit by tearing down and destroying all boundaries. Rather, a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude. Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living, side by side, can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky. Rilke What is more beautiful than a road? It is the symbol and image of an active, varied life. George Sand How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you - you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your very life. Katherine Mansfield Oh lonesome's a bad place to get crowded into. Kenneth Patchen One must show man not when he's dressed up for Sunday, but in all his phases, his conditions, his base attitudes and spirit - that he goes on, he continues, he has outlived the dinosaur, he has outlived the atom bomb, and I'm convinced in time he can even outlive the wheel. William Faulkner They say there's no fool like an old fool. I have, however, seen several: they were, as it happens, young fools. Idries Shah If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. Thomas Pynchon The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or as a curse. Castaneda We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. Talmudic saying I did not see The flute you made of my bones Daniel Tucker You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word. Lewis Carroll, Looking Glass You haf too much ego in your cosmos. Rudyard Kipling Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork? Stanislaus Lee Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage. Benjamin Disraeli If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water. Bulgarian Proverb History is after all nothing but a pack of tricks we play on the dead. Voltaire Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. Voltaire Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself! Walt Whitman The tragedy of life is not so much that men suffer, but rather what they miss. Carlyle The map appears to us more real than the land. D.H. Lawrence Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat. John Morley Variability is one of the virtues of a woman. It obviates the crude requirements of polygamy. If you have one good wife you are sure to have a spiritual harem. G.K. Chesterton It doesn't much signify whom one marries, for one is sure to find out next morning that it was someone else. Samuel Rogers There is no true wealth beyond a man's need. Kahlil Gibran The rule of their order had but one clause: "Do what thou wilt". Rabelais Someone, I tell you, will remember us. We are oppressed by fears of oblivion yet are always saved by judgement of good men. Sappho Necessity makes even the timid brave. Sallust, Catilini "Abroad," that large home of ruined reputations. George Eliot No man is a prophet in his own village. Jewish Proverb That which we call intelligence in the mind of some people is but a local inflammation. Khalil Gibran Do you think you love your Creator? Love your fellow creatures first. Mohammed One hour's teaching is better than a whole night of prayer. Mohammed People complain about time being short, going fast. But when it seems to go slowly they complain that it drags. Let us consider the people, not the supposed movements of time. Idries Shah It is not the thing you fear that you must deal with, it is the mother of the thing you fear. David Whyte In monastery darkness by the light of one flashlight the old shrine room waits in silence While above the door we see the terrible figure, fierce eyes demanding, "Will you step through?" And the old monk leads us, bent back nudging blackness prayer beads in the hand that beckons. We light the butter lamps and bow, eyes blinking in the pungent smoke, look up without a word, see faces in meditation, a hundred faces carved above, eye lines wrinkled in the hand held light. Such love in solid wood! Taken from the hillsides and carved in silence they have the vibrant stillness of those who made them. Engulfed by the past they have been neglected, but through smoke and darkness they are like the flowers we have seen growing through the dust of eroded slopes, then slowly opening faces turned toward the mountain. Carved in devotion their eyes have softened through age and their mouths curve through delight of the carver’s hand. If only our own faces would allow the invisible carver's hand to bring the deep grain of love to the surface. If only we knew as the carver knew, how the flaws in the wood led his searching chisel to the very core, we would smile, too and not need faces immobilized by fear and the weight of things undone. When we fight with our failing we ignore the entrance to the shrine itself and wrestle with the guardian, fierce figure on the side of good. And as we fight, our eyes are hooded with grief and our mouths are dry with pain. If only we could give ourselves to the blows of the carver’s hands, the lines in our faces would be the trace lines of rivers feeding the sea where voices meet, praising the features of the mountain and the cloud and the sky. Our faces would fall away until we, growing younger toward death every day, would gather all our flaws in celebration to merge with them perfectly, impossibly, wedded to our essence, full of silence from the carver's hands. David Whyte, The Faces of Braga The biggest big business in America is not steel, automobiles, or television; it is the manufacture, refinement, and distribution of anxiety. Eric Sevareid Be a tiger - if you are ready for a tiger's problems. Arab Proverb The repentance of the wolf is death. Arab Proverb What is known to be tyranny to the superior man may appear to be justice to the ordinary one. Arab Proverb Because sugar is not arsenic, many graves are full. Arab Proverb Allah's the atheist. He owns no Allah. Bagh-i-Muattar The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a great lie than a small one. Hitler, Mein Kampf Oh lady with your legs so fine, Oh children of the wheel, You are locked into your suffering And your pleasures are the seal. Leonard Cohen Poor innocent! Hell has no power over pagans. Rimbaud Where there are humans You'll find flies And buddhas Issa Ten years' searching in the deep forest. Today great laughter at the edge of the lake. Soen The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware, Henry Miller Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual, everyday routine. Shunryu Suzuki I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. Walt Whitman A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. Juvenal War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. George Orwell Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. Charles Peguy What a government taxes, such as work, saving and investment, it gets less of. What a government subsidizes, such as unemployment, debt, consumption, it gets more of. John Galt, Dreams Come True Tell the truth and run. Yugoslavian Proverb Truth certainly exists. But it is very hard to put together. It's always an assembled truth. Heinrich Boll There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H.L. Mencken Self preservation is the first law of nature. Samuel Butler None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Goethe To fight for yourself is right. To die vainly without hope of winning is the act of stupid men. Kung Fu, TV series We no longer believe that it is just for one man to govern two men, but we have yet to outgrow the absurd belief that it is just for two men to govern one man. Charles T. Sprading, Liberty and the Great Libertarians [Democracy] can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. Alexander Tytler The people get what the majority deserves. Jim Davidson Resistance to tyranny is service to God. James Madison It is not simply a question of checking the encroachments of totalitarianism; we must first overcome our own lack of resolve. Alexander Solzhenitsyn Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age. Alfred Nobel Do not that to thy neighbor that thou wouldst not suffer from him. Pittacus of Lesbos, 640-570 bce. A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. Plato There die a myriad, And of the best among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization. Ezra Pound We think and name in one world, we live and feel in another. Marcel Proust There are no vices. There are only phases. August Rodin See that the child does not confound good with immobility. Maria Montessori For they think it most meet that every man should plead his own matter, and tell the same tale before the judge that he would tell to his man of law. So shall there be less circumstance of words, and the truth shall sooner come to light. Sir Thomas Moore, Utopia Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other. John Morley The way to eliminate the unfit is to keep them from being born ... we should not only check degeneration negatively, but further evolution positively, by artificial insemination and work for the production of a nobler and nobler race of beings. Herman Joseph Muller Variation, experiment and insurgence are all of them attributes of freedom. Lewis Mumford A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. Vladimir Nobokov In reality it would seen that he is vanquished who is afraid of his adversary and that the whole secret of war is this. Napoleon, a little in a error Soldiers were made on purpose to be killed. Napoleon There are two levers for moving men - interest and fear. Napoleon A thing is complete when you can let it be. Gita Bellin Those whose desire to know exceeds their desire for safety are those who shape history. Julie Fawley A man who marries a woman to educate her falls a victim to the same fallacy as the woman who marries a man to reform him. Elbert Hubbard To him who is in fear, everything rustles. Sophocles We are here on earth to do good to others. What others are here for, I do not know. W.H. Auden I only want enough to keep body and soul apart. Dorothy Parker Next to excellence is the appreciation of it. Thackeray Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them. Ivan Illich Money is the symbol of duty, it is the sacrament of having done for mankind that which mankind wanted. Samuel Butler Taste all, and hand the knowledge down. Gary Snyder This living, flowing land is all there is forever. Gary Snyder What we haven't imagined will one day spit us out, magnificent and simple. Joy Harjo What does the vast and rushing drama of the universe ... Want clowns for? Hah? Robinson Jeffers It is likely that I have escaped the things you want and am seeking the things you fear. Robinson Jeffers Truly the world is full of things the mind must know And the hand must not do. Robinson Jeffers Come, fool, be patient. Life is not logic. Robinson Jeffers Mankind, your Satans are not very happy either. Robinson Jeffers The chief beginning of evil is goodness in excess. Menander The people are the most important element; the spirits of the land and grain are next; the ruler is the least important. Mencius But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true. H.L. Mencken But any man who inflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood, and that is what happened to Jesus. H.L. Mencken He who knows how to be poor knows everything. Jules Michelet Who hath not worked shall not eat. Midrash, Captain John Smith, USSR Constitution Yet so natural to mankind is intolerance in whatever they really care about, that religious liberty has hardly anywhere been realized. J.S. Mill The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually and collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. J.S. Mill It is a piece of idle sentimentality that truth, merely as truth, has any inherent power denied to error or prevailing against the dungeon and stake. Men are not more zealous for truth thann they often are for error. J.S. Mill Yet many a man is making friends with death, even as I speak, for lack of love alone. Edna St Vincent Millay The freedom of conscience is a right so sacred that even the name of tolerance involves a species of tyranny. Comte de Mirabeau Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical rate. Thomas Malthus We come inevitably to the fundamental question: What are people for? What is living for? If the answer is a life of dignity, decency and opportunity, then every increase in population means a decrease in all three. The crowd is a threat to very single being. Mayra Mannes Letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy. Mao Zedong. Had it only been true. Poverty is the mother of crime. Marcus Aurelius Antonius A government of laws, not of men. John Marshall A corporation is an artificial thing, invisible, intangible, and exists only in the contemplation of the law. John Marshall. Of course, a government of laws is a corporation. Capital is dead labor that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking from living labor. Karl Marx All surplus value ... is in substance the materialization of unpaid labor. Karl Marx Rules have no existence outside of individuals. Matisse What does democracy come down to? The persuasive power of slogans. W. Somerset Maugham Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness. Rollo May New means create new ends as new services create new discomforts. Marshall McLuhan "The medium is the message" because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. Marshall McLuhan I don't believe in setting up universal standards that a large proportion of people can't reach. Margaret Mead The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike him, is because they rather distrust His Heart and fancy him all brain, like a watch. Herman Melville The awareness of dying for something great and noble strips death of its absurd character. Ignace Lepp We have given so many hostages to fortune. Lucian For something in the envy of the small still loves the vast democracy of death. Edward George Bulwer Lytton It is necessary that the prince should know how to color his nature well, and how to be a hypocrite and dissembler. Niccolo Machiavelli Politics has no relation to morals. Niccolo Machiavelli The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man. It is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. James Madison The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness. Andre Malraux If our civilization is not the first to deny the immortality of the soul, it is certainly the first for which the soul has no imporatnce. Andre Malraux I am one of those who do not believe that a national debt is a national blessing, but rather a curse to a republic; inasmuch as it is calculated to raise around the administration a moneyed aristocracy dangerous to the liberties of the country. Andrew Jackson The mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations which exclusive privileges which they have succeeded in obtaining in the different States, and which are employed altogether for their benefit; and unless you become more watchful in your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been given or bartered away, and the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations. Andrew Jackson Get rid of the devil and the priest will have nothing to do. Nikita Khrushchov "Geopolitics" and "Lebensraum" terms coined by Rudolf Kjellan. Revolutions, we must remember, are always made by minorities. Peter Kropotkin When a government violates the people's rights, insurrection is ... the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties. Marquis de Lafayette That action is best which provides the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. formulated by Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746) Hunger and self-government are incompatible. Aldous Huxley Religion can survive only as a consciously accepted system of make believe. Aldous Huxley The implications of evolutionary humanism are clear. If the full development of human possibilities are the overriding aims of our evolution, then any overpopulation which brings malnutrition and misery, or which erodes the world's material resources or its resources of beauty or intellectual satisfaction are evil. Julian Huxley Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing. Thomas H. Huxley Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. Thomas H. Huxley The hunting and the fighting instinct continue in many manifestations. They both support the emotion of anger; they combine in the fascination which stories of atrocities have for most minds ... the pleasure of disinterested cruelty has been thought a paradox and writers have sought to show that is no primitive attribute of our nature, but rather a resultant of the subtile or other less malignant elements of mind. This is a hopeless task. If evolution and the survival of the fittest be true at all, the destruction of prey and of human rivals must have been among the most important. ... It is just because human bloodthirstiness is such a primitive part of us that it is so hard to eradicate, especially when a fight or a hunt is promised as part of the fun. William James, The Principles of Psychology, 1890 Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case. Our belief in truth itself, for instance, that there is a truth, and that our minds and it are made for each other,--what is it but a passionate affirmation of desire, in which our social system backs us up? We want to have a truth; we want to believe that our experiments and studies and discussions must put us in a continually better and better position towards it; and on this line we agree to fight out our thinking lives. But if a pyrrhonistic sceptic asks us how we know all this, can our logic find a reply? No! certainly it cannot. It is just one volition against another,--we willing to go in for life upon a trust or assumption which he, for his part, does not care to make. William James We have lost the power even of imagining what the ancient idealization of poverty could have meant: the liberation of material attachments, the unbridled soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are or do and not by what we have, the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly -- the more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape. William James The people is that part of the state that does not know what it wants. Hegel Ars longa, vita brevis. Hippocrates Success is the sole earthly judge of right or wrong. Hitler You will kill ten of our men, and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it. Ho Chi Minh Force and fraud are in war the cardinal virtues. Thomas Hobbes Great cases, like hard cases, make bad law. Oliver Wendall Holmes A constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory. Oliver Wendall Holmes The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market. Oliver Wendall Holmes. Scary definition. In view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more often likely to be foolish than sensible. Bertrand Russel We are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a cult of mediocrity. Oliver Wendall Holmes A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a later day. Justice Charles Hughes Religion is nothing but the shadow cast by the universe on human intelligence. Victor Hugo Laws give the weak new burdens, and the strong new powers. Rousseau It is this desire for being talked about, and this unremitting rage to distinguish ourselves, that we owe the best and worst things we possess. Rousseau Morality is the observance of the rights of others. Dagobert D. Runes It is never possible to rule innocently. Louis Antoine Leon de Saint-Just [apply to democracy too] Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana Man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. That is the first principle of existentialism. Sartre Sense has ever been centered in the few. Votes should be weighed, not counted. Friedrich von Schiller Dare to be wrong and to dream. Friedrich von Schiller The majority of men are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and are not accessible to reason, but only to authority. Arthur Schopenhauer To mourn for the time when one will be no more is just as absurd as to mourn over the time when as yet one was not. Arthur Schopenhauer Unrest is the mark of existence. Arthur Schopenhauer Men have as a rule a weakness for trusting others who pretend to supernatural sources of knowledge. Arthur Schopenhauer Scrutamini Scriptura: these two words have undone the world John Seldon (let us look at the scriptures) We are more wicked together than separately. Seneca the Younger This is the reason we cannot complain of life: it keeps no one against his will. Seneca the Younger No man ever becomes wise by chance. Seneca the Younger Saints are usually killed by their own people. Eric Sevaried As fire is indispensable to cooking, so knowledge is indispensable to deliverance. Shankara Government has no rights; it is a delegation from several individuals for the purpose of securing their own. It is therefore just, only so far as it exists by their consent, useful only so far as it operates to their well-being. ... The only use of government is to repress the vices of man. If man were to day sinless, tomorrow he would have a right to demand that government and all its evils should cease Percy Bysshe Shelley I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live. Socrates Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die and not be able to. Socrates Liberty of each, limited by the like liberties of all, is the rule. Herbert Spencer The right to Ignore the State: As a corollary to the proposition that all institutions must be subordinated to the law of equal freedom, we cannot choose but admit the right of the citizen to adopt a condition of voluntary outlawry. If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the state—to relinquish its protection, and to refuse paying towards its support. Herbert Spencer The belief not only of the Socialists, but also of those so-called Liberals who are dilligently preparing the way for them, is that by due skill an ill-working humanity may be framed into well-working institutions. It is a delusion. The defective nature of citizens will show themselves in the bad acting of whatever social structure they are arranged into. There is no political alchemy by which you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts. Herbert Spencer, "The Man versus the State" The endeavor for self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue. Spinoza The crowd plays the tyrant, when it is not in fear. Spinoza Obsolete classes do not voluntarily abandon the stage of history. Stalin I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as man. John Steinbeck There is no duty we underrate so much as the duty of being happy. Robert L. Stevenson As if a man's soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train. Robert L. Stevenson A young, healthy child well-nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food. Swift Law is a bottomless pit; it is a cormorant, a harpy that devours everything. Swift The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise. Tacitus Homo sum, et humani nihil a me alienum est. Terence Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas Any moment in history which attempts to perpetuate itself becomes reactionary. Tito Slavery results from laws, laws are made by governments, and, therefore people can only be freed from slavery by the abolition of governments. ... And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part. ... And as soon as people clearly understand this, they will ... cease to give the governments soldiers and money. And as soon as a majority of people cease to do this, the fraud which enslaves people will be abolished. Only in this way can people be freed from slavery. Leo Tolstoy The possibility of killing oneself is a safety valve. Having it, man has no right to say life is unbearable. Leo Tolstoy Yes, we will do anything for the poor man, anything but get off his back. Leo Tolstoy Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man. Leo Tolstoy Every successful revolution puts on in time the robe of the tyrant it has deposed. Barbara Tuchman Interference with another's business is a crime and the only crime, and as such may be properly resisted. Benjamin Tucker There can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has. Griffin v Illinois, Supreme Court It is for the good of the state that man should be deluded by religion. Marcus Terentius Varro To bring into this world an unwanted human being is as antisocial an act as murder. Gore Vidal In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and giving it to another. Voltaire All political ideas cannot and should not be channeled into the programs of our two major parties. Earl Warren Never shall men know liberty until each and every individual is acknowledged to be the only legitimate sovereign of his or her person, time and property, each living and acting at his own cost. Josiah Warren In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion be enlightened. George Washington Charity is twice cursed. It hardens him that gives and it softens him that takes. Bouck White Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found out. Oscar Wilde For he who lives more lives than one, more deaths than one must die. Oscar Wilde I know not whether Laws be right or whether Laws be wrong; all that we know who live in gaol is that the wall is strong; and that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long. Oscar Wilde It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution. Oscar Wilde Liberty has never come from government... The history of liberty is the history of resistance. Woodrow Wilson The great monopoly in this country is the money monopoly. So long as it exists, our old variety of freedom and individual energy of development are out of the question. Woodrow Wilson The good life is the world seen sub specie aeternitatis. Wittgenstein The chief aim of wisdom is to enable one to bear with the stupidity of the ignorant. Xystus I (Sixtus) One day posterity will remember this strange era, these strange times, when ordinary common honesty was called courage. Yevgeny Yevtushenko The deed is everything. The glory is nought. Goethe What is the freedom of the most free? To act rightly. Goethe Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Emma Goldman The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity. Emma Goldman Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Barry Goldwater It is as hard to tell the truth as to hide it. Baltasar Gracian The right of revolution is an inherent one. U.S. Grant All heresies are forbidden by both divine and imperial laws and shall forever cease. Decree of Emperor Gratian (assassinated) Shun security. Thales of Miletus The doubtful precedent of one generation becomes the fundamental maxim of another. Henry Hallam If a noble charge another noble with murder but fails to prove it, the accuser shall be put to death. Hammurabi's Code We will either find a way or make one. Hannibal The world owes all its outward impulses to men ill at ease. the happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. Nathaniel Hawthorne. The right to revolt has sources deep in our history. William O. Douglas The American Government is premised on the theory that if the mind of man is to be free, his beliefs, his ideology, his philosophy must be placed beyond the reach of government. William O. Douglas Virtue in distress and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind. John Dryden To become a great man it is necessary to become a great rascal. Guillaume DuBois This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang but a whimper. T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men A man thinks differently in a palace and in a hut. Ludwig Feuerbach Sustainable design is the set of perceptual and analytic abilities, ecological wisdom, and practical wherewithal essential to making things that fit in a world of microbes, plants, animals, and entropy. In other words, (sustainable design) is the careful meshing of human purposes with the larger patterns and flows of the natural world, and careful study of those patterns and flows to inform human purposes. David Orr, Ecological Literacy A sustainable society is one which satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations. Lester R. Brown, Founder and President, Worldwatch Institute Sustainability is equity over time.: As a value, it refers to giving equal weight in your decisions to the future as well as the present. You might think of it as extending the Golden Rule through time, so that you do unto future generations as you would have them do unto you. Robert Gilman, Director, Context Institute A transition to sustainability involves moving from linear to cyclical processes and technologies. The only processes we can rely on indefinitely are cyclical; all linear processes must eventually come to an end. Dr. Karl Henrik-Robert, MD, founder of The Natural Step, Sweden Actions are sustainable if: There is a balance between resources used and resources regenerated. Resources are as clean or cleaner at end use as at beginning. The viability, integrity, and diversity of natural systems are restored and maintained. They lead to enhanced local and regional self-reliance. They help create and maintain community and a culture of place. Each generation preserves the legacies of future generations." David McCloskey, Professor of Sociology, Seattle University Water wearing the earth is the shape of the earth. Wendell Berry Now the old ways that have brought us Farther than ewe remember sink out of sight As under the treading of many strangers Ignorant of landmarks. Wendell Berry Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Wendell Berry Spring tangles shadow and light, branches of trees Knit vision and wind, the shape of the wind is a tree Bending, spilling its birds. Wendell Berry We owe the future the past, the long knowledge That is the potency of time to come. Wendell Berry And what leagues there are between our feet and day. Emily Dickenson "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra". Lewis Carroll Another place! It's enough to grieve me, that old dream of going, Of becoming another man, just by getting up and going to a better place. Wendell Berry The struggle is on, no mistake, and I take the side of history, Against the coming of numbers. Wendell Berry Vision must have severity at its edge. Wendell Berry It is just as true as it ever was that...the majority are always, relatively, in the wrong, the minority sometimes, relatively, in the right (every one, or course, is free at any time to belong to either), and all before God, absolutely in the wrong, that all of the people some of the time and some of the people most of the time will abuse their liberty and treat it as the license of an escaped slave. W. H. Auden All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street & the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State & no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. W. H. Auden, "September 1, 1939" The sum of behavior is to retain a man's own dignity without intruding upon the liberty of others. Francis Bacon That man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal an do well. Francis Bacon Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, though religion were not; but superstition dismounts all these, and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men...the master of superstition is the people; and arguments are fitted to practice, in a reverse order. Francis Bacon Except as its clown and jester, society does not encourage individuality, and the state abhors it. Bernard Berenson The universe is a machine for creating gods. Henri Bergson (1859-1941) Elan Vital, vital ardor term coined by Henri Bergson The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by its minorities. Lord Acton The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. Lord Acton Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous. Alfred Adler Liberty is always unfinished business. ACLU Motto Liberty has never yet lasted long in a democracy. Fischer Adams The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue. Antisthenes Man is not the best thing in the world. Aristotle The state is by nature clearly prior to the family and to the individual since the whole is of necessity prior to the part. Aristotle's error In search of hope in an age of despair, the philosopher settles for an optimism based on catastrophe. Raymond Aron Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and education. Raymond Flexner Eighty percent of mankind is stuff to fill graves with. Ford Madox Ford No more second hand god. Buckminster Fuller A good life is the only religion. Thomas Fuller Property in land is as indefensible as property in man. Henry George Whoever controls the language, the images, controls the race. Alan Ginsberg It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion. Goebbels Every educated person is a future enemy. Martin Bormann The only true and natural foundations of society are the wants and fears of individuals. William Blackstone One law for the lion and ox is oppression. William Blake Liberty's chief foe is theology. Charles Bradlaugh Happy is the country which requires no heroes. Berthold Brecht I consider myself neither legally nor morally bound to obey the laws made by a body on which I have no representation. H. Rap Brown Truth does not change because it is or is not believed by a majority of people. Guido Bruno In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a writer or painter cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of nonconformity alive. Thanks to them, the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is very important. When power feels itself totally justified and approved, it immediately destroys whatever freedoms we have left, and that is fascism. Luis Buñuel (1900-1983) Life is heredity plus environment. Luther Burbank Where mystery begins, religion ends. Edmund Burke We first throw away the tales along with the rattles of our nurses; those of the priest keep their hold a little longer; those of the government the longest of all. Edmund Burke Depend upon it that the lovers of freedom will be free. Edmund Burke Enlightened self-interest coined by Edmund Burke Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Hassan I Sabbah The people is a beast of muddy brain the knows not its own strength. Tommaso Campanella There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Albert Camus Man at bottom is not entirely guilty since he did not begin history, nor entirely innocent, since he continues it. Albert Camus Under coercion a man may sin. Council of Lydda The people want to be deceived. Let them be deceived. Carlo Caraffa Society is founded on hero worship. Thomas Carlyle The best sauce in the world is hunger. Miguel de Cevantes The more laws, the less justice. Cicero An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters. Henry Clay To write is to kill something to death. Jean Cocteau If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barrabas Jean Cocteau Malinformation is more hopeless than misinformation. Error is always more busy than ignorance. Charles Colton You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free. Clarence Darrow And with the guts of the last priest lets us strangle the last king. Denis Diderot I know not how to conceive the good, apart from the pleasures of taste, sexual pleasure, the pleasures of sound and the pleasures of beautiful forms. Epicurus There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. Leonard Henry Courtney, not Benjamin Disraeli or Mark Twain The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilization. Benjamin Disraeli Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organize themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive? If we leave a chemistry professor out on a rock in the sun long enough the forces of nature will convert him into simple compounds of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and small amounts of other minerals. It's a one-way reaction. No matter what kind of chemistry professor we use and no matter what process we use we can't turn these compounds back into a chemistry professor Chemistry professors are unstable mixtures of predominantly unstable compounds which, in the exclusive presence of the sun's heat, decay irreversibly into simpler organic and inorganic compounds. That's a scientific fact. Robert M. Pirsig The reason atoms become chemistry professors has got to be that something in nature does not like laws of chemical equilibrium or the law of gravity or the laws of thermodynamics or any other law that restricts the molecule’s freedom They only go along with laws of any kind because they have to, preferring an existence that does not follow any laws whatsoever. Robert M. Pirsig One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'. George W. Bush I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the facts are. George H.W. Bush Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length Robert Frost Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up. Robert Frost Supposedly, during one of the first meeting between Henry Kissinger and Premier Zhou en Lai from China in 1971, Kissinger asked about the impact of the French Revolution (1789). The answer was "it is too early to say" Zhou en Lai And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. Anonymous, often attributed to Nietzsche and many others The people who live in a golden age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks. Randall Jarrell, American poet, 1914-1965 He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. Winston Churchill I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. Clarence Darrow He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary. William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner) Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it. Moses Hadas He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know. Abraham Lincoln I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it. Groucho Marx I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend...if you have one. George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second.... if there is one. Winston Churchill, in reply George Bernard Shaw I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: "C-Students from Yale". Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president. Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn't even seen the first world war. War is now a form of TV entertainment, and what made the first world war so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now give up on people, too. I am a veteran of the second world war and I have to say this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine. Kurt Vonnegut, from A Man Without a Country Dover Beach The sea is calm to-night, The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; -- on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. Matthew Arnold We won't dispassionately investigate or rationally debate which drugs do what damage and whether or how much of that damage is the result of criminalization. We'd rather work ourselves into a screaming fit of puritanism and then go home and take a pill. P.J. O'Rourke I would rather live in a society which treated children as adults than one which treated adults as children. Lizard I guess you will have to go to jail. If that is the result of not understanding the Income Tax Law, I will meet you there. We shall have a merry, merry time, for all our friends will be there. It will be an intellectual center, for no one understands the Income Tax Law except persons who have not sufficient intelligence to understand the questions that arise under it. Senator Elihu Root of NY, 1913 To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin Cardinal Belleramine If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual. Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment Since when is "public safety" the root password to the Constitution? C. D. Tavares We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money. David Crockett, Congressman 1827-35 I'm a politician, and as a politician I have the perogotive to lie whenever I want. Charles Peacock, ex-director of Madison Guaranty, the Arkansas S&L at center of Whitewatergate. The children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society that is coming, where everyone would be interdependent. John Dewey 1899 Independent self-reliant people would be a counterproductive anachronism in the collective society of the future where people will be defined by their associations. John Dewey 1896 I think the terror most people are concerned with is the IRS. Malcolm Forbes, when asked if he was afraid of terrorism Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark - Mapp vs. Ohio No man has ever ruled other men for their own good. George D. Herron You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer..." Abraham Lincoln A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the dominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body. John Stuart Mill, 1859 Regulation - which is based on force and fear - undermines the moral base of business dealings. It becomes cheaper to bribe a building inspector than to meet his standards of construction. A fly-by-night securities operator can quickly meet all the S.E.C. requirements, gain the inference of respectability, and proceed to fleece the public. In an unregulated economy, the operator would have had to spend a number of years in reputable dealings before he could earn a position of trust sufficient to induce a number of investors to place funds with him. Protection of the consumer by regulation is thus illusory. Alan Greenspan I oppose registration for the draft... because I believe the security of freedom can best be achieved by security through freedom. Ronald Reagan Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others: The Constitution of this Republic should make a special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom. Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. Will Rogers, 1920's Minimum wage laws tragically generate unemployment, especially among the poorest and least skilled or educated workers... Because a minimum wage, of course, does not guarantee any worker's employment; it only prohibits, by force of law, anyone from being hired at the wage which would pay his employer to hire him. Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty Decriminalization would take the profit out of drugs and greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the drug-related violence that is currently plaguing our streets. Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore Mayor Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. Joseph Stalin A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. Alexander Fraser Tytler, "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic" People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history. Dan Quayle Be wary of strong spirits. It can make you shoot at tax collectors ... and miss. Robert A. Heinlein Every dollar spent to punish a drug user or seller is a dollar that cannot be spent collecting restitution from a robber. Every hour spent investigating a drug user or seller is an hour that could have been used to find a missing child. Every trial held to prosecute a drug user or seller is court time that could be used to prosecute a rapist in a case that might otherwise have been plea bargained. Randy E. Barnett, "Curing the Drug-Law Addiction" See, when the Government spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when the money is left in the hands of Taxpayers, God only knows what they do with it. Bake it into pies, probably. Anything to avoid creating jobs. Dave Barry MTV may talk about lighting fires and killing children, but Janet Reno actually does something about it. Spy Magazine The pig if I am not mistaken Supplies us sausage, ham, and bacon. Let others say his heart is big I call it stupid of the pig. O. Nash I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers. Jim Larkin ********************************************************************************************** High concentration of Libertarian quotes Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. John Adams (1814) One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation. Thomas B. Reed (1886) If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all. Jacob Hornberger (1995) Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. George Washington There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. Robert Heinlein The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. John Hay (1872) Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. James Bovard (1994) When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence. Gary Lloyd Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. H.L. Mencken It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve. Henry George The power to tax is the power to destroy. John Marshall [On ancient Athens]: In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. Edward Gibbon Vices are simply the errors which a man makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, and no interference with their persons or property. Lysander Spooner There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. Ayn Rand A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. G. Gordon Liddy The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced. Frank Zappa It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. Charles A. Beard A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. Edward R. Murrow It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself. Justice Casey Percell No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words "no" and "not" employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights. Edmund A. Opitz The state in which the rulers are the most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed; and the state in which they are the most eager, the worst. Anonymous It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. Calvin Coolidge First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I'm not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I'm not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I'm not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me. Pastor Father Niemoller (1946) Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. Montesquieu The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. Joseph Sobran (1995) Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more. Allan H. Meltzer (1993) No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. P. J. O'Rourke (1992) The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. Milton Friedman The best government is the one that charges you the least blackmail for leaving you alone. Thomas Rudmose-Brown (1996) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. P.J. O'Rourke (1993) The Government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. Ronald Reagan I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change. Dan Quayle Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. Charles Peguy He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22:36. Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery. Benjamin Disraeli, 1874 Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. William Pitt (1783) When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. P.J. O'Rourke Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Milton Friedman Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies. Honore de Balzac Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. William Penn (1693) In 1940, teachers were asked what they regarded as the three major problems in American schools. They identified the three major problems as: Littering, noise, and chewing gum. Teachers last year were asked what the three major problems in American schools were, and they defined them as: Rape, assault, and suicide. William Bennett (1993) The threat posed by humans to the natural environment is nothing compared to the threat to humans posed by global environmental policy. Fred L. Smith (1992) Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping, and unintelligent. H. L. Mencken The difference between libertarianism and socialism is that libertarians will tolerate the existence of a socialist community, but socialists can't tolerate a libertarian community. David D. Boaz (1997) The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government lest it come to dominate our lives and interests. Patrick Henry It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. Nobody but a beggar chooses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow citizens. Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations" Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H.L. Mencken Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult. Andre Marrou Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free. Harry Browne If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. Noam Chomsky One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both. James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union If we have to kill 12 people to save 1 human life it will have been worth it. Unknown Virtually all reasonable laws are obeyed, not because they are the law, but because reasonable people would do that anyway. If you obey a law simply because it is the law, that's a pretty likely sign that it shouldn't be a law. Unknown The U.S. Constitution may be flawed, but it's a whole lot better than what we have now. Unknown When goods don't cross borders, soldiers will. Fredric Bastiat, early French economist Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire. Ludwig Mises, The legacy of Democrats and Republicans approaches: Libertarianism by bankruptcy. Nick Nuessle, 1992 We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. Stephen Schneider, environmental activist, in "Discover", Oct. '89 Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence. Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist Our forefathers made one mistake. What they should have fought for was representation without taxation. Fletcher Knebel, historian Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands are properly his. John Locke, 1690 Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Seizing the results of someone's labor is equivalent to seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities. Robert Nozick, Harvard philosopher Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s and '30s, Prohibition did. And drugs do not cause today's alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does. US District Judge James C. Paine, addressing the Federal Bar Association in Miami, November, 1991 Even the most Bush-happy, flag suckling jack-arse knows deep-down inside that something is wrong. America is over and everyone knows it. The New World Order has a dying empire odor and changing the channel ain't going to make this go away. Jello Biafra If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the evidence & and the courts must abide by that decision. US v Moylan, 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1969, 417 F.2d at 1006 National Health Insurance means combining the efficiency of the Postal Service with the compassion of the I.R.S. & and the cost accounting of the Pentagon. Louis Sullivan/Connie Horner quoted by Novak in _Forbes_ Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State. Heinrich Himmler The Ten Commandments contain 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words. A recent federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words. The Atlanta Journal Government does not grow by seizing our freedoms, but by assuming our responsibilities. Michael Cloud The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom. Justice William O. Douglas This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future! Adolph Hitler [1935] The Weapons Act of Nazi Germany. No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would you replace it with?" When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with? Thomas Sowell A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort & is not strictly speaking a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang violence. Ayn Rand Society exists for the benefit of its members not the members for the benefit of society. Herbert Spencer Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism. Mary McCarthy Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression. Dick Feagler There are people who think that plunder loses all its immorality as soon as it becomes legal. Personally, I cannot imagine a more alarming situation. FrÈdÈric Bastiat The New Deal began, like the Salvation Army, by promising to save humanity. It ended, again like the Salvation Army, by running flop-houses and disturbing the peace. H. L. Mencken Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn't even get out of committee. F. Lee Bailey Today, it is the government that is free free to do whatever it wants. Harry Browne If you ruin your life, you will pay the price of rehabilitating yourself & We are not punished for our sins, but by them. Liberty means responsibility. Michael Cloud Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment. Philip K. Dick The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. Ulysses S. Grant We find many things to which the prohibition of them constitutes the only temptation. William Hazlitt The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force. Adolf Hitler I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own. Billie Holiday Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control. Jack Hugh When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free. Charles Evans Hughes He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. Abraham Lincoln Public educators, like Soviet farmers, lack any incentive to produce results, innovate, to be efficient, to make the kinds of difficult changes that private firms operating in a competitive market must make to survive. Carolyn Lochhead If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded. Karl Marx It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money. P.J. O'Rourke Petty laws breed great crimes. Ouida The essential psychological requirement of a free society is the willingness on the part of the individual to accept responsibility for his life. Edith Packer I am convinced that we can do to guns what we've done to drugs: create a multi-billion dollar underground market over which we have absolutely no control. George L. Roman What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long. Thomas Sowell The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit & furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do & he does not keep "protecting" you by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that. Lysander Spooner If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest too. Sting Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. Noah Webster The higher entry standards imposed by licensing laws reduce the supply of professional services & the poor are the net losers, because the availability of low-cost service has been reduced. In essence, the poor subsidize the information research costs of the rich. S. David Young I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials. George Mason. It took about 150 years, starting with a Bill of Rights that reserved to the states and the people all powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government, to produce a Supreme Court willing to rule that growing corn to feed to your own hogs is interstate commerce and can therefore be regulated by Congress. David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce. J. Edgar Hoover The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people. Justice William O. Douglas There comes a time when a moral man can't obey a law which his conscience tells him is unjust. Martin Luther King, Jr. Wealth comes from successful individual efforts to please one's fellow man & that's what competition is all about: "outpleasing" your competitors to win over the consumers. Walter Williams To me, it doesn't matter if your scapegoats are the Jews, the homosexuals, the male sex, the Masons, the Jesuits, the Welfare Parasites, the Power Elite, the female sex, the vegetarians, or the Communist Party. To the extent that you need a scapegoat, you simply have not got your brain programmed to work as an efficient problem-solving machine. Robert Anton Wilson Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. Josef V. Stalin To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them. Richard Henry Lee (who drafted the Second Amendment as well as the rest of the Bill of Rights) 1788 Faced with the pain of freedom, man begs for his shackles. Gerry Spence The limitation of tyrants is the endurance of those they oppose. Frederick Douglass The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy. John Jay, Joint-author of the Federalist Papers and first U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Freedom is essentially a condition of inequality, not equality. It recognizes as a fact of nature the structural differences inherent in man - in temperament, character, and capacity - and it respects those differences. We are not alike and no law can make us so. Frank Chodorov Live and let live. Friedrich von Schiller Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence. Henri Frederic Amiel Men are most apt to believe what they least understand. Montaigne When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. Dresden James How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think. Adolf Hitler Now that I look back, I realize that a life predicated on being obedient is a very comfortable life indeed. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think. Adolf Eichmann, Memoirs written after his 1960 capture by Israel. The pattern is as old as human life. The new rulers use more and more force, more police, more soldiers, trying to enforce more efficient control, trying to make the planned economy work by piling regulations on regulations, decree on decree. The people are hungry and hungrier. And how does a man on this earth get butter? Doesn't the government give butter? But government does not produce food from the earth; Government is guns. It is one common distinction of all civilized peoples, that they give their guns to the Government. Men in Government monopolize the necessary use of force; they are not using their energies productively; they are not milking cows. To get butter, they must use guns; they have nothing else to use. Rose Wilder Lane There's another major hurdle to a new year of prosperity: our tax code. No human being understands it. The current code, which runs over 8,000 pages and countless thousands more pages of IRS rulings and interpretations, is beyond redemption. Incalculable amounts of the nation's intellectual brainpower are devoted to the dead-end task of coping with the current tax code. Over one-half million people in the U.S. make their living off it, whether in lobbying, lawyering, tax preparing, or accounting. Americans spend five and one-half billion hours a year filling out tax forms & and spend between $100 billion and $300 billion to comply with the current code. Malcolm S. Forbes, The average family pays more in taxes than it spends on food, clothing, and shelter combined. Congressman Dick Armey, Why a Flat Tax? Durell Journal of Money and Banking, Spring 1995 The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it. William Greider, One World Ready or Not The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace and that is all. Leonard Read The bureaucrat's first objective, of course, is preservation of his job provided by the big-government system, at the taxpayers expense. Whether real world problems get solved or not is of secondary importance. It doesn't take much cynicism, in fact, to see that the bureaucrats have a vested interest in not having problems solved. If the problems did not exist (or had been invented), there would be no reason for the bureaucrat to have a job William Simon, former U.S Treasury Secretary Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy. Charles Peters, How Washington Really Works The era of big government is over. Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996 Of all 36 ways to get out of trouble, the best way is leave. Chinese Proverb Few of us can easily surrender our belief that society must somehow make sense. The thought that the State has lost its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable. And so the evidence has to be internally denied. Arthur Miller We do many things at the federal level that would be considered dishonest and illegal if done in the private sector. Donald T. Regan This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. Plato circa 400 B.C. Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living. Yiddish proverb It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses. Winston Churchill Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. Bankruptcies and losses concentrate the mind on prudent behavior. Allan H. Meltzer Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. Martin Luther King Jr. There are two kinds of people - those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there. Indira Gandhi Wherever politics intrudes upon economic life, political success is readily attained by saying what people like to hear rather than what is demonstrably true. Instead of safeguarding truth and honesty, the state then tends to become a major source of insincerity and mendacity. Hans F. Sennholz Politicians are always interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs. P.J. O'Rourke Democracies have been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death. James Madison It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood, if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be like tomorrow. James Madison, Federalist Paper #62 An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. Martin Luther King Jr. The government's only proper job is to protect individual rights against violence by force or fraud, to protect men from foreign invaders and to settle disputes among men according to objective laws. The greatness of the Founding Fathers was how well they understood this issue and how close some of them came to understanding it perfectly. Ayn Rand If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient." Gore Vidal Going to war accelerated the move from indirect to direct rule. Almost any state that makes war finds that it cannot pay for the effort from its accumulated reserves and current revenues. Almost all war-making states borrow extensively, raise taxes, and seize the means of combat - including men - from reluctant citizens who have other uses for their resources. Charles Tilly When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. Plato, 347 B.C. Governments need armies to protect them from their enslaved and oppressed subjects. Tolstoy Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. Abraham Lincoln [!], January 12, 1848 speech in Congress The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities. John C. Calhoun Taxation with representation ain't so hot either. Gerald Barzan Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic. Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn Slogans on guns: A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone. Six-shooter: The original point and click interface. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any. What part of "shall not be infringed" don't you understand? The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others. 911 - government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer. Assault is a behavior, not a device. Criminals love gun control - it makes their jobs safer. The New Deal Court essentially told Congress: It doesn't matter what the Constitution says or what limits on government it establishes, you are empowered to spend money on whatever you please. And so Congress does, even though its profligacy has placed the nation in great economic peril. Stephen Moore, Director of Fiscal Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, March, 1997 I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.... Congressional and Presidential Oath of Office The word politics is derived from the words "poly" meaning many and "ticks" meaning blood sucking parasites. Larry Hardiman Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun. Tom Clancy If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. Milton Friedman An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. George Eliot Politicians never accuse you of "greed" for wanting other people's money - only for wanting to keep your own money. Joseph Sobran Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots. John Adams 1793 I want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution. Harry Browne Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. Sallust We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans. Bill Clinton (USA TODAY, 11 March 1993, page 2A) A lot of people say there’s too much personal freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it. Bill Clinton (April 19, 1994, on MTV) Politicians, like bombers, seldom see their victims. Donald Boudreaux, Chairman, George Mason University Department of Economics Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy. US House Congressional Resolution 48 "A Republic; not a Democracy", sponsored by Ron Paul, 3/6/01. The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best. Thomas Sowell It is the fundamental theory of all the more recent American law - that the average citizen is half-witted, and hence not to be trusted to either his own devices or his own thoughts. H. L. Mencken Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not - and is not - a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of political power. Jacob Hornberger, 11/01 To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt. Elizabeth Cady Stanton To be governed is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Americans have the mistaken viewpoint that Lady Liberty is only a peacetime luxury who is ill-equipped to fight the nasties. Therefore, they reason, we need an equally nasty Big Brother. Americans have forgotten that Lady Liberty is one ferocious mother when protecting her children. Mary Ruwart Try to halt violence by restricting gun ownership and you won't halt violence. But you will create entire classes of new criminals - people who make paperwork errors, violate technical specification of the law, or rebel against the new restrictions. And you'll create new bureaus, new enforcement arms, new prisons to punish them. You'll make hordes of lawyers and bureaucrats very happy. Organized criminals will be grateful to the naive moral crusaders ("useful idiots") as they profit by selling an illegal product. And ordinary street criminals will bless fools, legislators, and "leaders" for making their job so much safer. JPFO's "Bill of Rights Sentinel", Fall 2001. The prospect of a government that treats all its citizens as criminal suspects is more terrifying than any terrorist. And even more frightening is a citizenry that can accept the surrender of its freedoms as the price of "freedom". Joe Sobran The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it "undermines the work ethic," but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives. Charles Murray Public Schools too often fail because they are shielded from the very force that improves performance and sparks innovation in nearly every other human enterprise - competition. Robert Lutz/Clark Durant The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly. Thomas Sowell The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-unon-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures, as profits in fostering successes. Let government succor failures, and we shall be headed for stagnation and decline. Milton Friedman Democracy - A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard for consequences. Results in demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy. 1928 U.S. Army Training Manual Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters. Leonard E. Read Man must have the right of choice, even to choose wrong, if he shall ever learn to choose right. Josiah C. Wedgwood The greatest threat to the future of our nation - to our freedom - is not foreign military aggression & but the growing dependence of the people on a paternalistic government. A nation is no stronger than its people and the best measure of their strength is how they accept responsibility. Charles B. Shuman It must be obvious that liberty necessarily means freedom to choose foolishly as well as wisely; freedom to choose evil as well as good; freedom to enjoy the rewards of good judgment, and freedom to suffer the penalties of bad judgment. If this is not true, the word "freedom" has no meaning. Ben Moreell We must remember that the principal instrument of government is coercion and that our government officials are no more moral, omnipotent, nor omniscient than are any of the rest of us. Once we understand the basic principles which must be observed if freedom is to be safeguarded against government, we may become more hesitant in turning our personal problems and responsibilities over to that agency of coercion, with its insatiable appetite for power. W. C. Mullendore Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. James Madison The greatest productive force is human selfishness. Robert Heinlein If an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another. Milton Friedman Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing. George Bernard Shaw Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut. Daniel Greenberg You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves. John Henry Boetker This country was founded by religious nuts with guns. P.J. O'Rourke When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads. Ron Paul, M.D Have you ever noticed how statists are constantly "reforming" their own handiwork? Education reform. Health-care reform. Welfare reform. Tax reform. The very fact that they're always busy "reforming" is an implicit admission that they didn't get it right the first 50 times. Lawrence W. Reed, economist, in The Freeman Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, protect the defenseless, assist the weak, and enlighten the ignorant. But these are simply moral duties, of which each man must be his own judge, in each particular case, as to whether, and how, and how far, he can, or will perform them. Lysander Spooner Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics. Ludwig von Mises According to the Tax Foundation, taxes now consume more than 38% of the average family's budget. That is more than is spent on food, clothing, housing, and transportation combined. Compare this to the plight of medieval serfs. They only had to give the lord of the manor one-third of their output -- and they were considered slaves. So what does that make us? Daniel Mitchell, The Washington Times, 3/9/99 The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), Life, 1848 A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you. Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General, New York Times, 10/02/77 It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon a supposition that he may abuse it. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Address, First Protectorate Parliament, 1654 Any time we deny any citizen the full exercise of his constitutional rights, we are weakening our own claim to them. Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. President, Reader's Digest, 12/63 Complete and accurate surveillance as a means of control is probably a practical impossibility. What is much more likely is a loss of privacy and constant inconvenience as the wrong people gain access to information, as one wastes time convincing the inquisitors that one is in fact innocent, or as one struggles to untangle the errors of the errant machine. Victor Ferkiss, Technological Man: The Myth and the Reality, 1969 I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. Ulysses S. Grant (1882-1885), U.S. President, Inaugural Address, 4 March 1869 A censor is a man who knows more than he thinks you ought to. Granville Hicks (1901-1982) If there is any principle of the constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought - not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, United States v. Schwimmer, 1929 Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr. (1809-1884), Elsie Venner, 1861 Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency. Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948), Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Home Building & Loan Assn v. Blairsdell, 1934 I believe the State exists for the development of individual lives, not individuals for the development of the state. Julian Huxley (1878-1975) It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954), Supreme Court Justice, American Communications Assn v. Douds, 1950 We are reluctant to admit that we owe our liberties to men of a type that today we hate and fear - unruly men, disturbers of the peace, men who resent and denounce what Whitman called "the insolence of elected persons" , in word, free men. Gerald W. Johnson (1890-1980), American Freedom and the Press, 1958 Every man should know that his conversations, his correspondence, and his personal life are private. Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), Remarks, 3/10/67 The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), U.S. President, Speech, University of California, 3/23/63 At the heart of western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man is the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supreme goal and abiding practice of any western society. Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), U.S. Senator, Speech, University of Capetown, 6/6/66 Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves. D. H. Lawrence (1885-1938), 1915 If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861 In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs. Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), An Inquiry into the Principles of the Good Society, 1937 To change masters is not to be free. Jose Marti y Perez (1853-1895) Tolerance is a better guarantee of freedom than brotherly love; for a man may love his brother so much that he feels himself thereby appointed his brother's keeper. Everett Dean Martin (1880-1941), Liberty, 1930 You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. John Morley (1838-1923), Critical Miscellanies In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary. Kathleen Norris No free people can lose their liberties while they are jealous of liberty. But the liberties of the freest people are in danger when they set up symbols of liberty as fetishes, worshipping the symbol instead of the principle it represents. Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), in Liberty and the Great Libertarians (C. Spradling) A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns. Mario Puzo, The Godfather One evening, when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea urn, which was boiling merrily. My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said "Let him touch it." So I touched it - and that was my first lesson in the meaning of liberty. John Ruskin (1819-1900), The Story of Arachne, 1870 There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all. Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Arizona v. Hicks, 3/3/87 There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders. Alan K. Simpson, U.S. Senator, New York Times, 9/26/82 The right to defy an unconstitutional statute is basic in our scheme. Even when an ordinance requires a permit to make a speech, to deliver a sermon, to picket, to parade, or to assemble, it need not be honored when it's invalid on its face. Potter Stewart (1915-1985), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Walker v. Birmingham, 1967 Men love liberty because it protects them from control and humiliation by others, thus affording them the possibility of dignity; they loathe liberty because it throws them back on their own abilities and resources, thus confronting them with the possibility of insignificance. Thomas Szasz, The Untamed Tongue, 1990 Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority. William Howard Taft (1857-1930), U.S. President, Veto Message, Arizona Enabling Act, 1911 No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than any [constitutional] provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Roger B. Taney (1777-1864), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ex parte Milligan, 1866 Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law. Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare. Howard Kershner The War on Drugs is a price support system for terrorists and drug pushers. It turns ordinary, cheap plants like marijuana and poppies into fantastically lucrative black market products. Without the War on Drugs, the financial engine that fuels terrorist organizations would sputter to a halt. Ron Crickenberger, Libertarian Party Political Director 2/4/02 Letting lawyers make laws is like letting doctors make diseases. Anonymous There may be two libertarians in the world who agree on absolutely everything, but I am not one of them. Anonymous As the growing emphasis on feelings crowds out reason, facts will play a smaller role in public discourse. Paul Craig Roberts Democrats can never get any sleep because they are afraid somebody somewhere is making too much money. Republicans can never get any sleep because they are afraid somebody somewhere is having too much fun. Anonymous Our Constitution is not a body of law to govern the people; it was formulated to govern the government, to make government the servant and not the master of the people. William F. Jasper Six Miracles of Socialism: There is no unemployment, but no one works. No one works, but everyone gets paid. Everyone gets paid, but there is nothing to buy with the money. No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything. Everyone owns everything, but no one is satisfied. No one is satisfied, but 99 percent of the people vote for the system. Anonymous In order to prevent democracy from becoming a tyranny over minorities, individual rights must supersede all democratic voting and all regulations. Rights must come first. Laws should come second, and only to protect those rights; nothing more. Stuart K. Hayashi It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny. James Fenimore Cooper, The American Democrat, 1838 The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. Henry Hazlitt in Economics in One Lesson The average American family head will be forced to do twenty years' labor to pay taxes in his or her lifetime. James Bovard, Lost Rights Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other. Oscar Ameringer The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Winston Churchill Jury: Twelve people who determine which client has the better lawyer. Robert Frost Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. Robert Orben It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them. Alfred Adler My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right. Ashleigh Brillian Democracy has proved only that the best way to gain power over people is to assure the people that they are ruling themselves. Once they believe that, they make wonderfully submissive slaves. Joseph Sobran in The Myth of 'Limited Government' The common denominator in all government activity is the use of force: Government either forces you to do things, forces you not to do things, or forces you to pay for things. Doug Newman All the fiery rhetoric of the Founders was directed at a "tyrant" who taxed his subjects at a rate of about three percent. Doug Newman If the government can't keep drugs away from inmates who are locked in steel cages, surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, drug-tested, strip-searched, X-rayed, and videotaped how can it possibly stop the flow of drugs to an entire nation? Ron Crickenberger The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right. William Safire Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you've got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes. The Lion If you have ever seen a four-year-old trying to lord it over a two-year-old, then you know what the basic problem of human nature is and why government keeps growing larger and ever more intrusive. Thomas Sowell Democracy says it is acceptable to take money or property from a nonconsenting individual because he is outnumbered. Unknown Isn't it about time we found Congress in contempt of The People? Anonymous BATF=Bad Attitude Towards Freedom Anonymous What men value in this world is not rights but privileges. H.L. Mencken Republicans don't want anyone having more fun than they do, and the Democrats don't want anyone making more money than they do. Libertarians want you to make money and have fun. Andre Marrou, LP Presidential candidate Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom. F.A. Hayek An inherent weakness of a pure democracy is that half the voters are below average intelligence. Unknown The Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes from the nature of things. It declares the inalienable rights of man not only against all government but also against the people collectively. Walter Lippmann In a society obsessed with arranging every detail of existance, the unintended is ominous. Unknown The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. Alan Ashley-Pit The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy. Unknown The compelling issue to both conservatives and liberals is not whether it is legitimate for government to confiscate one's property to give to another, the debate is over the disposition of the pillage. Walter Williams Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior. Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus of Visa Corp Adam Smith's key insight was that both parties to an exchange can benefit and that, so long as cooperation is strictly voluntary, no exchange can take place unless both parties do benefit. Milton Friedman Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. Milton Friedman We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non-work. Milton Friedman Self-interest is not myopic selfishness. It is whatever it is that interests the participants, whatever they value, whatever goals they pursue. The scientist seeking to advance the frontiers of his discipline, the missionary seeking to convert infidels to the true faith, the philanthropist seeking to bring comfort to the needy - all are pursuing their interests, as they see them, as they judge them by their own values. Milton Friedman There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. F.A. Hayek Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), Supreme Allied Commander, General of the U.S. Army It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. George E. MacDonald (1824-1905), Scottish Novelist If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. James Madison (1751-1836), 4th U.S. President Unless a good deed is voluntary, it has no moral significance. Everett Dean Martin (1880-1941), Political Philosopher I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. H.L. Mencken A right without an attendant responsibility is as unreal as a sheet of paper which has only one side. Felix Morley (1894-1981), American Journalist, Educator and Author The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State. Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995), American Economist, Historian, Political Theorist, and Author Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), English Philosopher, Author, 1950 Nobel Prize-Winner in Literature The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Austrian Economist and Author The main point of a constitution is to put limits on what aspects of life are subject to majority rule. Ronald Bailey When the people have no tyrant, their own public opinion becomes one. Lord Lytton It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. James Madison Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. Robert Heinlein It's easier to scare someone than to persuade him. Edwin Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice. Harry Browne It is much cheaper and enormously more profitable for the special interests to purchase the regulatory favors of Washington's political harlots than to compete in a fair, unsubsidized markeplace. Lee Robinson The greatest gift of freedom is that it allows us to govern ourselves, and the greatest burden of freedom is that it requires us to govern ourselves. Robert Hawes All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void. Marbury vs Madison Everyone is entitled to his own opnion, but not his own facts. Daniel Patrick Moynihan The fact is that the average man's love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth. Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty- and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies. H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, Feb. 12, 1923 98% of Americans support the use of mass transit by others. The Onion (satire newspaper) Even the lion has to defend himself against flies. Anonymous Expecting the government to fight the deficit is like expecting the Mafia to fight crime. Anonymous The chief purpose of government it to perpetuate the government. Anonymous Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents? Peg Bracken? A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde The majority of Americans get their news and information about what is going on with their government from entities that are licensed by and subject to punishment at the hands of that very government. Neal Boortz What the government gives, it must first take away. John S. Coleman With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. James Madison The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Abraham Lincoln Write a wise saying and your name will live forever. Unknown Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse. Adlai E. Stevenson A problem well stated is a problem half solved. C.F. Kettering I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem. Ashleigh Brilliant Poverty is the greatest cause of terrorism. Azmat Hassan, at the Conference on World Affairs, Boulder CO, 4/6/04 In almost all matters, the real question should be: why are we letting government handle this? Harry Browne From the fact that people are very different it follows that, if we treat them equally, the result must be inequality in their actual position, and the only way to place them in an equal position would be to treat them differently. Equality before the law and material equality are therefore not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either the one or the other, but not both at the same time. Friedrich von Hayek That measures of this nature [the draft] should be debated at all in the councils of a free government is cause of dismay. The question is nothing less than whether the most essential rights of personal liberty shall be surrendered and despotism embraced in its worst form. Daniel Webster A hallmark of democracy is pressure-group warfare, as each group seeks to claim the status of a majority and exploit all the rest. Robert Garmong It makes no difference, in principle, if this "collective will" is divined by the edicts of a dictator or by majority vote - so long as the rights of the individual may still be sacrificed. Robert Garmong Individualists unite! Treveor Sutherland, Hamilton County TN LP Chairman Those are my principles. If you don t like them, I have others. Groucho Marx Most people ... aren't just ignorant or stupid: they genuinely prefer government control of their own and their neighbors' lives. We can hand out flyers for the rest of our lives, publish as many books as we like, make speeches until we're blue in the face, and most of them aren't going to change their minds. While they disagree among themselves about the details, authoritarians of one sort or another constitute an overwhelming majority. Max Orhai, Liberty Magazine, 6/04, page 23 Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. James Madison The next time some academics tell you how important "diversity" is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department. Thomas Sowell Government failure is always used as an excuse for government expansion. Government thrives on crisis and incompetence. Jim Babka of DownsizeDC.org The price of empire is terrorism. Greenbacks We have been living amidst one of the great revolutions of human history, and we hardly know it: the penetration of the State into every aspect of human life and society. Some people regard this as good and "progressive," others regard it as tyrannical; but either way, it's a fact, a transformation as great as, say, the Industrial Revolution. Absolutely nothing is now beyond the scope of State power. Joseph Sobran, 1/27/04 The war on "terror" will never be over, it will just change locations. Like the war on drugs, prostitution, pornography, and the many others that will follow, it is a war on humanity. These wars will never be won; the State will just keep creating new boogiemen to frighten us with. The sheep will anxiously anticipate the next fall guy the State offers up as a sacrifice for the war on whatever happens to be next. Be careful, the next pawn could be me or you. Mike Wasdin Vows made in a storm are forgotten in calms. Old English saying If the Tenth Amendment were still taken seriously, most of the federal government's present activities would not exist. That's why no one in Washington ever mentions it. Thomas E. Woods, Jr. in The Policitally Incorrect Guide to American History The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. Our founding fathers clearly understood this. Rep. Ron Paul in Democracy Is Not Freedom To shackle future generations, with such monstrous debt and liabilities [$50 trillion+ of unfunded federal liabilities], is tantamount to selling them into tax slavery. Eric Englund in Income Taxes, Obesity, and Other Maladies of Nanny Statism 2/28/05. A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Lysander Spooner You don't need a treaty to have free trade. Murray Rothbard *********************************************************************************************** From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2000 The harder we look at our aches and ailments, the more we will be startled by the painful truths they are trying to convey about our dangerously disembodied way of life. Marion Woodman There is this noteworthy difference between savage and civilized: that while a sick, civilized man may be six months convalescing, generally speaking, a sick savage is almost half well again in a day. Herman Melville I've never been very good at feasting on the daily newspaper. It turns bitter in my mouth. And yet, this is my world. This face of suffering I must embrace as a part of my responsibility. Part of the feast is becoming aware of the world that is mine. Part of the feast is owning this broken world as my own brokenness. Macrina Wiederkehr It is good that fire should burn, even if it consumes your house; it is good that force should crush, even if it crushes you; it is good that rain should fall, even if it destroys your crops and floods your land. Plagues and pestilences attest to the constancy of natural law. They set us to cleaning our streets and houses and to readjusting our relations to outward nature. Only in a live universe could disease and death prevail. Death is a phase of life, a redistributing of the type. Decay is another kind of growth. John Burroughs If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest, too. Sting We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say, I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life. To say we do not care is to say in the most literal sense that we choose death. Barbara Ward I knew nothing of reality until Mummy died. She shielded us from everything. And then suddenly I was having to deal with the butler, the two chauffeurs, the cook, and everything else. Charlotte Brown (nee de Rothschild) I've a strong impression our world is about to go under. Our political systems are deeply compromised and have no further uses. Our social behavior patterns, interior and exterior, have proved a fiasco. The tragic thing is, we neither can nor want, nor have the strength, to alter our course. It's too late for revolutions, and deep down inside ourselves we no longer even believe in their positive effects. Just around the corner an insect world is waiting - and one day it's going to roll over our ultra-individualized existence. Otherwise, I'm a respectable Social Democrat. Ingmar Bergman If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes, are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do. Erica Jong No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless. There's too much work to do. Dorothy Day I am happy now that Charles calls on my bedchamber less frequently than of old. As it is, I endure but two calls a week, and when I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, close my eyes, open my legs, and think of England. Lady Alice Hillingdon Women hope men will change after marriage, but they don't; men hope women won't change, but they do. Bettina Arndt Lovemaking is radical, while marriage is conservative. Eric Hoffer We tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way. Audre Lorde If my hands tremble with desire, they tremble likewise when I reach for the chalice on Sunday, and if lust makes me run and caper, it is no stronger a force than that which brings me to my knees to say thanksgivings and litanies. What can this capricious skin be but a blessing? John Cheever What is erotic? The acrobatic play of the imagination. The sea of memories in which we bathe. The way we caress and worship things with our eyes. Our willingness to be stirred by the sight of the voluptuous. What is erotic is our passion for the liveliness of life. Diane Ackerman Sexual intercourse is kicking death in the ass while singing. Charles Bukowski We do what only lovers can: make a gift out of necessity. Leonard Cohen There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it, like in the Bible with the locusts. And other people who stand around and watch them eat it. Lillian Hellman A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income. George Bernard Shaw Not every problem someone has with his girlfriend is necessarily due to the capitalist mode of production. Herbert Marcuse When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? Eleanor Roosevelt He had vowed long ago, and renewed his vow frequently, that if holding hands in a circle and singing hymns . . . was what it took to make life endurable, he would rather die. Annie Dillard The compulsion to do good is an innate American trait. Only North Americans seem to believe that they always should, may, and actually can choose somebody with whom to share their blessings. Ultimately this attitude leads to bombing people into the acceptance of gifts. Ivan Illich You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him or to him. Thomas Edison hatred bounces. e. e. cummings I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes. Maxine Hong Kingston To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his right and left hands. He uses both. Saint Catherine of Sienna For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. Alfred D. Souza You come to see . . . that suffering is required; and you no more want to avoid it than you want to avoid putting your next foot on the ground when you are walking. In the spiritual path, joy and suffering follow one another like two feet, and you come to a point of not minding which "foot" is on the ground. You realize, on the contrary, that it is extremely uncomfortable hopping all the time on the joy foot. John G. Bennett It is not hard work which is dreary; it is superficial work. Edith Hamilton A devotee once complained to the great nineteenth-century saint Sri Ramakrishna about not having had any deep experiences of God. Sri Ramakrishna took him by the hand and led him to the ashram's bathing pond. They both walked into the water until they were about waist deep, and Sri Ramakrishna then pushed the man's head underwater with great force and held him there for nearly a minute. The man struggled and struggled, and finally the saint released his grip and the man emerged urgently from the water, gasping for breath. Sri Ramakrishna said to him, "When you want God as much as you wanted that next breath, you will see God." Bo Lozoff It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow Truth, poor child, was nobody's daughter. She took off her clothes and jumped in the water. Dorothy L. Sayers The attitude that I take is that everyday life is more interesting than forms of celebration, when we become aware of it. That when is when our intentions go down to zero. Then suddenly you notice that the world is magical. John Cage We are nature. We are nature seeing nature. We are nature with a concept of nature. Nature weeping. Nature speaking of nature to nature. Susan Griffin Few people have the imagination for reality. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe It is well to remember that by the time-scale of the universe, the shapes of all things and systems are as fugitive and evanescent as those clouds driven before a gale, which coalesce and dissolve as they go. David Pye Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be "uneconomic" you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper. E. F. Schumacher To get an idea of our fellow countrymen's miseries we have only to look at their pleasures. George Eliot Old age was growing inside me. It kept catching my eye from the depths of the mirror. I was paralyzed sometimes as I saw it making its way toward me so steadily when nothing inside me was ready for it. Simone de Beauvoir When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men know what I mean. Lin-Chi Let's make capitalism work for everybody. Jerry Rubin, 1980 I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing. H.L. Mencken A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad You can never get enough of what you don't really want. Eric Hoffer Soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day . . . we become seekers. Peter Matthiessen The teenagers aren't all bad. I love 'em if nobody else does. There ain't nothing wrong with young people. Jus' quit lyin' to 'em. Jackie "Moms" Mabley The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be on to something. Not to be on to something is to be in despair. Walker Percy There often seems to be a playfulness to wise people, as if either their equanimity has as its source this playfulness or the playfulness flows from the equanimity; and they can persuade other people who are in a state of agitation to calm down and manage a smile. Edward Hoagland From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2001 Fear has a smell, as love does. Margaret Atwood We have attempted to separate the spiritual and the erotic, thereby reducing the spiritual to a world of flattened affect, a world of the ascetic who aspires to feel nothing. Audre Lorde The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin. Oscar Wilde Passionate love is not peculiar to the human species, for it penetrates through all existing things - celestial, elemental, vegetable, and mineral. Avicenna It is my opinion that humans are largely what they make of themselves; in other words, "human nature" is not so much an empirical reality as a process of self-construction. This means that if people become what they think they are, what they think they are is exceedingly important. Linda Marie Fedigan Happiness is always a byproduct. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy, you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness. Robertson Davies It is the virtue and the pathos of man that he aspires endlessly toward a better world; it is his weakness and his tragedy that he does nothing to bring such a world even one step nearer. Ludwig Lewisohn What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. Henry Miller To be a consumer is the most primitive level of being. It is to be a mouth, an eater, a devourer of things. To discover the truth of who we are, we must discard the consumer mentality and reclaim our spiritual dignity. David Frawley The philosopher Diogenes was sitting on a curbstone, eating bread and lentils for his supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king, you would not have to live on lentils." Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils, and you will not have to cultivate the king." Louis I. Newman The struggle to save the global environment is in one way much more difficult than the struggle to vanquish Hitler, for this time the war is with ourselves. We are the enemy, just as we have only ourselves as allies. In a war such as this, then, what is victory and how will we recognize it? Al Gore Many of us have no long-range vision in much of our struggle. We think only of the moment, this time, this place, this circumstance. But think of the ten generations of children that inherit love, and their children, and theirs. . . . Anyone can count the seeds of an apple. Who can count the apples in a seed? Stephen Covey If you don't have any money, the problem is food. When you have money, it's sex. When you have both, it's health. If everything is simply jake, then you're frightened of death. J.P. Donleavy In nothing does man, with his grand notions of heaven and charity, show forth his innate, wild animalism more clearly than in his treatment of his brother beasts. From the shepherd with his lambs to the red-handed hunter, it is the same: no recognition of rights - only murder in one form or another. John Muir The sense of smell in the animal is what intuition is to the human spirit. It tells you of the invisible, of what cannot be detected by any other means. It tells you the things that are not there, yet are coming. You see into the blind, opaque past and round the corner of time. Laurens van der Post We do not go to bed in single pairs; even if we choose not to refer to them, we still drag there with us the cultural impediments of our social class, our parents' lives, our bank balances, our sexual and emotional expectations, our whole biographies - all the bits and pieces of our unique existences. Angela Carter I didn't want it like that. Not against the bricks or hunkering in somebody's car. I wanted it to come undone like gold thread, like a tent full of birds. Sandra Cisneros In the next voyage of the Mayflower, after she carried the Pilgrims, she was employed in transporting a cargo of slaves from Africa. Nathaniel Hawthorne We have entered a new Middle Ages, a time of plague, famine, violence, extreme class disparity, and religious fanaticism, . . . a time when it is terribly important, and often dangerous, to preserve values and knowledge - to stand up for visions that most of this crazed world can't comprehend or tolerate. The value of having an inner map of the world as it is (not as it's broadcast) is this: it allows you to know that your task is larger than yourself. If you choose, just by virtue of being a decent person, you are entrusted with passing on something of value through a dark, crazy time - preserving your integrity, in your way, by your acts and your very breathing for those who will build again when this chaos exhausts itself. People who assume the burden of their own integrity are free - because integrity is freedom, and (as Nelson Mandela proved) its force can't be quelled even when a person of integrity is jailed. The future lives in our individual, often lonely, and certainly unprofitable acts of integrity, or it doesn't live at all. Michael Ventura Deep down, all of us are probably aware that some kind of mystical evolution is our true task. Yet we suppress the notion with considerable force because to admit it is to admit that most of our political gyrations, religious dogmas, social ambitions, and financial ploys are not merely counter-productive but trivial. Tom Robbins It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersection, no fish, and no ducks. OK? Molly Ivins Money is like fire, an element as little troubled by moralizing as earth, air, and water. Men can employ it as a tool, or they can dance around it as if it were the incarnation of a god. Money votes socialist or monarchist, finds a profit in pornography or translations from the Bible, commissions Rembrandt and underwrites the technology of Auschwitz. It acquires its meaning from the uses to which it is put. Lewis H. Lapham Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Ayn Rand Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. Woody Allen Justice without love is not justice. Love without justice is not love. Mother Teresa Time to plant tears, says the Almanac. Elizabeth Bishop The absence of the dead . . . is their way of appearing. Simone Weil There are years when nothing happens and years in which centuries happen. Carlos Fuentes Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of a mountain. We leave our attachments and our worldliness behind and slowly make our way to the top. At the peak we have transcended all pain. The only problem with this metaphor is that we leave all the others behind. . . . In the process of discovering our true nature, the journey goes down, not up. . . . Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. . . . We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we will let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of compassion. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. Pema Chodron From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2002 My mother made me eat broccoli. I hate broccoli. I am the president of the United States. I will not eat any more broccoli. George Bush the Elder A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. Bill Vaughan The United States is like the guy at the party who gives cocaine to everybody and still nobody likes him. Jim Samuels Independence? That's a middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth. George Bernard Shaw We think work with the brain is more worthy than work with the hands. Nobody who thinks with his hands could ever fall for this. E.F. Schumacher If the aborigine drafted an iq test, all of Western civilization presumably would flunk it. Stanley Marion Garn School is an institution built on the axiom that learning is the result of teaching. And institutional wisdom continues to accept this axiom, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Ivan Illich The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. That is ok as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be easily measured really isn't very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured doesn't exist. This is suicide. Daniel Yankelovich Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there. Richard Feynman You may break any written law in America with impunity. There is an unwritten law that you break at your peril. It is: do not attack the profit system. Mary Heaton Vorse The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money. John Henry Jowett We must, in short, make it economically possible for people to act upon their own best moral values. Michael Harrington I love my daughter. She and I have shared my body. There is a part of her mind that is a part of mine. But when she was born, she sprang from me like a slippery fish, and has been swimming away ever since. Amy Tan One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too deeply? Diane Ackerman Slipping on my shoes, boiling water, toasting bread, buttering the sky: that should be enough contact with Allah in one day to make anyone crazy. Hafiz If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation. After the one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness. . . . The whole show has been on fire from the word go. Annie Dillard There it is. I don't believe in anything, but I'm always glad to wake up in the morning. It doesn't depress me. I'm never depressed. My basic nervous system is filled with this optimism. It's mad, I know, because it's optimism about nothing. I think of life as meaningless and yet it excites me. I always think something marvelous is about to happen. Francis Bacon Nonattachment is not the elimination of desire. It is the spaciousness to allow any quality of mind, any thought or feeling, to arise without closing around it, without eliminating the pure witness of being. It is an active receptivity to life. Stephen Levine What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists? Woody Allen The young student said to his master, "Am I in possession of Buddha consciousness?" The master said, "No." The student said, "Well, I've been told that all things are in the possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the birds, the animals, all beings." The master said, "You are correct. All things are in possession of Buddha consciousness: the rocks, the trees, the butterflies, the bees, the birds, the animals, all beings, but not you." "Not me? Why not?" "Because you are asking this question." D.T. Suzuki Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for joy. Pema Chodron What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in, and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense. And we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, and preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. Sterling Hayden Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions. Frank Lloyd Wright To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. Bertrand Russell Simplicity doesn't mean to live in misery and poverty. You have what you need, and you don't want to have what you don't need. Charan Singh To be revolutionary is to love your life enough to change it, to choose struggle instead of exile, to risk everything with only the glimmering hope of a world to win. Andrew Kopkind It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place. Henry Louis Mencken Juries scare me. I don't want to put my faith in people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. Monica Piper An environmental setting developed over millions of years must be considered to have some merit. Anything so complicated as a planet, inhabited by more than a million and a half species of plants and animals, all of them living together in a more or less balanced equilibrium in which they continually use and reuse the same molecules of the soil and air, cannot be improved by aimless and uninformed tinkering. E.F. Schumacher We're far more concerned about the desecration of the flag than we are about the desecration of our land. Wendell Berry Do not believe the truth. The truth is tiny compared to what you have to do. Leonard Cohen Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. Alice Walker Myth: we have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so. Robert M. Lilienfeld and William L. Rathje We are impressed with nature's power, but by projecting upon this power an image of the feminine, the mother, we reassure ourselves - for surely a mother will always be loving toward us, continue to feed us, clothe us, and carry away our wastes, and never kill us, no matter how much toxic waste we put in the soil or how many cfcs in the ozone. The sense of nature as inexhaustible mother encourages us to feel there are no limits to a finite planet, while the sense of nature as benign and ever-loving mother permits us to continue disregarding a crescendo of warnings. Elizabeth Dodson Gray Condoms aren't completely safe. A friend of mine was wearing one and got hit by a bus. Bob Rubin We must always be on the lookout for perverse dynamic processes which carry even good things to excess. It is precisely these excesses which become the most evil things in the world. The devil, after all, is a fallen angel. Kenneth Boulding The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence and back into bondage. Fraser Tyler From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2003 Americans live out their working lives, and most of their daily existence, not within a democratic system but instead within a hierarchical structure of subordination. To this extent, democracy is necessarily marginal . . . to their lives. Robert A. Dahl If all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn't be enough to go round. Christina Stead My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets - no, they're little gifts, containing meanings! Philip Roth Love involves a peculiar, unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding. Diane Arbus There are plenty of good reasons for fighting . . . but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. Kurt Vonnegut The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality. Martin Luther King Jr. His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence, you had damned well better take the action that would create it. Lois McMaster Bujold There are two things to remember about a revolution: first, we're gonna get our asses kicked, and second, we're gonna win. Source unknown The spiritual life does not remove us from the world, but leads us deeper into it. Henri J.M. Nouwen I don't consider myself a pessimist at all. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin. Leonard Cohen There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Fran Lebowitz There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight. Vaclav Havel Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. Laurens van der Post History is a vast early warning system. Norman Cousins People want to be who they are. People don't want to assume a kind of identity . . . this persona that Americans think makes us the envy of the rest of the world. Even within our own borders there are three hundred different cultures who do not envy Americans so much that they want to give up their tribal status. Louise Erdrich A good deal of tyranny goes by the name of protection. Crystal Eastman If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied. Rudyard Kipling Once, perhaps, the God-intoxicated few could abscond to the wild frontiers, the forests, the desert places to keep alive the perennial wisdom that they harbored. But no longer. They must now become a political force or their tradition perishes. Soon enough, there will be no solitude left for the saints to roam but its air will shudder with a noise of great engines that drowns out all prayers. Theodore Roszak Humans - despite their artistic pretensions, their sophistication, and their many accomplishments - owe their existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. Source Unknown In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Margaret Atwood When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. John Muir The miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread. Whoever really has considered the lilies of the field or the birds of the air and pondered the improbability of their existence in this warm world within the cold and empty stellar distances will hardly balk at the turning of water into wine - which was, after all, a very small miracle. We forget the greater and still continuing miracle by which water (with soil and sunlight) is turned into grapes. Wendell Berry We must do what we conceive to be right and not bother our heads or burden our souls with whether we'll be successful. Because if we don't do the right thing, we'll do the wrong thing, and we'll be part of the disease and not part of the cure. E.F. Schumacher It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired; you quit when the gorilla is tired. Robert Strauss Seek the company of those who are still seeking the truth and run away from those who think they have found it. J.T. O'Hara Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire cannons to call attention to their shining; they just shine. D.L. Moody Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block. Annie Dillard The wheels of justice . . . they're square wheels. Barbara Corcoran It is always the same: once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are. Jean Baudrillard You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. Henri F. Amiel A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent. Elbert Hubbard I don't think, in our kind of society, we'll be able to develop a full-blown mystical religion or concept of God because we seek instant gratification, fast food, endless talk and noise. The silence in mysticism is alien. People want to do a few courses in mysticism, rather like the way you do French before going on holiday, and emerge a mystic. Mysticism isn't like that. Karen Armstrong To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior "righteous indignation" - this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats. Aldous Huxley If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us? Lois McMaster Bujold The ingenuities we practice in order to appear admirable to ourselves would suffice to invent the telephone twice over on a rainy summer morning. Brendan Gill Politics is how you live your life, not whom you vote for. Jerry Rubin Let us not paralyze our capacity for good by brooding over man's capacity for evil. David Sarnoff So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something. Samuel Johnson A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Thomas Mann It's a nervous work. The state that you need to be in to write is the state that others are paying large sums to get rid of. Shirley Hazzard What am I in the eyes of most people? A good-for-nothing, an eccentric and disagreeable man, somebody who has no position in society and never will have. Very well, even if that were true, I should want to show by my work what there is in the heart of such an eccentric man, of such a nobody. Vincent van Gogh Discontent is at the root of the creative process: the most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way. Eric Hoffer Those are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others. Groucho Marx . . . and down they forgot as up they grew. e.e. cummings A commentary on the times is that the word honesty is now preceded by old-fashioned. Larry Wolters There are few things more disturbing than to find, in somebody we detest, a moral quality which seems to us demonstrably superior to anything we ourselves possess. It augurs not merely an unfairness on the part of creation, but a lack of artistic judgment. Sainthood is acceptable only in saints. Pamela Hansford Johnson I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and really being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy. Oscar Wilde From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2004 Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome. Samuel Johnson Venus favors the bold. Ovid The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself. Rita Mae Brown Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide? Jean Jacques Rousseau A ship in harbor is safe - but that is not what ships are for. John A. Shedd There are no easy methods of learning difficult things; the method is to close your door, give out that you are not at home, and work. Joseph de Maistre Man stands for long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in. Chinese saying What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose. Willa Cather Your next-door neighbor . . . is not a man; he is an environment. He is the barking of a dog; he is the noise of a pianola; he is a dispute about a party wall; he is drains that are worse than yours, or roses that are better than yours. G.K. Chesterton What may be wealth to an individual may not be wealth to a community. Henry George Wittgenstein writes about a man who, not being certain of an item he reads in the newspaper, buys one hundred copies of the paper to reassure himself of its truth. Richard Kehl If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. Alan Simpson Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. Robert Brault Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer. Mignon McLaughlin Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better. Source unknown The kindest word in the world is the unkind word, unsaid. Source unknown The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. Germain G. Glien Forgiveness is not simply the absolving of an enemy, or one who has done us wrong. Forgiveness must encompass all those things which disturb the tranquility of our soul: the barking dog that robs you of sleep, the heat of summer, the cold of winter. Forgive the ingrown toenail, the flea that bites; forgive the cranky child, wrinkles, a forgotten birthday. Barbara Wood It could be that there's only one word and it's all we need. It's here in this pencil. Every pencil in the world is like this. W.S. Merwin There is no poetry where there are no mistakes. Joy Harjo If you're going through hell, keep going. Winston Churchill The birds are molting. If only man could molt also - his mind once a year its errors, his heart once a year its useless passions. James Allen Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight. Josh Billings Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes - with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating. Michael Crichton We borrow the light of an observant and imaginative traveler and see the foreign land bright with his aura; and we think it is the country which shines. H.M. Tomlinson Each instant is a place we've never been. Mark Strand The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. G.K. Chesterton It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts. Bill Vaughan There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have stood in the vanguard of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world. John B. Gough The happiest hours of mankind are recorded on the blank pages of history. Thomas Carlyle How come it's a "subsidy" when Pan American Airlines asks the government for a hundred million dollars to keep flying, but when people ask for considerably less to keep going, it is a federal handout? Russell Baker The poor have been sent to the front lines of a federal-budget deficit-reduction war that few other groups were drafted to fight. Marian Wright Edelman It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them. Bill Vaughan When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist. Dom H. Camara The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. Colin Wilson A man who is "ill-adjusted to the world" is always on the point of finding himself. One who is adjusted to the world never finds himself, but gets to be a cabinet minister. Hermann Hesse The real lost souls don't wear their hair long and play guitars. They have crew cuts and trained minds, sign on for research in biological warfare, and don't give their parents a moment's worry. J.B. Priestly It's terrifying to see someone inside of whom a vital spring seems to have been broken. It's particularly terrifying to see him in your mirror. Mignon McLaughlin It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. Agnes Repplier Tolerably early in life I discovered that one of the unpardonable sins, in the eyes of most people, is for a man to go about unlabeled. The world regards such a person as the police do an unmuzzled dog. Thomas Huxley Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Dr. Seuss Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. Margaret Mead Generosity is a part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it wherever a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice. Leslie Lever The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer. Henry Kissinger Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. Martin Luther King Jr. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. Harper Lee Consider how much more often you suffer from your anger and grief than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved. Marcus Antonius To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring. George Santayana From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2005 Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials, or none at all. Gerald W. Johnson History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. When confronted by a human being who impresses us as truly great, should we not be moved rather than chilled by the knowledge that he might have attained his greatness only through his failures? Lou Andreas-Salome True myths may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero - really look - and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. "You must change your life," he said. When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message: "You must change your life." Ursula K. Le Guin It's true that I've driven through a number of red lights. But on the other hand, I've stopped at a lot of green ones I've never gotten credit for. Glenn Gould We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until . . . we stop saying, "It got lost," and start saying, "I lost it." Sidney J. Harris True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive. Mignon McLaughlin I will never apologize for the United States of America. I don't care what the facts are. George H.W. Bush What if we discover that our present way of life is irreconcilable with our vocation to become fully human? Paulo Freire We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. Henry L. Mencken You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Anne Lamott It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more noble than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump. David Ormsby-Gore Just because the solutions of problems are not visible at any particular time does not mean that those problems will never be alleviated - or confined to tolerable dimensions. History has a way of changing the very terms in which problems operate and of leaving them, in the end, unsolved, to be sure, yet strangely deflated of their original meaning and importance. M.I. Abramowitz It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself a revolutionary just to be a decent man. David Harris Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind, you have failed. Jan de Hartog I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth. Janeane Garofalo Before we work on artifcial intelligence, why don't we do something about natural stupidity? Steve Polyak I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this. Emo Philips We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. Richard P. Feynman The world is still full of divinity and strangeness, Mr. Shawnessy said. The scientist stops, where all men do, at the doors of birth and death. He knows no more than you and I why a seed remembers the oak of 20 million years ago, why dust acquires the form of a woman, why we behold the earth in space and time. He hasn't yet solved the secret of a single name upon the earth. We may pluck the nymph from the river, but we won't pluck the river from ourselves: this coiled divinity is still all murmurous and strange. There are sacred places everywhere. The world is still man's druid grove, where he wanders hunting for the Tree of Life. Ross Lockridge Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer American business, while it does not frown on helping the human race, frowns on people who start right in helping the human race without first proving that they can sell things to it. Margaret Halsey The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels. Socrates That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not. James K. Feibleman Nothing bad's going to happen to us. If we get fired, it's not failure; it's a midlife vocational reassessment. P.J. O'Rourke I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa How can they say my life is not a success? Have I not for more than sixty years got enough to eat and escaped being eaten? Logan Smith I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. J.D. Salinger Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. H.L. Mencken The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind. Mignon McLaughlin It is horrifying that we have to fight our government to save the environment. Ansel Adams The conservation movement is a breeding ground of Communists and other subversives. We intend to clean them out, even if it means rounding up every bird-watcher in the country. John N. Mitchell, U.S. attorney general The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against the tigers than they are today, when we have become defenseless against ourselves. Arnold Toynbee Moses sees the bush as it actually is. . . . All that is living burns. William Bryant Logan From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2006 One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our Founding Fathers used in the struggle for independence. Charles Austin Beard It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars. Garrison Keillor A man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to have artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble. Henry Miller In my day, we didn't have self-esteem; we had self-respect, and no more of it than we had earned. Jane Haddam No evolution is accomplished in nature without revolution. Periods of very slow changes are succeeded by periods of violent changes. Revolutions are as necessary for evolution as the slow changes which prepare them and succeed them. Peter Kropotkin Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Winston Churchill Adversity in immunological doses has its uses; more than that crushes. John Updike Jiddu Krishnamurti, one of the most revered spiritual teachers of this century, once asked a small group of listeners what they would say to a close friend who is about to die. Their answers dealt with assurances, words about beginnings and endings, and various gestures of compassion. Krishnamurti stopped them short. "There is only one thing you can say to give the deepest comfort," he said. "Tell him that in his death a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you go also. He will not be alone." Larry Dossey I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind. Emily Bronte I was not looking for my dreams to interpret my life, but rather for my life to interpret my dreams. Susan Sontag Nowadays, the common wisdom is to celebrate diversity - as long as you don't point out that people are different. Colin Quinn What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak. George Santayana The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe. Peter De Vries Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still for once on the face of the earth, let's not speak in any language; let's stop for a second, and not move our arms so much. Pablo Neruda It's a popular fact that 90 percent of the brain is not used and, like most popular facts, it is wrong. . . . It is used. One of its functions is to make the miraculous seem ordinary, to turn the unusual into the usual. Otherwise, human beings, faced with the daily wondrousness of everything, would go around wearing a stupid grin, saying, "Wow," a lot. Part of the brain exists to stop this from happening. It is very effcient, and can make people experience boredom in the middle of marvels. Terry Pratchett I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular . . . but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive. Annie Dillard It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem. G.K. Chesterton Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment. R. Buckminster Fuller Bed is the poor man's opera. Italian proverb I have a self-esteem problem. During sex I fantasize that I'm someone else. Richard Lewis That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds. John Updike What are the seven deadly sins of Christianity? Gluttony, avarice, sloth, lust . . . They are urges every man feels at least once a day. How could you set yourself up as the most powerful institution on earth? You first find out what every man feels at least once a day, establish that as a sin, and set yourself up as the only institution capable of pardoning that sin. Anton LaVey "It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me. "When you've ffnished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet." Antoine de Saint-Exupery The human race has had long experience and a ffne tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience: the task of surviving prosperity. Alan Gregg I'm a secretary. On a good day I type ninety-five words per minute; on a bad day I show up drunk in my pajamas. Mary Beth Cowan Personally I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an "ethic." Barbara Ehrenreich Some people think they are worth a lot of money just because they have it. Fannie Hurst Find a job you like and you add five days to every week. H. Jackson Brown Jr. "What is my job on the planet?" is one question we might do well to ask ourselves over and over again. Otherwise, we may wind up doing somebody else's job and not even know it. And what's more, that somebody else might be a figment of our own imagination, and maybe a prisoner of it as well. Jon Kabat-Zinn From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2007 What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement [of the adolescent] in the decision making. Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine As far as rearing children goes, the basic idea I try to keep in mind is that a child is a person. Just because they happen to be a little shorter than you doesn't mean they are dumber than you. A lot of people make that mistake, and forget how much value there is in raw intuition -- and there's plenty of that in every child. They may not have verbal skills or manual skills yet, but that is no reason to treat them like they're inferior little lumps whose destiny it is to grow up to be inferior big lumps like you. Frank Zappa Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you. Robert Fulghum This is our mammalian conflict — what to give to the others, and what to keep for yourself. Treading that line, keeping the others in check, and being kept in check by them, is what we call morality. Ian McEwan We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is. Mark Vonnegut If those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor we would be. Antonio Porchia Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more war. Abbie Hoffman Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish. Unknown When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked for forgiveness. Emo Philips Sometimes I think that just not thinking of oneself is a form of prayer. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison Most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, but by people being fundamentally people. Terry Pratchett Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you’re going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love. Butch Hancock Violence stinks no matter which side of it you’re on. But now and then there’s nothing left to do but hit the other person over the head with a frying pan. Tom Robbins We haven’t accepted — we can’t really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so. And we still think and behave as though we face an unspoiled continent, with thousands of acres of living space for every man. We still sing “America the Beautiful” as though we had not created in it, by strenuous effort, at great expense, and with dauntless self-praise, an unprecedented ugliness. Wendell Berry Let us plant dates even though those who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved away in immediate sense experience, and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined love is what has given prophets, revolutionaries, and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope. Ruben Alves The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future. Jessamyn West Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” . . . I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions, like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members” connects to “the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” Jeffrey Eugenides We say, “Seeing is believing,” but actually . . . we are all much better at believing than at seeing. In fact, we are seeing what we believe nearly all the time and only occasionally seeing what we can’t believe. Robert Anton Wilson There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. Douglas Adams Yes, I do have a personal practice. . . . Sometimes I forget my practice and start doing bizarre and strange things like meditating or following my breath. But the practice that I am really committed to is living ordinary human life. Arjuna Nick Ardagh From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2008 You have delighted us long enough. Jane Austen Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time. Viktor Frankl Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It’s the other 2 percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin I am not so arrogant as to presume that only my intellectual superiors can teach me. If such were the case then the teacher would learn nothing from her disciples, the parents nothing from their children, and I nothing from the animals, from whom I have learned so much. Caroline Cozza I am so absorbed in the wonder of the earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. Pearl S. Buck The story is told of a holy man who lived in a large house on top of a remote mountain. Over time, news of the holy man’s greatness spread throughout the land, and many seekers made their way over the mountains in hopes of having even a brief moment with this saintly being. Each aspirant was greeted at the door by a servant, who ushered him or her into the house and guided the visitor through several rooms. After a few minutes the servant and aspirant arrived at another door, which led out of the back of the house. The servant opened the door and indicated to the visitor that it was time to leave. “But I was hoping to have even a few minutes with the holy man!” the aspirant would utter in frustration. “You just did,” answered the holy man as he closed the door. Alan Cohen A 1979 survey concluded that more Vietnam veterans had died by their own hand than in combat. John Langone The idea that we are “stewards of the earth” is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body’s physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? . . . Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries? . . . We are unconscious of most of our body’s processes, thank goodness, because we’d screw it up if we weren’t. The human body is so complex, with so many parts. . . . The idea that we are consciously caretaking such a large and mysterious system is ludicrous. Lynn Margulis Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from theessence of life, contemplation, meditation. . . . Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation. Jean Arp Beneath the veneer of civilization . . . lies not the barbarian and the animal, but the human in us who knows what is rightqand necessary for becoming fully human: birth in gentle surroundings, a rich nonhuman environment, juvenile tasks with simple tools, . . . play at being animals, . . . clan membership and small-group life, and the profound claims and liberation of ritual initiation and subsequent stages of adult mentorship. There is a secret person undamaged in each of us, aware of the validity of these conditions, sensitive to their right moments in our lives. Paul Shepard If we think of ourselves as coming out of the earth, rather than having been thrown in here from somewhere else, we see that we are the earth; we are the consciousness of the earth. These are the eyes of the earth. And this is the voice of the earth. Joseph Campbell Where the whole man is involved, there is no work. Work begins with the division of labor. Marshall McLuhan With money in your pocket, you are wise and handsome, and you sing well too. Yiddish saying To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. Simone Weil Money . . . buys privacy, silence. The less money you have, the noisier it is; the thinner your walls, the closer your neighbors. . . . The first thing you notice when you step into the house or apartment of a rich person is how quiet it is. Fran Lebowitz Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry. Lyman Abbott If you really want the last word in an argument, try saying, “I guess you’re right.” Source unknown “Be yourself” is about the worst advice you can give some people. Tom Masson From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2009 Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other. Karl Roberts, age five Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle. Everything I do is stitched with its color. W.S. Merwin Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid. Harlan Miller In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce. The trick is to find, and continue to find, grounds for marriage. Robert Anderson To be playful is not to be trivial or frivolous, or to act as if nothing of consequence will happen. On the contrary, when we are playful with one another, we relate as free persons, and the relationship is open to surprise; everything that happens is of consequence, for seriousness is a dread of the unpredictable outcome of open possibility. To be serious is to press for a specified conclusion. To be playful is to allow for unlimited possibility. James Carse Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature. Agnes Repplier A comedian is not funny unless he is taking his demons out for a walk. Cynthia Heimel Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. William James We are always talking about being together, and yet whatever ,we invent destroys the family and makes us wild, touchless beasts feeding on technicolor prairies and rivers. Edward Dahlberg We build our computer [systems] the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins. Ellen Ullman We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations. Anaïs Nin So often I heard people paying blind obeisance to change — as though it had some virtue of its own. “Change or we will die.” “Change or we will stagnate.” Evergreens don’t stagnate. Judith Rossner I think it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a chamber for the winged thing it has never seen but is to be — that man may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand. And so, beyond the vision of battling races and an impoverished earth, I catch a dreaming glimpse of peace. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. There are situations in life to which the only satisfactory response is a physically violent one. If you don’t make that response, you continually relive the unresolved situation over and over in your life. Russell Hoban There is inherited wealth in this country and also inherited poverty. John F. Kennedy The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody’s fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind. Katherine Mansfield It takes a certain maturity of mind to accept that nature works as steadily in rust as in rose petals. Esther Warner Dendel You can live without anything you weren’t born with, and you can make it through on even half of that. Gloria Naylor We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. Donald Horban Whining is anger through a small opening. Al Franken (as Stuart Smalley) There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers . . . even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant, selfish, angry, or depressed. To avoid disillusionment with human nature, we must first give up our illusions about it. Abraham Maslow From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2010 Without our familiar props, we are faced with just ourselves, a person we do not know, an unnerving stranger with whom we have been living all the time but we never really wanted to meet. Isn’t that why we have tried to fill every moment of time with noise and activity, however boring or trivial, to ensure that we are never left in silence with this stranger on our own? Sogyal Rinpoche Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called “mad” and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called “writers” and they do pretty much the same thing. Meg Chittenden I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth. Henry Miller Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die. Source unknown Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance — is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend. Wendell Berry People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. Peter Drucker Censuring Joseph Stalin at a public meeting, Soviet premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was interrupted by a voice from the audience. “You were one of Stalin’s colleagues,” shouted the heckler. “Why didn’t you stop him?” “Who said that?” roared Khrushchev. There was an agonizing silence in the room. Nobody dared moved a muscle. Then, in a quiet voice, Khrushchev said, “Now you know why.” Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes I think capital punishment works great. Every killer you kill never kills again. Bill Maher Being human cannot be borne alone. We need other presences. We need soft night noises — a mother speaking downstairs. . . . We need the little clicks and sighs of a sustaining otherness. We need the gods. John Updike There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story. Linda Hogan It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. Rollo May We owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idleness — either enforced or voluntary. The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself — and such thinking, remember, is original thinking and may have valuable results. Agatha Christie From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2011 Healing is what happens, not what we do. Dora Kunz Laws bind us. But it is important to remember the law is only what is popular. Not what’s right or wrong. Marilyn Manson The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. Emma Goldman No man suffers injustice without learning, vaguely but surely, what justice is. Isaac Rosenfeld Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. Jonathan Swift Justice is open to all — like the Ritz Hotel. Sir James Mathew Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back, and, instead of bleeding, he sings. Robert Benchley Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. Abraham Flexner You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race. George Bernard Shaw Children lack morality, but they also lack fake morality. Mignon McLaughlin The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out. Thomas Babington Macaulay Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause. Clarence Darrow Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can, and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean. Aldous Huxley There are now electrical appliances with the main unit so sealed in that it cannot be got at for repair. There have always been human beings like that. Mignon McLaughlin Our schizophrenic patient is actually experiencing inadvertently that same beatific ocean deep which the yogi and saint are ever striving to enjoy: except that, whereas they are swimming in it, he is drowning. Joseph Campbell I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind. John Cheever My machine will take off a head in a twinkling, and the victim cwill feel nothing but a refreshing coolness. We cannot make too much haste, gentlemen, to allow the nation to enjoy this advantage. J.I. Guillotin, inventor of the guillotine It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. Margaret Mead Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. Dr. Seuss There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high-school class is running the country. Kurt Vonnegut The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been. Madeleine L’Engle Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished. Elia Kazan It’s hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning. Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2012 Envy the kangaroo. That pouch setup is extraordinary; the baby crawls out of the womb when it is about two inches long, gets into the pouch, and proceeds to mature. I’d have a baby if it would develop in my handbag. Rita Rudner I am having an out-of-money experience. Author unknown What most people don’t seem to realize is that there is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one. Margaret Mitchell Loneliness, insomnia, and change: the fear of these is even worse than the reality. Mignon McLaughlin Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul? John Keats I like nothing more in the world than sitting on my ass doing nothing. And it’s not my fault I have this attitude, because I happen to have an amazingly comfortable ass. It may not look like much, but if you could sit on this baby for two minutes, you’d realize that getting off this ass would be a crime against nature. Lori Chapman The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone. James Baldwin A layman will no doubt find it hard to understand how pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by “mere” words. He will feel that he is being asked to believe in magic. And he will not be so very wrong, for the words which we use in our everyday speech are nothing other than watered-down magic. Sigmund Freud Perhaps the biggest tragedy in our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns. . . . We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small. Tara Brach And when our baby stirs and struggles to be born / It compels humility: what we began / Is now its own. Anne Ridler It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts. Bill Vaughan Beauty is only a byproduct. . . .The main business of gardens is sex and death. Sam Llewellyn It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Sydney Smith From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2013 Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants. Dorothy Parker They say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But I think the guns help. Just standing there saying, “Bang!” doesn’t really hurt anybody. Eddie Izzard For monkeys to speak of truth is hubris of the highest degree. Where is it writ large that talking monkeys should be able to model the cosmos? If a sea urchin or a raccoon were to propose to you that it had a viable truth about the universe, the absurdity of that assertion would be self-evident, but in our case we make an exception. Terence McKenna As to the great mass of working girls and women, how much independence is gained if the narrowness and lack of freedom of the home is exchanged for the narrowness and lack of freedom of the factory, sweatshop, department store, or office? Emma Goldman Perhaps that is what love is: the momentary or prolonged refusal to think of another person in terms of power. Phyllis Rose There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy. Gillian Rose Marriage is a perilous and fearful effort, it seems to me. . . . It creates pain that it is the only cure for. It is the only comfort for its hardships. . . . Though we had our troubles, we had them in a true perspective. The universe, as we could see any night, is unimaginably large, and mostly empty, and mostly dark. We knew we needed to be together more than we needed to be apart. Wendell Berry From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2014 This increasingly intelligent, fast-moving civilization needs to be applying some of its intelligence to things that change slowly. . . . If we are constantly tending to the immediate, day-to-day problems, we’ll lose that sense of the long term, and then we could be really sorry. Stewart Brand Possibly the heart of our humanity is to want something we cannot achieve by our own efforts. Tim Farrington Our thoughts limit what we’re capable of doing. There are external forces arrayed against us, but there are also internal forces that sabotage us before we even get started. Our mind is good at setting us up for failure and getting us to think small. But I have found that we will do for love that which we don’t think is possible. So the question to ask ourselves is “What do I love?” Julia Butterfly Hill She had made a promise to herself that she intended on keeping. She was never going to go out with another writer: no matter how charming, sensitive, inventive, or fun they could be. They weren’t worth it in the long run. They were emotionally too expensive, and the upkeep was complicated. They were like having a vacuum cleaner around the house that broke all the time and only Einstein could fix it. She wanted her next lover to be a broom. Richard Brautigan I think we risk becoming the best-informed society that has ever died of ignorance. Rubén Blades It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. W. Edwards Deming We need to restore the full meaning of that old word duty. It is the other side of rights. Pearl S. Buck I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act. G.K. Chesterton When it comes time to die, make sure all you got to do is die. Jim Elliot It is not possible for any thinking person to live in such a society as our own without wanting to change it. George Orwell It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings out of shame. This is the tragedy of the world. For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile. Alice Walker When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. Paul Hawken I find patriotism not only a refuge of scoundrels but of idiots and those who like to buy their thinking ready-made each morning in the vacuous newspapers. Every decade or so governments create wars and whip up a frenzy, so that we will not notice the shortcomings of our own side and will not question the assumptions of our society and demand more rational institutions and laws. Marge Piercy Reality is a sound, you have to tune in to it not just keep yelling. Anne Carson The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. G.K. Chesterton The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind. Paracelsus From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2015 The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home. Edgar Watson Howe Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no support, we’ve put it in an impossible situation. Margaret Mead Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy. Bertrand Russell We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. W. Somerset Maugham A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself. Marianne Moore It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it. Jacob Bronowski So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime. Emma Goldman If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him. James Baldwin Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. George Bernard Shaw Death does not wait to see if things are done or not done. The Kularnava Tantra It’s just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up. Muhammad Ali The dark side of men is clear. Their mad exploitation of earth resources, devaluation and humiliation of women, and obsession with tribal warfare are undeniable. Genetic inheritance contributes to their obsessions, but also culture and environment. We have defective mythologies that ignore masculine depth of feeling, assign men a place in the sky instead of earth, teach obedience to the wrong powers, [and] work to keep men boys. Robert Bly Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world’s worst roommate, like having Janis Joplin with a bad hangover and PMS come to stay with you. Anne Lamott No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice-cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg. Frederica Mathewes-Green I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that center on the sanctity of life. As a species we’ve fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don’t believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain, and lifelong grinding poverty shows us that . . . we’ve made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred. Caitlin Moran From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2016 The doctor may also learn more about the illness from the way the patient tells the story than from the story itself. James B. Herrick Badgered, snubbed, and scolded on the one hand; petted, flattered, and indulged on the other — it is astonishing how many children work their way up to an honest manhood in spite of parents and friends. Human nature has an element of great toughness in it. Henry Ward Beecher Never do for a child what he is capable of doing for himself. Elizabeth Hainstock In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she’s a feminist or a masochist. Gloria Steinem I asked a Burmese why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war. Robert Mueller Life must go on; I forget just why. Edna St. Vincent Millay There are many ways we have of standing outside ourselves in ignorance. Those who have learned as children to become strangers to themselves do not find this a difficult task. Habit has made it natural not to feel. To ignore the consequences of what one does in the world becomes ordinary. Susan Griffin The more challenging or threatening the situation or context to be assimilated and affirmed, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it. The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply. Joseph Campbell People must have renounced, it seems to me, all natural intelligence to dare to advance that animals are but animated machines. . . . [Such people] can never have observed with attention the character of animals, not to have distinguished among them the different voices of need, of suffering, of joy, of pain, of love, of anger, and of all their affections. It would be very strange that they should express so well what they could not feel. Voltaire Ask experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: “Because the animals are like us.” Ask experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: “Because the animals are not like us.” Charles R. Magel Strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him. H.L. Mencken It was the sort of anger that comes to a slow boil inside the hearts of good men who want justice, and finding it out of their grasp, decide vengeance is the next best thing. Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn’t disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment. Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced. James Baldwin The individual — stupendous and beautiful paradox — is at once infinitesimal dust and the cause of all things. C.V. Wedgwood From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2017 In the Soviet Union, capitalism has triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism has triumphed over democracy. Fran Lebowitz I don’t believe there’s any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can’t completely ignore. George Carlin In America the word revolution is used to sell pantyhose. Rita Mae Brown As you come to know the seriousness of our situation - the war, the racism, the poverty in the world - you come to realize that it is not going to be changed just by words or demonstrations. It’s a question of risking your life. It’s a question of living your life in drastically different ways. Dorothy Day Imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions - poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed - which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished. Howard Zinn I was kind of excited to go to jail for the first time, and I learned some great dialogue. Quentin Tarantino What a chimera then is man! What a novelty! What a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, depository of truth, a sink of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe. Blaise Pascal Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Mark 10:21–22 Service is the rent we pay for living. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time. Marian Wright Edelman When you attach value to giving help, you attach value to needing help. The danger of tying your self-worth to being a helper is feeling shame when you have to ask for help. Offering help is courageous and compassionate, but so is asking for help. Brené Brown The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Frederick Buechner Always be a little kinder than is necessary. Sir J.M. Barrie Genuine compassion comes from the fact that you see your own limitations: you wish to be kind, and you find that you aren’t kind. Then, instead of beating yourself up, you see that that’s what all human beings are up against, and you begin to have . . . genuine compassion for the human condition. Pema Chödrön When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city? / Do you huddle close together because you love each other?” / What will you answer? “We all dwell together / To make money from each other”? or “This is a community”? T.S. Eliot It is hard to talk about a middle ground for something that is a fundamental right. Teri Reynolds On the whole, lying is a cheerful affair. Embellishments are intended to give pleasure. People long to tell you what they imagine you want to hear. They want to amuse you; they want to amuse themselves; they want to show you a good time. This is beyond hospitality. This is art. Isabel Fonseca The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else. George Bernard Shaw The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that - whether from fear, careerism, or conviction - uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function. Glenn Greenwald When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic. Dresden James When we talk about lying . . . let us remember that the lie did not creep into politics by some accident of human sinfulness. Moral outrage, for this reason alone, is not likely to make it disappear. Hannah Arendt All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian. Pat Paulsen I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong. George Washington I do not know where I am going; where I have come from is disappearing; I am unwelcome, and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging. . . . The lines, the forms, the people at the desks, the calling cards, the immigration officers, the looks on the street, the cold settling deep into my bones, the English classes at night, the distance I am from home. But . . . all of this is better than the scent of a woman completely on fire, or a truckload of men who look like my father pulling out my teeth and nails, or fourteen men between my legs. Warsan Shire The main problem in any democracy is that crowd-pleasers . . . can go out on a stage and whup their supporters into an orgiastic frenzy - then go back to the office and sell every one of the poor bastards down the tube for a nickel apiece. Hunter S. Thompson The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior What you don’t do can be a destructive force. Eleanor Roosevelt Under current law, it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for a government official to lie to the people. Donald M. Fraser Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. James Madison I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence. Eugene V. Debs In a nation of millions, and in a world of billions, the individual is still the first and basic agent of change. Lyndon B. Johnson We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don’t understand how incredibly vulnerable it is. Niall Ferguson Politics: the art of using euphemisms, lies, emotionalism, and fear-mongering to dupe average people into accepting - or even demanding - their own enslavement. Larken Rose The most important political office is that of private citizen. Louis Brandeis From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2018 Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. Scott Woods Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Eleanor Roosevelt The idea that each corporation can be a feudal monarchy and yet behave in its corporate action like a democratic citizen concerned for the world we live in is one of the great absurdities of our time. Kim Stanley Robinson, Antarctica Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins / that may buy you just a moment of pleasure, / but then drag you for days / like a broken man / behind a farting camel. Hāfiz The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more. Kin Hubbard The true test of faith is how we treat those who can do nothing for us in return. Dillon Burroughs When you consider that God could have commanded anything he wanted - anything! - the Ten [Commandments] have got to rank as one of the great missed moral opportunities of all time. How different history would have been had he clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny, taking over other people’s countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife-beating, stoning, treating women - or anyone - as chattel or inferior beings. Katha Pollitt Many people fear nothing more terribly than to take a position which stands out sharply and clearly from the prevailing opinion. The tendency of most is to adopt a view that is so ambiguous that it will include everything and so popular that it will include everybody. Not a few men who cherish lofty and noble ideas hide them under a bushel for fear of being called different. Martin Luther King Jr. Slavery never ended; it just evolved. Bryan Stevenson Imagine the brain, that shiny mound of being, that mouse-gray parliament of cells, that dream factory, that petite tyrant inside a ball of bone, that huddle of neurons calling all the plays, that little everywhere, that fickle pleasuredome, that wrinkled wardrobe of selves stuffed into the skull like too many clothes into a gym bag. Diane Ackerman Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as . . . from a lack of bread. Richard Wright, Native Son Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self; in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which robes one’s nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one’s nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one’s robes. James Baldwin We run out of things that make us individual very quickly; all of us have far more in common than we do not have in common. Douglas Coupland, Player One: What Is to Become of Us The time has come . . . to resist the impulse to control, to command, to force, to oppress, and to begin quite humbly to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends. Our fulfillment is not in our isolated human grandeur, but in our intimacy with the larger earth community, for this is also the larger dimension of our being. Thomas Berry You can change the terms, you can change the allowable limits, you can do the risk assessment - all these things - but in the end, the fact is that you and I drink that water. You and I breathe that air. You and I live here. Winona LaDuke The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery. Eugene V. Debs I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed. Jonathan Swift How can we even begin to disarm greed and envy? Perhaps by being much less greedy and envious ourselves; perhaps by resisting the temptation of letting our luxuries become needs; and perhaps by even scrutinizing our needs to see if they cannot be simplified and reduced. E.F. Schumacher It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all - but we can become something less than human with frightening ease. N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms If you see the world around you as a collection of objects for you to manipulate and exploit, you will inevitably destroy the world while attempting to control it. Vine Deloria Jr. The reason to preserve wilderness is that we need it. We need wilderness of all kinds, large and small, public and private. We need to go now and again into places where our work is disallowed, where our hopes and plans have no standing. Wendell Berry Politics is the business of governing, and nobody can escape being governed, for better or worse. In the few fortunate societies where voting is free and honest, most people take the weird view that politics is a horse race - you bet on a winner or loser every so often, if you can bestir yourself; but politics is not a personal concern. Politics is everything — from clean drinking water through the preservation of forests, whales, . . . to nuclear weapons and the disposal thereof. People often say, with pride, ‘I’m not interested in politics.’ They might as well say, ‘I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.’…If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics. Martha Gellhorn Principles invite us to do something about the morass of contradictions in which we function morally. Principles invite us to clean up our act, to become intolerant of moral laxity and compromise and cowardice and the turning away from what is upsetting: that secret gnawing of the heart that tells us that what we are doing is not right. Susan Sontag Real change never takes place from the top on down. It always takes place from the bottom on up. It takes place when ordinary people, by the millions, are prepared to stand up and fight for justice. That’s what the history of the trade-union movement is about. That’s what the history of the women’s movement is about. That’s what the history of the civil-rights movement is about. That’s what the history of the gay-rights movement is about. That’s what the history of the environmental movement is about. That’s what any serious movement for justice is about. Bernie Sanders From The Sun, Sunbeams, 2019 There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. Eric Hoffer Home life ceases to be free and beautiful as soon as it is founded on borrowing and debt. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach The little money I have, that is my wealth; but the things I have for which I would not take money, that is my treasure. Robert Brault You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before. . . . And those answers don’t exist anymore. Because you did not act in time. Greta Thunberg What we are doing to strangers in other communities right now is, therefore, far more serious and far more widespread than the harm we would do if we were in the habit of occasionally sending out a group of warriors to rape and pillage a village or two. Yet causing imperceptible harm at a distance by the release of [carbon dioxide] is a completely new form of harm, and so we lack any kind of instinctive inhibitions or emotional response against causing it. We have trouble seeing it as harm at all. Peter Singer In the midst of this American society, so well policed, so sententious, so charitable, a cold selfishness and complete insensibility prevails when it is a question of the natives of the country. . . . This world here belongs to us, they tell themselves every day: the Indian race is destined for final destruction which one cannot prevent and which it is not desirable to delay. Heaven has not made them to become civilized; it is necessary that they die. Besides I do not at all want to get mixed up in it. I will not do anything against them: I will limit myself to providing everything that will hasten their ruin. In time I will have their lands and will be innocent of their death. Satisfied with his reasoning, the American goes to the church where he hears the minister of the gospel repeat every day that all men are brothers, and the Eternal Being who has made them all in like image has given them all the duty to help one another. Alexis de Tocqueville, notes on visiting the U.S., July 20, 1831 We who still live do what we must. . . . We honor anniversaries of deaths by cleaning graves and sitting next to them before fires, sharing food with those who will not eat again. We raise children and tell them other things about who they can be and what they are worth: to us, everything. We love each other fiercely, while we live and after we die. We survive; we are savages. Jesmyn Ward [My father] talked and contrived endlessly to the effect that I should understand the land, not as a commodity, an inert fact to be taken for granted, but as an ultimate value, enduring and alive, useful and beautiful and mysterious and formidable and comforting, beneficent and terribly demanding, worthy of the best of a man’s attention and care. . . . [H]e insisted that I learn to do the hand labor that the land required, knowing - and saying again and again - that the ability to do such work is the source of a confidence and an independence of character that can come no other way, not by money, not by education. Wendell Berry The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. Galileo Galilei It is an illusion to suppose that a dictator makes himself; at most he seizes an opportunity made for him by passive, stupid, incompetent, and, above all, unsatisfied and fearful men. L. Susan Stebbing It may be true, as Lincoln supposed, that “you can’t fool all the people all the time,” but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country. Will and Ariel Durant For millennia, every attempt at civilization foundered because nations lacked the most essential information. Now we lurch forward, overburdened by hordes of misinformation. Sometimes I think our future existence will depend on whether we can keep false information from proliferating too rapidly. If our power to verify the facts does not keep pace, then distortions of information will eventually choke us. Norman Mailer, Harlot’s Ghost We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning. George Steiner There are no simple lessons in history . . . It is human nature that repeats itself, not history. John Toland When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I’m rich and I complain about inequality they say I’m a hypocrite. I’m beginning to think they just don’t want to talk about inequality. Russell Brand All but the hard-hearted must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it. G.K. Chesterton People have criticized me for seeming to step out of my professional role to become undignifiedly political. I’d say it was belated realization that day care, good schools, health insurance, and nuclear disarmament are even more important aspects of pediatrics than measles vaccine or vitamin D. Dr. Benjamin Spock The real question is: How sturdy and solid is the floor our civilization stands on? How many lives with no prospects, shattered and senseless, can it bear the weight of before it cracks? Christa Wolf The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation. I grapple with this because I’m a parent. And I think anybody who has children, you come to this realization, you know - what’ll it be? Alienated, cynical intellectual? Or slack-jawed, half-wit consumer of the horseshit being handed down from on high? There is not much choice in there, you see. And we all want our children to be well-adjusted; unfortunately, there’s nothing to be well-adjusted to. Terence McKenna Nature presides in all her dignity, permitting us the study and the use of such of her forces as we may understand. It is when we presume to intimacy, having been granted only tolerance, that the harsh stick falls across our impudent knuckles and we rub the pain, staring upward, startled by our ignorance. Beryl Markham Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations. The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. . . . We are needed, that is all we can know. Clarissa Pinkola Estés The mistake 99 percent of humanity made, as far as Fats could see, was being ashamed of what they were; lying about it, trying to be somebody else. J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy We, each of us, need so much to be affirmed. For each of us has - gnawing away at the center of our being - a sense of insecurity, some more than others. And frequently, the more insecure, the more aggressive we become. The more we throw our weight about and say people should recognize us. Desmond Tutu Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame, and self-loathing - they are not all bad. Those devils have also been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter, and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me. Stephen Fry |
| *************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Lucretius (99 BCE – c. 55 BCE) The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied. Fear of death was the first thing on earth to make the gods. All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician, and ridiculous to the philosopher. Wherefore I say once more, 'tis past belief They should be formed to serve the ends of use Lucretius IV 856-7 Natural Selection V 820-875 Wherefore, again, again, how merited Is that adopted name of Earth- The Mother!- Since she herself begat the human race, And at one well-nigh fixed time brought forth Each breast that ranges raving round about Upon the mighty mountains and all birds Aerial with many a varied shape. But, lo, because her bearing years must end, She ceased, like to a woman worn by eld. For lapsing aeons change the nature of The whole wide world, and all things needs must take One status after other, nor aught persists Forever like itself. All things depart; Nature she changeth all, compelleth all To transformation. Lo, this moulders down, A-slack with weary eld, and that, again, Prospers in glory, issuing from contempt. In suchwise, then, the lapsing aeons change The nature of the whole wide world, and earth Taketh one status after other. And what She bore of old, she now can bear no longer, And what she never bore, she can to-day. In those days also the telluric world Strove to beget the monsters that upsprung With their astounding visages and limbs- The Man-woman- a thing betwixt the twain, Yet neither, and from either sex remote- Some gruesome Boggles orphaned of the feet, Some widowed of the hands, dumb Horrors too Without a mouth, or blind Ones of no eye, Or Bulks all shackled by their legs and arms Cleaving unto the body fore and aft, Thuswise, that never could they do or go, Nor shun disaster, nor take the good they would. And other prodigies and monsters earth Was then begetting of this sort- in vain, Since Nature banned with horror their increase, And powerless were they to reach unto The coveted flower of fair maturity, Or to find aliment, or to intertwine In works of Venus. For we see there must Concur in life conditions manifold, If life is ever by begetting life To forge the generations one by one: First, foods must be; and, next, a path whereby The seeds of impregnation in the frame May ooze, released from the members all; Last, the possession of those instruments Whereby the male with female can unite, The one with other in mutual ravishments. And in the ages after monsters died, Perforce there perished many a stock, unable By propagation to forge a progeny. For whatsoever creatures thou beholdest Breathing the breath of life, the same have been Even from their earliest age preserved alive By cunning, or by valour, or at least By speed of foot or wing. And many a stock Remaineth yet, because of use to man, And so committed to man's guardianship. Valour hath saved alive fierce lion-breeds And many another terrorizing race, Cunning the foxes, flight the antlered stags. Light-sleeping dogs with faithful heart in breast, However, and every kind begot from seed Of beasts of draft, as, too, the woolly flocks And horned cattle, all, my Memmius, Have been committed to guardianship of men. For anxiously they fled the savage beasts, And peace they sought and their abundant foods, Obtained with never labours of their own, Which we secure to them as fit rewards For their good service. But those beasts to whom Nature has granted naught of these same things- Beasts quite unfit by own free will to thrive And vain for any service unto us In thanks for which we should permit their kind To feed and be in our protection safe- Those, of a truth, were wont to be exposed, Enshackled in the gruesome bonds of doom, As prey and booty for the rest, until Nature reduced that stock to utter death. V 820-875 Origins and Savage Period of Mankind But mortal man Was then far hardier in the old champaign, As well he should be, since a hardier earth Had him begotten; builded too was he Of bigger and more solid bones within, And knit with stalwart sinews through the flesh, Nor easily seized by either heat or cold, Or alien food or any ail or irk. And whilst so many lustrums of the sun Rolled on across the sky, men led a life After the roving habit of wild beasts. Not then were sturdy guiders of curved ploughs, And none knew then to work the fields with iron, Or plant young shoots in holes of delved loam, Or lop with hooked knives from off high trees The boughs of yester-year. What sun and rains To them had given, what earth of own accord Created then, was boon enough to glad Their simple hearts. Mid acorn-laden oaks Would they refresh their bodies for the nonce; And the wild berries of the arbute-tree, Which now thou seest to ripen purple-red In winter time, the old telluric soil Would bear then more abundant and more big. And many coarse foods, too, in long ago The blooming freshness of the rank young world Produced, enough for those poor wretches there. And rivers and springs would summon them of old To slake the thirst, as now from the great hills The water's down-rush calls aloud and far The thirsty generations of the wild. So, too, they sought the grottos of the Nymphs- The woodland haunts discovered as they ranged- From forth of which they knew that gliding rills With gush and splash abounding laved the rocks, The dripping rocks, and trickled from above Over the verdant moss; and here and there Welled up and burst across the open flats. As yet they knew not to enkindle fire Against the cold, nor hairy pelts to use And clothe their bodies with the spoils of beasts; But huddled in groves, and mountain-caves, and woods, And 'mongst the thickets hid their squalid backs, When driven to flee the lashings of the winds And the big rains. Nor could they then regard The general good, nor did they know to use In common any customs, any laws: Whatever of booty fortune unto each Had proffered, each alone would bear away, By instinct trained for self to thrive and live. And Venus in the forests then would link The lovers' bodies; for the woman yielded Either from mutual flame, or from the man's Impetuous fury and insatiate lust, Or from a bribe- as acorn-nuts, choice pears, Or the wild berries of the arbute-tree. And trusting wondrous strength of hands and legs, They'd chase the forest-wanderers, the beasts; And many they'd conquer, but some few they fled, A-skulk into their hiding-places... V 925-984 *************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. If tyrany came to this country it would take the form of a thousand petty restrictions duly legislated for ostensably good ends. (Paraphrase) Among democratic nations, each generation is a new people In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own. It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery - hay and a barn for human cattle. Democratic institutions awaken and foster a passion for equality which they can never satisfy. The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so. What I find most repulsive in America is not the extreme freedom reigning there but the shortage of guarantees against tyranny. Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom. Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort. History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith. The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens. The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing. The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people. There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it. There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one. Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves. Though it is very important for man as an individual that his religion should be true, that is not the case for society. Society has nothing to fear or hope from another life; what is most important for it is not that all citizens profess the true religion but that they should profess religion. We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects. The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary. Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details. It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too. America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing. Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity. Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution. *************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds for this are virtue and talents. Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial reenactments, because a constant hold by the nation of the strings of the public purse is a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not to wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted to be free. Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital. I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. By the tables of mortality, of the adults living at one moment of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years. At the end of that period, then. a new majority is come into place: or, in other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all which has gone before. It has, then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness; consequently, a solemn opportunity of doing this every nineteen or twenty years should be provided by the constitution. It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them. Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. Necessities which dissolve a government do not convey its authority to an oligarchy or a monarchy. They throw back into the hands of the people the powers they had delegated, and leave them as individuals to shift for themselves. The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits that favor that theory. And say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the government or information to the people. This last is the most certain and the most legitimate engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. to James Madison, 1787 A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors. The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and moneyed incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling... . I hope we shall take warning and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to trial and bid defiance to the laws of our country. I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies. Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites. (Notes on the State of Virginia) Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plough for those who do not. I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction. But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. Notes on the State of Virginia Q.XVII, 1782. 2:225 I believe that justice is instinct and innate, the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as that of feeling, seeing and hearing. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782 When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property. I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, underthe pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of our currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing of power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. We never repent having eaten too little. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere. Letter to Abigail Adams, 22 February 1787 A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them therwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. 1st innaugural address The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good. to Charles Clay, 1790 To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical... If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny. If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. 1800 The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? 1801 Experience [has] shown that, even under the best forms [of government], those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. 1779 I never consider a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. On every question of construction, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed. Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day. But a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly proves a deliberate systematic plan of reducing us to slavery. History, in general, only informs us what bad government is. I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence of written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying them with us. Human Events, 9-20-10 I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid posterity under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. 1-26-99 The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781 No man can by natural right oblige the lands...to the payment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he (man) might during his own life eat up the use of the lands for several generations to come... No generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence. I do not like... the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the law of nations. to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:387 What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance? History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. I never told my religion nor scrutinize that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge me. That government is best which governs the least [quoting Paine], because its people discipline themselves. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened! A Decaloque of Canons for observation in practical life God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion... We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half, for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? to William S. Smith, 1787. ME 6:372 The first settlers in this country were emigrants from England, of the English church, just at a point of time when it was flushed with complete victory over the religious of all other persuasions. Possessed, as they became, of the powers of making, administering, and executing the laws, they shewed equal intolerance in this country with their Presbyterian brethren, who had emigrated to the northern government. The poor Quakers were flying from persecution in England. They cast their eyes on these new countries as asylums of civil and religious freedom; but they found them free only for the reigning sect. Several acts of the Virginia assembly of 1659, 1662, and 1693, had made it penal in parents to refuse to have their children baptized; had prohibited the unlawful assembling of Quakers; had made it penal for any master of a vessel to bring a Quaker into the state; had ordered those already here, and such as should come thereafter, to be imprisoned till they should abjure the country; provided a milder punishment for their first and second return, but death for their third; had inhibited all persons from suffering their meetings in or near their houses, entertaining them individually, or disposing of books which supported their tenets. If no capital execution took place here, as did in New-England, it was not owing to the moderation of the church, or spirit of the legislature, as may be inferred from the law itself; but to historical circumstances which have not been handed down to us. The Anglicans retained full possession of the country about a century. Other opinions began then to creep in, and the great care of the government to support their own church, having begotten an equal degree of indolence in its clergy, two-thirds of the people had become dissenters at the commencement of the present revolution. The laws indeed were still oppressive on them, but the spirit of the one party had subsided into moderation, and of the other had risen to a degree of determination which commanded respect. The present state of our laws on the subject of religion is this. The convention of May 1776, in their declaration of rights, declared it to be a truth, and a natural right, that the exercise of religion should be free; but when they proceeded to form on that declaration the ordinance of government, instead of taking up every principle declared in the bill of rights, and guarding it by legislative sanction, they passed over that which asserted our religious rights, leaving them as they found them. The same convention, however, when they met as a member of the general assembly in October 1776, repealed all acts of parliament which had rendered criminal the maintaining any opinions in matters of religion, the forbearing to repair to church, and the exercising any mode of worship; and suspended the laws giving salaries to the clergy, which suspension was made perpetual in October 1779. Statutory oppressions in religion being thus wiped away, we remain at present under those only imposed by the common law, or by our own acts of assembly. At the common law, heresy was a capital offence, punishable by burning. Its definition was left to the ecclesiastical judges, before whom the conviction was, till the statute of the 1 El. c. 1. circumscribed it, by declaring, that nothing should be deemed heresy, but what had been so determined by authority of the canonical scriptures, or by one of the four first general councils, or by some other council having for the grounds of their declaration the express and plain words of the scriptures. Heresy, thus circumscribed, being an offence at the common law, our act of assembly of October 1777, c. 17. gives cognizance of it to the general court, by declaring, that the jurisdiction of that court shall be general in all matters at the common law. The execution is by the writ De haeretico comburendo. By our own act of assembly of 1705, c. 30, if a person brought up in the Christian religion denies the being of a God, or the Trinity, or asserts there are more Gods than one, or denies the Christian religion to be true, or the scriptures to be of divine authority, he is punishable on the first offence by incapacity to hold any office or employment ecclesiastical, civil, or military; on the second by disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy, to be guardian, executor, or administrator, and by three years imprisonment, without bail. A father's right to the custody of his own children being founded in law on his right of guardianship, this being taken away, they may of course be severed from him, and put, by the authority of a court, into more orthodox hands. This is a summary view of that religious slavery, under which a people have been willing to remain, who have lavished their lives and fortunes for the establishment of their civil freedom. 33 The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only. Had not the Roman government permitted free enquiry, Christianity could never have been introduced. Had not free enquiry been indulged, at the aera of the reformation, the corruptions of Christianity could not have been purged away. If it be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged. Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food. Government is just as infallible too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere: the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. This error however at length prevailed, the earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round its axis by a vorteo. The government in which he lived was wise enough to see that this was no question of civil jurisdiction, or we should all have been involved by authority in vortices. In fact, the vortices have been exploded, and the Newtonian principle of gravitation is now more firmly established, on the basis of reason, than it would be were the government to step in, and to make it an article of necessary faith. Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as public reasons. And why subject it to coercion? To produce uniformity. But is uniformity of opinion desireable? No more than of face and stature. Introduce the bed of Procrustes then, and as there is danger that the large men may beat the small, make us all of a size, by lopping the former and stretching the latter. Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhabited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess probably a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that one, we should wish to see the 999 wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves. But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments? Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York, however, have long subsisted without any establishment at all. The experiment was new and doubtful when they made it. It has answered beyond conception. They flourish infinitely. Religion is well supported; of various kinds, indeed, but all good enough; all sufficient to preserve peace and order: or if a sect arises, whose tenets would subvert morals, good sense has fair play, and reasons and laughs it out of doors, without suffering the state to be troubled with it. They do not hang more malefactors than we do. They are not more disturbed with religious dissensions. On the contrary, their harmony is unparalleled, and can be ascribed to nothing but their unbounded tolerance, because there is no other circumstance in which they differ from every nation on earth. They have made the happy discovery, that the way to silence religious disputes, is to take no notice of them. Let us too give this experiment fair play, and get rid, while we may, of those tyrannical laws. It is true, we are as yet secured against them by the spirit of the times. I doubt whether the people of this country would suffer an execution for heresy, or a three years imprisonment for not comprehending the mysteries of the Trinity. But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. Notes on the State of Virginia The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water. Yet it is a question of such consequences as not only to merit decision, but place also, among the fundamental principles of every government. The course of reflection in which we are immersed here on the elementary principles of society has presented this question to my mind; and that no such obligation can be transmitted I think very capable of proof. I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living;" that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it. The portion occupied by an individual ceases to be his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society. If the society has formed no rules for the appropriation of its lands in severalty, it will be taken by the first occupants. These will generally be the wife and children of the decedent. If they have formed rules of appropriation, those rules may give it to the wife and children, or to some one of them, or to the legatee of the deceased. So they may give it to his creditor. But the child, the legatee or creditor takes it, not by any natural right, but by a law of the society of which they are members, and to which they are subject. Then no man can by natural right oblige the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeed him in that occupation, to the paiment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might during his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead, and not to the living, which would be reverse of our principle. What is true of every member of the society individually, is true of them all collectively, since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of individuals. To keep our ideas clear when applying them to a multitude, let us suppose a whole generation of men to be born on the same day, to attain mature age on the same day, and to die on the same day, leaving a succeeding generation in the moment of attaining their mature age all together. Let the ripe age be supposed of 21. years, and their period of life 34. years more, that being the average term given by the bills of mortality to persons who have already attained 21. years of age. Each successive generation would, in this way, come on and go off the stage at a fixed moment, as individuals do now. Then I say the earth belongs to each of these generations during it's course, fully, and in their own right. The 2d. generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the 1st., the 3d. of the 2d. and so on. For if the 1st. could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not the living generation. Then no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of it's own existence. At 21. years of age they may bind themselves and their lands for 34. years to come: at 22. for 33: at 23 for 32. and at 54 for one year only; because these are the terms of life which remain to them at those respective epochs. But a material difference must be noted between the succession of an individual and that of a whole generation. Individuals are parts only of a society, subject to the laws of a whole. These laws may appropriate the portion of land occupied by a decedent to his creditor rather than to any other, or to his child, on condition he satisfies his creditor. But when a whole generation, that is, the whole society dies, as in the case we have supposed, and another generation or society succeeds, this forms a whole, and there is no superior who can give their territory to a third society, who may have lent money to their predecessors beyond their faculty of paying. to James Madison, 1789 *************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Loren Eiseley I love forms beyond my own, and regret the borders between us. The door to the past is a strange door. It swings open and things pass through it, but they pass in one direction only. No man can return across that threshold, though he can look down still and see the green light waver in the water weeds. The Immense Journey Written deep in the human subconscious is a simple terror of what has come with us from the forest and sometimes haunts our dreams. The Invisible Pyramid To the day of our deaths we exist in an inner solitude that is linked to the nature of life itself. Even as we project an affectation upon others we endure a loneliness which is the price of all individual consciousness. The Invisible Pyramid Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort. The mind has sunk away into its beginnings among old roots and the obscure tricklings and movings that stir inanimate things. Like the charmed fairy circle into which a man once stepped, and upon emergence learned that the whole century had passed in a single night, one can never quite define this secret; but it has something to do, I am sure, with common water. Its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past and prepares the future; it moves under the poles and wanders thinly in the heights of the air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection in a snowflake or strip the living to a single shining bone cast up by the sea. The Immense Journey In the Namibian dessert of southwest Africa you will find the bones of a different species of human. They evolved just a few thousand years ago, a hundred thousand years more recently than you and me. Their limbs were lighter and more graceful than ours. Their skulls were larger. In fact, their brain-to-body ratio exceeded ours as much as ours exceeds that of our ancestors. Noting their gracile skeletons, paleo-anthropologists call these people Strandloopers. [See Loren Eisley The Star Thrower (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1978) pages 196-197 for details.] Examining their small faces and large-domed delicate skulls makes you wonder. What vast thoughts went through their minds? What realms of pure philosophy and reason did they explore? Were they scientists? Did they plumb the depths of the human spirit? Would we poor throwbacks have been capable of even grasping their art? More troubling, what would their descendants have been like, at evolution's next slow tick, a hundred millennia from now? Would we even recognize such ethereal beings as human? We will never know, you see, because the Strandloopers are all dead. Examine their bones. Try to find what killed them, and you discover something oddly troubling. Their skulls are smashed with blunt instruments, the undersides punctured to scoop out the tasty brains. Their thighbones have been pounded with rocks, splintering them to dig out the juicy marrow. Their bones are charred from being roasted over fires. The evidence is incontrovertible. Nietzsche was wrong. The supermen already arrived. We ate them. The Star Thrower Once, on ancient Earth, there was a human boy walking along a beach. There had just been a storm, and starfish had been scattered along the sands. The boy knew the fish would die, so he began to fling the fish to the sea. But every time he threw a starfish, another would wash ashore. "An old Earth man happened along and saw what the child was doing. He called out, 'Boy, what are you doing?' " 'Saving the starfish!' replied the boy. " 'But your attempts are useless, child! Every time you save one, another one returns, often the same one! You can't save them all, so why bother trying? Why does it matter, anyway?' called the old man. "The boy thought about this for a while, a starfish in his hand; he answered, "Well, it matters to this one." And then he flung the starfish into the welcoming sea.” The Star Thrower Not long since I read a book in which a prominent scientist spoke cheerfully of some ten billion years of future time remaining to us. He pointed out happily the things that man might do throughout the period. Fish in the sea, I thought again, birds in the air. The climb all far behind us, the species fixed and sure. .. There is something wrong with our world view. It is still Ptolemaic, though the sun is no longer believed to revolve around the earth. We teach the past, we see farther backward into time than any race before us, but we stop at the present, or, at best, we project far into the future idealized versions of ourselves. All that long way behind us we see, perhaps inevitably, through human eyes alone. We see ourselves as the culmination and the end, and if we do indeed consider our passing, we think that sunlight will go with us and the earth be dark. We are the end. For us continents rose and fell, for us the waters and the air were mastered, for us the great living web has pulsed and grown more intricate. . . . Perpetually, now, we search and bicker and disagree. The eternal form eludes us - the shape we conceive as ours. Perhaps the old road through the marsh should tell us. We are one of many appearances of the thing called Life; we are not its perfect image, for it has no image except Life, and life is multitudinous and emergent in the stream of time. The Immense Journey I think it was the great nineteenth-century paleontologist Cope who first clearly enunciated what he called the "law of the unspecialized," the contention that it was not from the most highly organized and dominant forms of a given geological era that the master type of a succeeding period evolved, but that instead the dominant forms tended to arise from more lowly and generalized animals which were capable of making new adaptations, and which were not narrowly restricted to a given environment. The Immense Journey The climatic influence runs deep... at the deepest level of the subconscious mind of all those descended from Ice Age people, there swirls the genetic memory of an unending snowstorm. Nature has no interest in the preservation of her dead; her purpose is to start their elements upon the eternal road to life once more. As for men, those myriad little detached ponds with their own swarming corpuscular life, what were they but a way that water has of going about beyond the reach of rivers? The plan is not what you think. Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war. Mostly the animals understand their roles, but man, by comparison, seems troubled by a message that, it is often said, he cannot quite remember, or has gotten wrong. The Unexpected Universe Biological time never creates the same world twice . . . The Unexpected Universe It is not enough to hold nuclear energy in one's hand like a spear, as a man would hold it, or to see the lightning, or times past, or time to come, as a man would see it. If we continue to do this, the great brain - the human brain - will be only a new version of the old trap, and nature is full of traps for the beast that cannot learn. The Unexpected Universe A steady metabolism has enabled the mammals and also the birds to experience life more fully and rapidly than cold-blooded creatures. One of the great feats of evolution, perhaps the greatest, has been this triumph of the interior environment over exterior nature. The Invisible Pyramid Man is no more natural than the world. In reality he is . . . the creator of a phantom universe, the universe we call culture - a formidable realm of cloud shapes, ideas, potentialities, gods, and cities, which with man's death will collapse into dust and vanish back into "expected" nature. The Invisible Pyramid . . . . the nature of the human predicament is how nature is to be reentered; how man, the relatively unthinking and proud creator of the second world - the world of culture - may revivify and restore the first world which cherished and brought him into being The Invisible Pyramid The brain is a strange instrument. The things it chooses to remember are as fantastic as the things it chooses to forget. The Night Country Sir Francis Bacon once spoke of those drawn into some powerful circle of thought as "dancing in little rings like persons bewitched." Our scientific models do simulate a kind of fairy ring or magic circle which, once it has encompasses us, is hard to view objectively. Truth is elusive. Perhaps William James put things most felicitously when he said, "The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths." All the Strange Hours Man . . . is himself a flame. He has burned through the animal world and appropriated its vast stores of protein for his own. The Star Thrower It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe. Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat. The Star Thrower If it should turn out that we have mishandled our own lives as several civilizations before us have done, it seems a pity that we should involve the violet and the tree frog in our departure. The Star Thrower We are rag dolls made out of many ages and skins, changelings who have slept in wood nests or hissed in the uncouth guise of wading amphibians. The Star Thrower Our identity is a dream. We are process, not reality, for reality is an illusion of the daylight - the light of our particular day. In a fortnight, as aeons are measured, we may lie silent in a bed of stone, or, as has happened in the past, be figured in another guise. The Star Thrower In the world there is nothing below a certain depth that is truly explanatory. It is as if matter dreamed and muttered in its sleep. But why, and for what reason it dreams, there is no evidence. The Lost Notebooks The inhumanity of science concerns me, as when I am tempted to kill a rare snake that I may ascertain its species. I feel that this is not the means of acquiring true knowledge. The Lost Notebooks Without the gift of flowers and the infinite diversity of their fruits, man and bird, if they had continued to exist at all would be today totally unrecognizable. Archaeopteryx, the lizard-bird, might still be snapping at beetles on a sequoia limb; man might still be a nocturnal insectivore gnawing a roach in the dark. How Flowers Changed the World It gives one a feeling of confidence to see nature still busy with experiments, still dynamic, and not through nor satisfied because a Devonian fish managed to end as a two-legged character with a straw hat. There are other things brewing and growing in the oceanic vat. It pays to know this. It pays to know that there is just as much future as there is past. The only thing that doesn't pay is to be sure of man's own part in it. There are things down there still coming ashore. Never make the mistake of thinking life is now adjusted for eternity. It was the failures who had always won, but by the time they won they had come to be called successes. This is the final paradox, which men call evolution. If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man. I am not nearly so interested in what monkey man was derived from as I am in what kind of monkey he is to become. Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us. When the human mind exists in the light of reason and no more than reason, we may say with absolute certainty that Man and all that made him will be in that instant gone. The creative element in the mind of man . . . emerges in as mysterious a fashion as those elementary particles which leap into momentary existence in great cyclotrons, only to vanish again like infinitesimal ghosts. God knows how many things a man misses by becoming smug and assuming that matters will take their own course. Each one of us is a statistical impossibility around which hover a million other lives that were never destined to be born. If he is more than a popular story-teller it may take humanity a generation to absorb and grow accustomed to the new geography with which the scientist or artist presents us. Even then, perhaps only the more imaginative and literate may accept him. Subconsciously the genius is feared as an image breaker; frequently he does not accept the opinions of the mass, or man's opinion of himself. Choices, more choices than we like afterward to believe, are made far backward in the innocence of childhood. We are one of the many appearances of the thing called Life; we are not its perfect image, for it has no image except Life, and life is multitudinous and emergent in the stream of time. Mostly the animals understand their roles, but man, by comparison, seems troubled by a message that, it is often said, he cannot quite remember, or has gotten wrong. The human brain, so frail, so perishable, so full of inexhaustible dreams and hungers, burns by the power of the leaf. One must repeat that nature is extravagant in the expenditure of individuals and germ cells. Our remote half-human ancestors gave themselves and never expected, or got, an answer as to the destiny their descendants might serve or if, indeed, they would survive. Creatures who evolve as man has done sometimes bear the scar tissue of their evolutionary travels in their bodies. The human cortex, the center of high thought, has come to dominate, but not completely to suppress, the more ancient portions of the animal brain. We know that within our heads there still exists an irrational restive ghost that can whisper disastrous messages into the ear of reason. Powerful, though, the spell of human language has proven itself to be, it has laid boundaries upon the cosmos. For what, increasingly, is required of man is that he pursue the paradox of return . . . {but} man does not wish to retrace his steps down to the margins of the reeds and peer within, lest by some magic he be permanently recaptured. [Man's] second world, drawn from his own brain, has brought him far, but it cannot take him out of nature, nor can he live by escaping into his second world alone. He must incorporate from the wisdom of the axial thinkers an ethic not alone directed toward his fellows, but extended to the living world around him. I have lifted up a fistful of that ground. I held it while that wild flight of south-bound warblers hurtled over me into the oncoming dark. There went phosphorus, there went iron, there went carbon, there beat the calcium in those hurrying wings. Evolution is far more a part of the unrolling future than it is of the past, for the past, being past, is determined and done. The present, in the words of Karl Heim, "is still in the molten phase of becoming. It is still undecided. It is still being fought for." Insects in the first frosts of autumn all run down like little clocks. With time, the bony fin is transformed into a paw, a round, insectivorous eye into the near-sighted gaze of a scholar. If it should turn out that we have mishandled our own lives as several civilizations before us have done, it seems a pity that we should involve the violet and the tree frog in our departure. We are rag dolls made out of many ages and skins, changelings who have slept in wood nests or hissed in the uncouth guise of wading amphibians. Our identity is a dream. We are process, not reality, for reality is an illusion of the daylight - the light of our particular day. In a fortnight, as aeons are measured, we may lie silent in a bed of stone, or, as has happened in the past, be figured in another guise. Anthropomorphizing: the charge of my critics. My counter-charge. There is a sense in which when we cease to anthropomorphize, we cease to be men, for when we cease to have human contact with animals and deny them all relation to ourselves, we tend in the end to cease to anthropomorphize ourselves - to deny our own humanity. Somewhere, just a short time before the close of the Age of Reptiles, there occurred a soundless, violent explosion. It lasted millions of years, but it was an explosion, nevertheless. It marked the emergence of the angiosperms - the flowering plants. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Yogi Berra (1928-2015) If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else. This is like deja vu all over again. It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future. (attrib) You can observe a lot just by watching. I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did. He must have made that before he died. -- Referring to a Steve McQueen movie. Never answer an anonymous letter. (attrib) Is he living? Is he living now? Swing at the strikes. I want to thank you for making this day necessary. -- On Yogi Berra Appreciation Day in St. Louis in 1947. I'd find the fellow who lost it, and, if he was poor, I'd return it. -- When asked what he would do if he found a million dollars. Think! How the hell are you gonna think and hit at the same time? You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there. I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early. It's not too far, it just seems like it is. Where is that coming from? --Yogi's query when it started raining ...the meat's too tough and the horns get stuck in my teeth." --Yogi turning down mousse for dessert If you can't imitate him, don't copy him. You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six. Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical. It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much. Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded. It gets late early out there. -- Referring to the bad sun conditions in left field at the stadium. Once, Yogi's wife Carmen asked, "Yogi, you are from St. Louis, we live in New Jersey, and you played ball in New York. If you go before I do, where would you like me to have you buried?" Yogi replied, "Surprise me." Do you mean now? -- When asked for the time. If you come to a fork in the road, take it. We made too many wrong mistakes. (attrib) Yeah, but we're making great time! -- In reply to "Hey Yogi, I think we're lost." If the fans don't come out to the ball park, you can't stop them. Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel. The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase. You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours. (attrib) *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Jack Handey (1949-) The wise man can pick up a grain of sand and envision a whole universe. But the stupid man will just lay down on some seaweed and roll around until he’s completely draped in it. Then he’ll stand up and go, “Hey, I’m Vine Man.” I hope that when I die, people say about me, 'Boy, that guy sure owed me a lot of money.' I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it. If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face. We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me. When you're riding in a time machine way far into the future, don't stick your elbow out the window, or it'll turn into a fossil. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Steven Wright (1955-) I lost a button hole today. What happens if you get scared half to death, twice? Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up approximately every two hours? Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural? Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets? A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up. Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film. You can't have everything. Where would you put it? You know what scares me? When you have to be nice to some paranoid schizophrenic, just because she lives in your head. There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot. When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, 'Did you sleep good?' I said 'No, I made a few mistakes.'" I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done. I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet. So I said, "Got any shoes you're not using?" You know how it is when you go to be the subject of a psychology experiment, and nobody else shows up, and you think maybe that's part of the experiment? I'm like that all the time. My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted. If all the nations in the world are in debt, where did all the money go? Then she said, 'How do you feel?' And I said, 'Well, you know when you're rocking in a rocking chair, and you go so far that you almost fall over backwards, but at the last instant you catch yourself? That's how I feel all the time.' It's a small world, but I'd hate to paint it. I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country. It's a good thing we have gravity, or else when birds died they'd just stay right up there. Hunters would be all confused. On the other hand... You have different fingers. I went to a general store. They wouldn't let me buy anything specifically. I love to go shopping. I love to freak out salespeople. They ask me if they can help me, and I say, "Have you got anything I'd like?" Then they ask me what size I need, and I say, "Extra medium." Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. I can levitate birds. No one cares. There was a power outage at a department store yesterday. Twenty people were trapped on the escalators. For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier... I put them in the same room and let them fight it out. Then I filled my humidifier with wax, and now my room is all shiny. Ever notice how irons have a setting for *permanent* press? I don't get it... I got an answering machine for my phone. Now when I'm not home and somebody calls me up, they hear a recording of a busy signal. I like to leave messages before the beep. I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything. What's another word for Thesaurus? Women... Can't live with 'em... Can't shoot 'em. Doing a little work around the house. I put fake brick wallpaper over a real brick wall, just so I'd be the only one who knew. People come over and I'm gonna say, "Go ahead, touch it... It feels real." If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer? I bought a house on a one-way dead-end road. What do batteries run on? Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn't happen. In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number. My dental hygienist is cute. Every time I visit, I eat a whole package of Oreo cookies while waiting in the lobby. Sometimes she has to cancel the rest of the afternoon's appointments. I got food poisoning today. I don't know when I'll use it. I bought a dog the other day... I named him Stay. It's fun to call him... "Come here, Stay! Come here, Stay!" He went insane. Now he just ignores me and keeps typing. Some people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. Winny would spend all of his time practicing limbo. He got pretty good. He could go under a rug. Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts. I went for a walk last night, and my kids asked me how long I'd be gone. I said, "The whole time." OK, so what's the speed of dark? Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp" to have an "s" in it? How come abbreviated is such a long word? Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Why are they called buildings, when they're already finished? Shouldn't they be called builts? Why are they called apartments when they're all stuck together? When two airplanes almost collide why do they call it a near miss? Why are there 5 syllables in the word "monosyllabic"? Why do they call it the Department of Interior when they are in charge of everything outdoors? Why buy a product that it takes 2000 flushes to get rid of? Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? Is boneless chicken considered to be an invertebrate? If all those psychics know the winning lottery numbers, why are they all still working? My neighbor has a circular driveway. He can't get out. He asked me if I knew what time it was. I said, "Yes, but not right now." Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before. I have a decaffeinated coffee table. You'd never know it to look at it. Tinsel is really snakes' mirrors. The other day somebody stole everything in my apartment and replaced it with an exact replica... When my roommate came home I said, "Roommate, someone stole everything in our apartment and replaced it with an exact replica." He looked at me and said, "Do I know you?" I made wine out of raisins so I wouldn't have to wait for it to age. Whenever I think about the past, it just brings back so many memories. When I was a baby, I kept a diary. Recently, I was rereading it. It said, "Day 1 -- Still tired from the move. Day 2 -- Everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot." Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song? The guy who wrote that song wrote everything. I like to pick up hitchhikers. When they get in the car I say, "Put on your seat belt. I want to try something. I saw it once in a cartoon, but I think I can do it." I like to reminisce with people I don't know. Granted, it takes longer. (Referring to a glass of water:) I mixed this myself. Two parts H, one part O. I don't trust anybody! Last night, I walked up to this beautiful woman in a bar and asked her, "Do you live around here often?" She said, "You're wearing two different colored socks." I said, "Yes, but to me they're the same because I go by thickness." I saw a close friend of mine the other day... He said, "Steven, why haven't you called me?" I said, "I can't call everyone I want. My new phone has no five on it." He said, "How long have you had it?" I said, "I don't know... My calendar has no sevens on it." I was in the supermarket the other day, and I met a lady in the aisle where they keep the generic brands. Her name was "woman". I saw a man with a wooden leg, and a real foot. My friend has a baby. I'm recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant. I went to a general store. They wouldn't let me buy anything specifically. I got food poisoning today. I don't know when I'll use it. When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction. I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it. I can't wait to be arrested and go all the way to the witness stand. "Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you, God?" "Yes, you're ugly. See that women in the jury? I'd really like to sleep with her. Should I keep going or are you going to ask me questions?" I was going 70 miles an hour and got stopped by a cop who said, "Do you know the speed limit is 55 miles per hour?" "Yes, officer, but I wasn't going to be out that long..." **************************************************************************************************** Quotations from George Carlin (1937-2008) You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?? It's never just a game when you're winning. Actually, if you ask me, this country could do with a little less motivation. The people who are causing all the trouble seem highly motivated to me. Serial killers, stock swindlers, drug dealers, Christian Republicans. I’m not sure motivation is always a good thing. You show me a lazy prick who’s lying in bed all day, watching TV, . . . and I’ll show you a guy who’s not causing any trouble. Where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do “practice”? Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that. The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse: You cannot post “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and “Thou shalt not lie” in a building full of lawyers, judges, and politicians. It creates a hostile work environment. There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got... because the owners of this country don’t want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. This country is finished. Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But........... he loves you. He loves you and he needs money. Tell people there is an invisible man living in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure. Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things. As a matter of principle, I never attend the first annual anything. I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose. Another plan I have is World Peace through Formal Introductions. The idea is that everyone in the world would be required to meet everyone else in the world, formally, at least once. You'd have to look the person in the eye, shake hands, repeat their name, and try to remember one outstanding physical characteristic. My theory is, if you knew everyone in the world personally, you'd be less inclined to fight them in a war: "Who? The Malaysians? Are you kidding? I know those people!" If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him ... is he still wrong? Is there another word for synonym? What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant? Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines? How do they get deer to cross at that yellow road sign? What was the best thing before sliced bread? "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence? Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag? Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts. Women like silent men, they think they're listening. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2? If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? I don’t have to tell you it goes without saying there are some things better left unsaid. I think that speaks for itself. The less said about it, the better. Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) Stripping away the irrational, the illogical, and the impossible, I am left with atheism. I can live with that. Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool. Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would rather have talked. To presume that evolution has been a long path leading to humans as its crowning achievement is just as preposterous as presuming that the whole purpose of building the Eiffel Tower was to put that final coat of paint on its tip. When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. (Attributed, but there are older versions) The reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom and forget to let up. Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat. You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it. All of us contain music and truth, but most of us can't get it out. Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it. Why, I remember the same thing was done when I was a boy on the Mississippi River. There was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive. An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built. In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now. If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I did not know. Put all your eggs in one basket, and Watch That Basket. It is easier to stay out than get out. I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. The report of my death was an exaggeration. It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled. Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not. Travel is fatal to prejudice, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything. If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got. I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people. A Philadelphian committed suicide and left the following note: I married a widow with a grown daughter. My father fell in love with my step-daughter and married her—thus becoming my son-in-law, and my step-daughter became my mother because she was my father’s wife. My wife gave birth to a son who was, of course, my father’s brother-in-law, and also my uncle for he was the brother of my step-mother. My father’s wife became the mother of a son, who was, of course, my brother, and also my grandchild for he was the son of my daughter. Accordingly, my wife was my grandmother because she was my mother’s mother. I was my wife’s husband and grandchild at the same time—and, as the husband of a person’s grandmother is his grandfather—I am my own grandfather! If one truly believes in an all-powerful deity, and one looks around at the condition of the universe, one is drawn inescapably to the conclusion that God is a malign thug. If we keep on learning at this rate well soon know nothing at all. If we had less statesmanship we could get along with fewer battleships. Suppose you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That's bad enough for me. Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. The past does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Broad, wholesome, charitable views ... can not be acquired by vegetating in one's little corner of the earth. Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister . . and now wish to withdraw that statement. Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. What would men be without women? Scarce, sir. Mighty scarce. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. I am opposed to millionaires........but it would be dangerous to offer me the position. In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot... If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear. Truth is often stranger than fiction because fiction is obliged to make sense. Never let formal education get in the way of your learning. The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear. You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus. All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence -- and then success is sure. Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't. You can't pray a lie. (Huckleberry Finn) The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice. Adam was but human--this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple's sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent. (Pudd'nhead Wilson) This is a petrified truth. Among the three or four million cradles now rocking in the land are some which this nation would preserve for ages as sacred things if we could know which ones they are. And now in his cradle, somewhere under the flag, the future illustrious commander-in-chief of the American armies is so little burdened with his approaching grandeurs and responsibilities as to be giving his whole strategic mind, at this moment, to trying to find out some way to get his own big toe into his mouth, an achievement which (meaning no disrespect) the illustrious guest of this evening also turned his attention to some fifty-six years ago. And if the child is but the father of the man, there are mighty few who will doubt that he succeeded! I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. First, God created idiots. That was just for practice. Then He created school boards. O Lord, our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sport of the sun-flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it - for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the source of love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. Man is kind enough when he's not excited by religion, but once the holy holies have got a grip on him he's capable of almost anything. When a disciple from the wildcat religious asylum comes marching forth, get under the bed. It doesn't matter whether he's a Christian, Hindu, Jew, or Muslim. If he's made up his mind that you need reforming, he will do it with anything handy - an ax, eight hundred years of witch burning or, if necessary, he'll blow you up. The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not. Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion — several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Albert Einstein (1879-1955) If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity. If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions. Creativity is intelligence having fun. The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism. Women always worry about things that men forget; men always worry about things women remember. The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilized interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. 1954 Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. I do not believe in immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it. I don't know what weapons will be used in the next war, but the one after that will be fought with bows and arrows. Play is the highest form of research. Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself. The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. (letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind, January 3, 1954) It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. (letter to an atheist (March 24, 1954), quoted in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas & Banesh Hoffman) I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being. (to Guy H. Raner Jr., Sept. 28, 1949, quoted by Michael R. Gilmore in Skeptic magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2) It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. ("Religion and Science," New York Times Magazine, November 9, 1930) I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern without any superhuman authority behind it. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom. Out of My Later Years, 1950 The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle. The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community. (On Education) Time and again the passion for understanding has led to the illusion that man is able to comprehend the objective world rationally by pure thought without any empirical foundations- in short, by metaphysics. Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely related with this. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. It is only to the individual that a soul is given. (not spoken metaphysically) He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. It is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with the highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as Atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another. The next world war will be fought with stones. The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this. ("My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921) It's no accident that capitalism has brought with it progress, not merely in production but also in knowledge. Egoism and competition are, alas, stronger forces than public spirit and sense of duty. The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this. Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from David Hume (1711-1776) What we call a mind, is nothing but a heap or collection of different perceptions, united together by certain relations, and suppos’d, tho’ falsely, to be endow’d with a perfect simplicity and identity. The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster. Were one to go round the world with an intention of giving a good supper to the righteous, and a sound drubbing to the wicked, he would frequently be embarrassed in his choice, and would find that the merits and the demerits of most men and women scarcely amount to the value of either. By this means all knowledge degenerates into probability; and this probability is greater or less, according to our experience of the veracity or deceitfulness of our understanding, and according to the simplicity or intricacy of the question. When I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception. When my perceptions are remov’d for any time, as by sound sleep; so long am I insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist. Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. We speak not strictly and philosophically when we talk of the combat of passion and of reason. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. A passion must be accompany'd with some false judgment. in order to its being unreasonable; and even then `tis not the passion, properly speaking, which is unreasonable, but the judgment. Nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them for other occupations and entertainments. Indulge your passion for science, says she, but let your science be human, and such as may have a direct reference to action and society. Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce, by the endless uncertainty in which they involve you, and by the cold reception which your pretended discoveries shall meet with, when communicated. Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man. In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. He is happy, whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent, who can suit his temper to any circumstances. Survey most nations and most ages. Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact, prevailed in the world. You will scarcely be persuaded, that they are any thing but sick men's dreams: Or perhaps will regard them more as the playsome whimsies of monkies in human shape, than the serious, positive, dogmatical asseverations of a being, who dignifies himself with the name of rational. It is seldom, that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Truth springs from argument amongst friends. What peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it the model of the whole universe? Our partiality in our own favour does indeed present it on all occasions; but sound philosophy ought carefully to guard against so natural an illusion. But were this world ever so perfect a production, it must still remain uncertain, whether all the excellencies of the work can justly be ascribed to the workman. If we survey a ship, what an exalted idea must we form of the ingenuity of the carpenter who framed so complicated, useful, and beautiful a machine? And what surprise must we feel, when we find him a stupid mechanic, who imitated others, and copied an art, which, through a long succession of ages, after multiplied trials, mistakes, corrections, deliberations, and controversies, had been gradually improving? Many worlds might have been botched and bungled, throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out; much labour lost; many fruitless trials made; and a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) Gandhi’s Seven Deadly Sins: Wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle. To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. . . . It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. 1931 It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is fear. An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does the truth become error because nobody will see it. What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? There are seven blunders of the world that cause violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, religion without sacrifice and politics without principle. First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. I will not let anyone walk through my mind with dirty feet. You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul. Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you're right and you know it, speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. A man of truth must also be a man of care. I do not seek redemption from the consequences of my sin. We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party. A permanent fund carries in itself the seed of the moral fall of the institution. Character building is the proper foundation of education. It is my rule as a Satyagrahi to understand the viewpoint of the party I propose to deal with, and to try to agree with him as far as may be possible. It is my duty to place before the people all the legitimate remedies for grievances. A nation that wants to come into its own ought to know all the ways and means to freedom... . Satyagraha is a sovereign remedy. When the symbol is made into a fetish and an instrument of proving the superiority of one's religion over others, it is fit only to be discarded. It is an inalienable right of the people to withhold cooperation. Those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics does not know what religion means. No rules can tell us how this disobedience may be done, and by whom, when and where, nor can they tell us which laws foster untruth. It is only experience that can guide us. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist. I think it would be a good idea. (when asked what he thought of Western civilization) Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results. The only weapon that can save the world is nonviolence. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence. Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation. Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth. Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help... The lower animals are our brethren. I include among them the lion and the tiger. We do not know how to live with these carnivorous beasts and poisonous reptiles because of our ignorance. When man learns better, he will learn to befriend even these. Today he does not even know how to befriend a man of a different religion or from a different country. If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake. Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral. If you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further. Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. To a man with an empty stomach, food is God. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life...to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.... There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived and treats him accordingly. It is life near the bone, where it is sweetest. I make myself rich by making my wants few. I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations, and my obligations to society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head, and I am not where my body is; I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods? Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful. I looked with awe at the ground I trod on, to see what the Powers had made there, the form and fashion and material of their work. This was that Earth of which we had heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night. Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now. As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. Walden There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life...to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.... All perception of truth is a perception of an analogy; we reason from our hands to our heads. A gun gives you the body, not the bird. It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still have other concerns to properly engage him, but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it. If I repent of anything it is very likely to be of my good behavior. Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk. Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. There will never be a free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power. Why should we live in such a hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life. I wish to learn what life has to teach and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not lived. I do not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear. Nor do I wish to practice resignation, unless it is quite necessary. I wish to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. I want to cut a broad swath, to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms. If it proves to be mean, then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it and publish its meanness to the world; or if it is sublime, to know it by experience and be able to give a true account of it. Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were. The cost of a thing is that amount of life which must be exchanged for it. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track. A figure of speech can often get into a crack too small for logic. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Carl Sagan (1934-1996) But we humans have a talent for deceiving ourselves. Skepticism must be a component of the explorer's toolkit, or we will lose our way. There are wonders enough out there without inventing any. You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe. Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both. It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas . . . If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you . . . On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones. It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas. Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to critical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your planet. If it can be destroyed by the truth it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. We are more like the nouveau riche, incompletely accommodated to our recent exalted state, insecure about who we are, and trying to put as much distance as possible between us and our humble origins. The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there's no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system. The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources. Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact. One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along. In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. This planet is run by crazy people. Remember what they have to do to get where they are. Their perspective is so narrow, so brief, a few years. In the best of them a few decades. They care only about the time they are in power. Contact We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam. The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese. Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the Earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours. In every one of them, there's a succession of incidence, events, occurrences which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time. And our small planet, at this moment, here we face a critical branch-point in the history. What we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. It is well within our power to destroy our civilization, and perhaps our species as well. If we capitulate to superstition, or greed, or stupidity we can plunge our world into a darkness deeper than time between the collapse of classical civilization and the Italian Rennaissance. But, we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. To enhance enormously our understanding of the Universe, and to carry us to the stars. We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it? Science is more than a body of knowledge, it’s a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along. At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works—that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it. In the way that skepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. … If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped. All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value. But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation. In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know, that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they actually change their minds, and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. *********************************************************************************************** Quotations from Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place. and common interest produces common security. Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel. A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution. The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out. The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it. [Probably the WORST idea he ever penned] We may as well assert that because a child has thrived upon milk, that it is never to have meat, or that the first twenty years of our lives is to become a precedent for the next twenty. (Common Sense) Mankind, as it appears to me, are always ripe enough to understand their true interest, provided it be presented clearly to their understanding, and that in a manner not to create suspicion by anything like self-design, nor offend by assuming too much. Where we would wish to reform we must not reproach. (Rights of Man) What Archimedes said of the mechanical powers, may be applied to Reason and Liberty. "Had we," said he, "a place to stand upon, we might raise the world." (Rights of Man) The danger to which the success of revolutions is most exposed is that of attempting them before the principles on which they proceed, and the advantages to result from them, are sufficiently seen and understood. Almost everything appertaining to the circumstances of a nation, has been absorbed and confounded under the general and mysterious word government. Though it avoids taking to its account the errors it commits, and the mischiefs it occasions, it fails not to arrogate to itself whatever has the appearance of prosperity. It robs industry of its honours, by pedantically making itself the cause of its effects; and purloins from the general character of man, the merits that appertain to him as a social being. (Rights of Man) Man must go back to Nature for information. (Rights of Man) It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error. Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity. The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion. These are the times that try men’s souls. Belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man. To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. When in the Course of human Events it becomes necessary for a People to advance from that Subordination, in which they have hitherto remained and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the equal and independent Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes, which impell them to the Change. We hold these truths to be Self evident; that all Men are created equal and independent; that from that equal Creation they derive Rights inherent and unalienable; among which are the Preservation of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; that to Secure these Ends, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed; that whenever, any form of Government, Shall become destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter, or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on Such Principles, and organizing its Powers in Such Form, as to them Shall Seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that Government long established Should not be changed for light and transient Causes: and accordingly all Experience hath strewn, that Mankind are more disposed to Suffer, while Evils are Sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, begun at a distinguish'd Period, and pursuing invariable, the Same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Power, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off Such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and Such is now the Necessity, which constrains them to expunge their former Systems of Government. The History of his present Majesty, is a History, of unremitting Injuries and Usurpations, among which no one Fact Stands Single or Solitary to contradict the Uniform Tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object, the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be Submitted to a candid World, for the Truth of which we pledge a Faith, as yet unsullied by Falsehood. The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. An Avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he a establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?" He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression;for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly. That government is best which governs least. We have it in our power to begin the world over again The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum. When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. Character is much easier kept than recovered. Even calmness has the power of stunning, when it comes too instantly upon us. There is no such thing as the idea of a compact between a people on one side and the government on the other. The compact is that of the people with each other, to produce and constitute a government. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow. Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness which are not injurious to the natural rights of others. Civil rights are hose which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. When we speak of right, we ought always to unite it with the idea of duties: rights become duties by reciprocity. The right which I enjoy becomes my duty to guarantee it to another, and he to me; and those who violate the duty justly incur a forfeiture of the right. **************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914), The Devil's Dictionary OCEAN, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no gills. FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel POCKET, n. The cradle of motive and the grave of conscience. In woman this organ is lacking; so she acts without motive, and her conscience, denied burial, remains ever alive, confessing the sins of others. MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency. DESTINY, n. A tyrant's authority for crime and fool's excuse for failure. HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one. MULTITUDE, n. A crowd; the source of political wisdom and virtue. In a republic, the object of the statesman's adoration. "In a multitude of consellors there is wisdom," saith the proverb. If many men of equal individual wisdom are wiser than any one of them, it must be that they acquire the excess of wisdom by the mere act of getting together. Whence comes it? Obviously from nowhere -- as well say that a range of mountains is higher than the single mountains composing it. A multitude is as wise as its wisest member if it obey him; if not, it is no wiser than its most foolish. PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. IMPARTIAL, adj. Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions. REDEMPTION, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religion, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it. Labor is one of the processes by which A acquires property for B. Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. Patience, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue. ***************************************************************************************************** Quotes from Meister Eckhart (1260-1327?) {As a matter of personal taste, in many places I have retranslated the English "God" as "the Divine"} When the soul wishes to experience something she throws an image of the experience out before her and enters into her own image. Man's last and highest parting occurs when, for God's sake, he takes leave of God. Only the hand that erases can write the true thing. Wouldst thou be perfect, do not yelp about God. If you said only one prayer in your life, "Thank you" would suffice. from D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism. tr. C. de B. Evans and/or Raymond B. Blakney: The spirit finds itself in the point where every rational being understands itself with itself. Although it sinks in the eternity of the Divine essence, yet it can never reach the ground. Therefore the Divine has left a little point wherein the spirit turns back upon itself and finds itself, and knows itself to be a creature. The spirit must step beyond or jump past creatures if it is to know the Divine. But to know the Divine is to know oneself as a creature. And of course, if you are wholly that One, you shall remain so, even where distinctions are....and separation would be one to you, so nothing could stand in your way. The One remains the One in thousands of thousands of stones as much as in four stones. The eye wherein I see the Divine is the same eye wherein the Divine sees me. My eye and Divinity’s eye are one eye, one vision, one knowing, one love. from Ursula Fleming, The Man From Whom God Nothing Hid. tr. Evans All that the Divine asks you most pressingly is to go out of yourself...and let the Divine be Divine in you. With Divine light the natural life is no obstacle to the eternal light.... knowledge, with the power to apply it, that is the eternal light. If its object is praise or aught else, that is bartering virtue....The good man wants no praise, he wants to be praiseworthy. Hell torment really means the frequent lapsing of the spirit from the purpose of Divine effort, which is to bring the spirit to life again. Man’s best chance of finding the Divine is where he left it. There is a difference between ghostly things and bodily things.... Nothing bodily dwells in another. But spiritual things dwell in each other. And among all its creatures the Divine bears no more love to one than another; as each is able to receive, it pours the love therein...to each as much as it can take. Usually we learn by taking in knowledge...but this birth wells up from within and reverses the process of knowing...so sometimes it is called an unknowing...it is a process of letting go.... Letting go leads not to torpor but to strength. It is the stripping away of anything which diverts or fragments. Truly you must quit the multitude and return to the starting point, into the ground out of which you have come....All must well up from within, out of the Divine, if this birth is to shine with a really clear light, and your own work must lie over, every faculty serving Divine ends, not your own. No sooner does a man know the reason of a thing than immediately he tires of it and goes casting about for something new. The more recollected the spirit is the less scattered she is, and the more concentrated the wider her ken. Likewise I say about the man who has brought himself to naught in himself, in Divinity, and in all creatures. That man assumes the lowest place and the Divine is bound to empty itself whole into his spirit, else this would not be Divinity. To be fruitful the spirit must be wife. Spouse is the noblest title of the spirit, nobler than virgin. For a man to receive the Divine within him is good, and in receiving he is virgin. But for the divine to be fruitful in him is still better. The just seeks nothing in his work; only thralls and hirelings ask anything for work, or work for any why. We ought to pay far more respect to other people’s methods and despise no one’s way. But let each one stick to his own way, bringing all other ways into line with that, profit in his own way by the merits of them all. Change of method makes for instability of mind as well as mode.. What you get in one way may be got in any other provided it is sound and good and the Divine is the only thing in view, nor are all men able to travel the same road. Wherein does happiness lie most of all? Some masters say it lies in love. Others, it lies in knowledge and in love, and these come nearer the mark. We again contend it neither lies in knowledge nor in love, but there in the spirit one thing from which both knowledge and love flow.... The devil talks virtue too, but he urges superfluous virtues: too much fasting and watching and kneeling, too much weeping, and his counsels are more in the nature of commands, as thus: “do this or you are damned...” An orgy of uncontrolled virtues, with no definite aim, that is [the devil’s] cue. Even if [the Divine] cannot stay, this goes no further than the door. Citing Seneca: What is the greatest comfort in suffering and discomfort? “To take it all:”, he says, “as though it had been wished and prayed for.” If I mind the loss of outward things it is a certain sign that I am fond of outward things and really love sorrow and discomfort. Is it to be wondered at that I am unhappy? ....I suffer because I am fighting the Divine. I used to wonder whether I should be asked why one blade of grass is so unlike another; and as it happened I was asked why they are so different. I said, it is more marvellous that they are so much alike. One who is minded to attain this wisdom will need humility and industry and a penetrating passivity. Even stones have love, a love that seeks the ground. The eye in itself is a better thing than the eye as painted on the wall. Quoting Diogenes to Alexander the Great: “I am a greater man than you, for I have given up more than you have ever had.” The spirit has a ghostly spot in her where she has all things matter-free just as the first cause harbors in itself all things immaterially. The spirit also has a light in her with which she creates all things. When this light and this spot coincide so that each is the seat of the other, then, only then, one is in full possession of one’s mind. On my return to the Divine, where I am formless, my breaking through will be far nobler than my emanation....When I go back into the ground, into the depths, into the well-spring of Divinity, no one will ask me where I came from or where I went. No one missed me. Divinity passes away. The Divine being is fontal: flowing and fixed, final as well as the first. From being power flows out into work.... According to the saints, power is in the Father, likeness in the Son and union in the Holy Ghost. If it is death to the spirit to part from the Divine, then it is death for her to emanate from the Divine. When praying for someone I pray at my weakest. When praying for no one I pray at my strongest, and when I want nothing and make no request I am praying at my best. To pray to the Divine for aught save the Divine is wrong and faithless.... The whole truth is native in you. No person can in this life reach the point at which he is excused from outside works....No one can have virtues without exercising virtue at the proper time and place. I can give you no better advice than to find the Divine where you lost it. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching - even when doing the wrong thing is legal. Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise. Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals. There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace. A Sand County Almanac The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. A Sand County Almanac All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts. The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land... In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. A Sand County Almanac That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. A Sand County Almanac, Foreword Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. Wilderness All history consists of successive excursions from a single starting-point, to which man returns again and again to organize yet another search for a durable scale of values. Wilderness When one of these non-economic categories is threatened and if we happen to love it, we invent subterfuges to give it economic importance. At the beginning of the century song birds were supposed to be disappearing. Ornithologists jumped to the rescue with some distinctly shaky evidence the effect that insects would eat us up if birds failed to control them. The evidence had to be economic in order to be valid. It is painful to read these circumlocutions today. We have no land ethic yet, but we have at least drawn nearer the point of admitting that birds should continue as a matter of biotic right, regardless of the presence or absence of economic advantage to us. The Land Ethic The ecological fundamentals of agriculture are just a poorly known to the public as in other fields of land-use. For example, few educated people realize that the marvelous advances in technique made during recent decades are improvements in the pump, rather than the well. Acre for acre, they have barely sufficed to offset the sinking level of fertility. The Land Ethic The mechanism of operation is the same for any ethic: social approbation for right actions: social disapproval for wrong actions. The Land Ethic Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. A Sand County Almanac Nonconformity is the highest evolutionary attainment of social animals. Round River Every region should retain representative samples of its original or wilderness condition, to serve science as a sample of normality. Just as doctors must study healthy people to understand disease, so must the land sciences study the wilderness to understand disorders of the land-mechanism. For the Health of the Land, Planning for Wildlife The oldest task in human history: to live on a piece of land without spoiling it. Engineering and Conservation ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Edward Abbey (1927-1989) One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards. The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see. Abolition of a woman’s right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State. I have been called a curmudgeon, which my obsolescent dictionary defines as a ‘surly, ill-mannered, bad-tempered fellow’. Nowadays, curmudgeon is likely to refer to anyone who hates hypocrisy, cant, sham, dogmatic ideologies, and has the nerve to point out unpleasant facts and takes the trouble to impale these sins on the skewer of humor and roast them over the fires of fact, common sense, and native intelligence. In this nation of bleating sheep and braying jackasses, it then becomes an honor to be labeled curmudgeon. May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. (Earth Apples) One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork. No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets. Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top." - Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. "The Second Rape of the West" p. 183 But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us--if only we were worthy of it." Down the River", p. 147 Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul. When I write "paradise" I mean not only apple trees and golden women but also scorpions and tarantulas and flies, rattlesnakes and Gila monsters, sandstorms, volcanoes and earthquakes, bacteria and bear, cactus, yucca, bladderweed, ocotillo and mesquite, flash floods and quicksand, and yes — disease and death and the rotting of flesh. "Down the River", p. 147 I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain. “The Crooked Wood” p. 208 The plow has probably done more harm — in the long run — than the sword. Ch. 11 : Money Et Cetera, p. 100 From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm. Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners. Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others. Among politicians and businessmen, “pragmatism” is the current term for “to hell with our children.” The only thing worse than a knee-jerk liberal is a knee-pad conservative. When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem. God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore. A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government. If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a Juniper tree or the wings of a vulture-that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Tenzin Gyatso, H.H. the Dalai Lama (1935- ) In working for the good of humanity I don't think of myself just as a Tibetan or a Buddhist, but as a human being. We have to think of the whole of humanity. Being human is the common ground in our efforts to create a better world, because we all survive in dependence on others. A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity. Don't try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist: use to to be a better whatever-you-already-are. We need to use reason to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of concern for others and self-centeredness. Scientists say that basic human nature is compassionate. It isn’t a matter of religious practice so much as a recognition that just as you appreciate it when others show you affection and compassion, others appreciate being treated the same way too. It’s a matter of training the mind. If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change. In my view, science and Buddhism share a search for the truth and for understanding reality. By learning from science about aspects of reality where its understanding may be more advanced, I believe that Buddhism enriches its own worldview. People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. All the world’s major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether. We have bigger houses but smaller families: We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgements; more experts but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but we have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we have less communication. We have become long on quantity but short on quality. These are times of fast foods, but slow digestion; tall man, but short character; steep profits, but shallow relationships. It is time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room. Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life. The more we take the welfare of others to heart and work for their benefit, the more benefit we derive for ourselves. This is a fact we can see. And the more selfish we remain and self-centered, the more selfish our way of life is, the lonelier we feel and the more miserable. This is also a fact we can see. Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on others’ kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness toward others? This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. The Dalai Lama was asked what surprised him most, he said "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then, he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then, he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." The Dalai Lama, when asked “I’m terrified of dying. What advice can you give me?” Thought for a moment and said “Don’t do any extreme sports.” Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous - an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering. War is like a fire in the human community, one whose fuel is living beings. I find this analogy especially appropriate and useful. Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous weapon as a remarkable piece of technology without remembering that, if it is actually used, it will burn living people. We should all be horrified by the extent of this tragedy.. Frankly as a child, I too was attracted to the military. Their uniform looked so smart and beautiful. But that is exactly how the seduction begins. Children starts playing games that will one day lead them in trouble. There are plenty of exciting games to play and costumes to wear other than those based on the killing of human beings. Again, if we as adults were not so fascinated by war, we would clearly see that to allow our children to become habituated to war games is extremely unfortunate. Some former soldiers have told me that when they shot their first person they felt uncomfortable but as they continued to kill it began to feel quite normal. In time, we can get used to anything... ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) A good author possesses not only his own intellect, but also that of his friends. There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings. When a man has been highly honored, and has eaten a little, he is most benevolent. Christianity aims at mastering the beasts of prey; its modus operandi is to make them ill - to make feeble is the Christian recipe for taming, for “civilizing.” Men of fixed convictions do not count when it comes to determining what is fundamental in values and lack of values. Men of conviction are prisoners. When one has much to put in them, a day has a hundred pockets. A nation goes to pieces when it confounds its duty with the general concept of duty. Fanatics are picturesque, and mankind prefers observing poses to listening to reasons. Man is something to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man? Blood is the worst of all testimonies to the truth. Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory s too good. A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at seven or eight great men - and then get round them. Out of the very love one bears to life one should wish death to be free, deliberate, and a matter neither of chance or of surprise. Good writers have two things in common: they prefer being understood to being admired, and they do not write for the over-critical and too shrewd reader. Of all that has been written, I love only that which was written in blood. When I lay asleep, then did a sheep eat at the ivy-wreath on my head,--it ate, and said thereby: "Zarathustra is no longer a scholar." It said this, and went away clumsily and proudly. A child told it to me. I like to lie here where the children play, beside the ruined wall, among thistles and red poppies. (TSZ #38) Many a shrewd one did I find: he veiled his countenance and made his water muddy, that no one might see therethrough and thereunder. Some sensation of voluptuousness and some sensation of tedium:…they all muddle their water that it may seem deep. (TSZ #39) Live unknowing of that which your age deems most important. Lay between yourself and today at least the skin of three centuries Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the best thing in you. "Since I have known the body better,” said Zarathustra to one of his disciples, “the spirit hath only been to me symbolically spirit; and all the 'imperishable' - that is also but a simile.” To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence. The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind. Strong hope is a much greater stimulant of life than any realized joy could be. To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death selected voluntarily, death at the right time, consummated with brightness and cheerfulness in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible where he is yet present who takes his leave. We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things — metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities. Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. “Nichts ist wahr, Alles ist erlaubt” or “Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted” Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker. What does not break me makes me stronger How could you become new, if you had not first become ashes? Great men's errors are to be venerated as more fruitful than little men's truths. How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we are marching into battle against an enemy. Everywhere that a culture posits evil, it gives expression too a relationship of fear, and thus a weakness. (WTP, p. 530) You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. Love is not consolation. It is light. It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them! In heaven all the interesting people are missing. One cannot "explain" pressure and stress themselves. one cannot get free of the actio in distans - one has lost the belief in being able to explain at all, and admits with a wry expression that description, and not explanation, is all that is possible, that the dynamic interpretation of the world, with its denial of "empty space" and its little clumps of atoms, will shortly come to dominate physics... . There is nothing for it, one is obliged to understand all motion, all "appearances," all "laws," only as symptoms of an inner event and to employ man as an analogy to this end. (Will to Power, 1885) The mechanistic concept of motion is already a translation of the original process into the sign language of sight and touch. The concept "atom," the distinction between the seat of a driving force and the force itself, is a sign language derived from our logical-psychical world. (Will to Power, 1888) The mechanistic world is imagined only as sight and touch imagine a world (as "moved") - so as to be calculable - thus causal entities are invented ... . If we eliminate these additions, no things remain, but only dynamic quanta, in a relation of tension to all other dynamic quanta: their essence lies in their relation to all other quanta, in their effect upon the same. (Will to Power, 1888) Joyous distrust is a sign of health. Everything absolute belongs to pathology. I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights. The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. There are no moral phenomena, only a moral interpretation of phenomena. Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Thus is the light of your virtue still on its way, even when its work is done. Be it forgotten and dead, still its ray of light liveth and travelleth. (Thus Spake Zarathustra) Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge. To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity. In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play. Said ye ever yea to one joy? O my friends, then said ye yea also unto to all woe. (TSZ 79-10) But in countless cases we first make a thing painful by investing it with a valuation. (WTP # 260) A handbreadth of basis is enough for me, if it truly be basis and ground .... thereon can one stand. (TSZ 64) Whenever the religious neurosis has appeared on the earth so far, we find it connected with three dangerous prescriptions as to regimen: solitude, fasting and sexual abstinence. (BG&E) It was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wanted to become an author and not to learn it better. (BG&E) The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access. (Ecce Homo) But what convinces us is not necessarily true- it is merely convincing- a note for asses. (WTP) Convictions are more dangerous enemies of the truth than lies. Looking aside: let that be my sole negation. (Joyful Wisdom) The bowels of existence do not speak to man, except as man. From the Sun did I learn this, when it goeth down, the exuberant one: gold doth it then pour into the sea, out of inexhaustible riches, so that even the poorest fisherman roweth even with golden oars! For this did I once see, and did not tire of weeping in beholding it. (TSZ 56-3) Valuing is creating: hear it ye creating ones! Valuation itself is the treasure and jewel of the valued things. (TSZ #15) One requiteth a teacher badly who remaineth only a pupil. (TSZ, 22-3) Ah, that ye would renounce all half-willing; and would decide for idleness as ye decide for action! Ah, that ye understood my word: “Do ye ever what thou wilt.” But first be one who is able to will. Love ever thy neighbor as thou lovest thyself - but first be one who can love himself. (TSZ, #49) He, however, who is intrusive with his eyes as a discerner, how can he ever see more of anything than its foreground? (TSZ #45) Know ye the delight which rolleth stones into precipitous depths? Him whom ye cannot teach to fly, teach him then to fall faster. (TSZ) Remain true to the earth, my brethren, with the power of your virtue... Lead, like me, the flown away virtue back to the earth - yea, back to the body and life... Physician, heal thyself! Then wilt thou also heal thy patient. Let it be his best cure to see with his eyes him who maketh himself whole. (TSZ [Luke 4:23]) “Thou mayest have deceived subtler ones than I,” said Zarathustra sternly, “I am not on my guard against deceivers; I have to be without precaution. So willeth my lot.’” (TSZ #65) Psychological history of the concept ‘ subject.’ The body, the thing, the whole construed by the eye, awaken the distinction between a deed and a doer; the doer, the cause of the deed, conceived ever more subtly, finally left behind the ‘ subject.’ Our bad habit of taking a mnemonic, an abbreviated formula, to be an entity, finally as a cause, e.g., saying of lightning ‘ it flashes.’ Or the little word ‘ I.’ To make a kind of perspective in seeing the cause of seeing: this was what happened in the invention of the subject, the I. (Will to Power) We set up a word at the point at which our ignorance begins, at which we can see no further, e.g. the words ‘ I’ ‘ do’ ‘ suffer.’ (WTP) He who maketh no secret of himself shocketh: so much reason have ye to fear nakedness! Aye, if ye were gods, ye could then be ashamed of clothing! Oh! your poverty ye men, and your sordidness of soul! As much as ye give to your friend, will I give even to my foe, and will not have become poorer thereby. (TSZ #14) For this is hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver. (TSZ #23) A loss rarely remains a loss for an hour. (Joyful Wisdom) At bottom, it has been an aesthetic taste that has hindered man the most: it believed in the picturesque effect of truth. It demanded of the man of knowledge that he should produce a powerful effect on the imagination. (WTP #469) One cannot ascribe the most basic and primeval activities of protoplasm to a will to self-preservation, for it takes into itself absurdly more than would be required to sustain it; and, above all, it does not thereby preserve itself, it falls apart - the drive that rules here has to explain precisely this absence of desire for self-preservation. (WTP #651) Let us reverse the values: All fitness the result of fortunate organization, all freedom the result of fitness. (WTP) And if there come unto them tender emotions, then do the poets always think that nature herself is in love with them; And that she stealeth to their ear to whisper secrets to it, and amorous flatteries; ... Some sensation of voluptuousness, some sensation of tedium...they all muddle up their water, that it may seem to be deep. (TSZ #39) When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago. Almost in the cradle are we apportioned with heavy words and worths: “good and evil” - so calleth itself this dowry. For the sake of it we are forgiven for living.... And we - we bear loyally what is apportioned unto us, on hard shoulders, over rugged mountains. And when we sweat, then do people say to us: “yea, life is hard to bear!” But man himself only is hard to bear. The reason thereof is that he carrieth too many extraneous things on his shoulders. Like the camel kneeleth he down, and letteth himself be well -laden.... Then seemeth life to him a desert. (TSZ) The most valuable insights are methods. I want to have goblins about me, for I am courageous. The courage which scareth away ghosts createth goblins for itself - it wanteth to laugh. I no longer feel in common with you; the very cloud which I see beneath me, the blackness and heaviness at which I laugh - that is your thundercloud. Not by wrath, but by laughter do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity! I learned to walk; since then have I let myself run. I learned to fly; since then I do not need pushing in order to move from a spot. (TSZ #7) And believe me, friend Hullaballoo! The greatest events are not our noisiest but our stillest hours. Not around the inventors of new noise, but around the inventors of new values doth the world revolve; inaudibly it revolveth. (TSZ #40) Free, dost thou call thyself? Thy ruling thought would I hear of, and not that thou hast escaped a yoke.... Many a one hath cast away his final worth when he cast away his servitude.... Free from what? Free for what?” (TSZ #17) Every monster wouldst thou caress. A whiff of warm breath, a little soft tuff on its paw: - and immediately wert thou ready to love and to lure it. Love is the danger of the lonesomest one, love to anything, if it only live! Laughable, verily, is my folly and my modesty in love. (TSZ #45) “Fellow suffering! Fellow suffering with the higher men!” he cried out, and his countenance changed to brass. “Well that hath had its time! My suffering and my fellow suffering - what matter about them!.... This is my morning, my day beginneth”....Thus spake Zarathustra and left his cave, glowing and strong, like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains.” ( TSZ #80) Too unslept hath thy seeking made thee, and too wakeful... Still thou art a prisoner - it seemeth to me - who deviseth a liberty for himself: ah! sharp becometh the soul of such prisoners, but also deceitful and vicious... Yea, I know thy danger. But by my love and my hope, I conjure thee: cast not thy love and thy hope away!... “Spirit is also voluptuousness,” said they. Then broke they the wings of their spirit; and now it creepeth about, and defileth where it gnaweth.” (TSZ #8) Everything is arranged in such a fashion that the worst of all tastes, the taste for the absolute, is cruelly teased and abused until finally man learns to incorporate some art into his feelings, and to prefer, if necessary, to experiment with artificiality. (BG&E) It is good to express a matter in two ways simultaneously so as to give it both a right foot and a left. Truth can stand on one leg to be sure, but with two it can walk and get about. One does not get over a passion by representing it. Rather, it is over when one is able to represent it. (WTP) Man has been reared by his errors: 1) he saw himself always imperfect, 2) he gave himself imaginary qualities, 3) he felt himself in a false position to the animals and nature, and 4) he always devised new tables of values, and accepted them for a time as eternal and unconditioned. (Joyful Wisdom ) ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Alan Watts (1915-1973) Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations. Psychedelic experience is only a glimpse of genuine mystical insight, but a glimpse which can be matured and deepened by the various ways of meditation in which drugs are no longer necessary or useful. If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen. You’re only making a mess by trying to put things straight. You’re trying to straighten out a wiggly world and no wonder you’re in trouble. As human beings have to make the gamble of trusting one another in order to have any kind of workable community we must also take the risk of trimming our sails to the winds of nature. For our 'selves' are inseparable from this kind of universe, and there is nowhere else to be. (The Watercourse Way) Consciousness is radar that is scanning the environment to look out for trouble, in the same way that a ship’s radar is looking for rocks or other ships. The radar does not notice the vast amount of space where there are no rocks and other ships. By and large we scan things over but we pay attention only to what our set of values tells us we should pay attention to. We eventually reach a point where all record of the past fades away in just the same way as the wake of a ship. The important thing to remember in this illustration is that the wake doesn't drive the ship. Anymore than the tail wag's the dog! The ego is a kind of flip, a knowing of knowing, a fearing of fearing. It's a curlicue, an extra jazz to experience, a sort of double-take or reverberation, a dithering of consciousness which is the same as anxiety. A living body is not a fixed thing but a flowing event, like a flame or a whirlpool: the shape alone is stable, for the substance is a stream of energy going in at one end and out at the other. We are particularly and temporarily identifiable wiggles in a stream that enters us in the form of light, heat, air, water, milk, bread, fruit, beer, beef Stroganoff, caviar, and pate de foie gras. It goes out as gas and excrement - and also as semen, babies, talk, politics, commerce, war, poetry, music, and philosophy. I am neither a preacher nor a reformer, for I like to write and talk about this way of seeing things as one sings in the bathtub or splashes in the sea. There is no mission, nor intent to convert, and yet I believe that if this state of consciousness could become more universal, the pretentious nonsense which passes for the serious business of the world would dissolve in laughter. We should see at once that the high ideals for which we are killing and regimenting each other are empty and abstract substitutes for the unheeded miracles that surround us—not only in the obvious wonders of nature but also in the overwhelmingly uncanny fact of mere existence. Not for one moment do I believe that such an awakening would deprive us of energy or social concern. On the contrary, half the delight of it—though infinity has no halves—is to share it with others, and this means the sharing of life and things as well as insight. (This Is It) I suppose most of you have heard of Zen, but before going on to explain any details about it I want to make one thing absolutely clear: I am not a Zen Buddhist; I’m not advocating Zen Buddhism; I’m not trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell: I’m an entertainer. That is to say in the same sense that when you go to a concert, and you listen to someone play Mozart, he has nothing to sell except the sound of the music. He doesn’t want to convert you to anything, he doesn’t want you to join an organization in favor of Mozart’s music as opposed to say Beethoven’s. And I approach you in the same spirit: as a musician with his piano or violinist with his violin, I just want you to enjoy a point of view which I enjoy. The point is this: that human consciousness is - at the same time as being a form of awareness, and sensitivity, and understanding - it’s also a form of ignorance. The ordinary everyday consciousness that we have leaves out more than it takes in. And because of this, it leaves out things that are terribly important. It leaves out things that would - if we did know them - allay our anxieties, and fears, and horrors, and if we could extend our awareness, you see, to include those things that we leave out, we would have a deep interior peace. Nirvana is where you are, provided you don't object to it. You are a function of what the whole Universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing. You find out that the universe is a system that creeps up on itself and says "Boo!" and then laughs at itself for jumping. You will not see the sky if you have covered the glass with blue paint. To feel that life is meaningless unless "I" can be permanent is like having fallen desperately in love with an inch. No one's mouth is big enough to utter the whole thing. Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe. Increasingly, the world around us looks as if we hated it. We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated “egos” inside bags of skin. You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here. This is often abbreviated to: You did not come into this world You came out of it Like a wave comes out of the ocean You are not a stranger here. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Every man has to seek his own way to make himself more noble and to realize his own true worth. We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person... Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition or surrounded by a halo. We need a boundless ethic which will include the animals also. Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals. Reverence for life is the highest court of appeal. A man who possesses a veneration of life will not simply say his prayers. He will throw himself into the battle to preserve life, if for no other reason than that he himself is an extension of life around him. You must learn to understand the secret of gratitude. It is more than just so-called virtue. It is revealed to you as a mysterious law of existence. In obedience to it we have to fulfill our destiny. Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. The tragedy of man is what dies inside himself while he still lives. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680) Sometimes it takes as much ability to profit by good advice as it does to arrive at a correct opinion ourselves. It is the prerogative of great men to have great defects. The test of extraordinary merit is to see those who envy it the most yet obliged to praise it. The world far oftener favors false merit than it accords justice to true merit. There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the tastes as well as the fortunes of the world. There are wicked people who would be much less dangerous if they were wholly without goodness. Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example. We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones. Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it. Hope is the last thing that dies in man; and though it be exceedingly deceitful, yet it is of this good use to us, that while we are traveling through life it conducts us in an easier and more pleasant way to our journey's end. We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all of the motives that produced them. Everyone complains of his lack of memory, but nobody of his want of judgment. Old people are fond of giving good advice; it consoles them for no longer being capable of setting a bad example. We refuse praise from a desire to be praised twice. The qualities we have do not make us so ridiculous as those which we affect. We are mistaken in believing that the mind and judgment are two separate things; judgment is only the extent of the mind’s illumination. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) A believer is a songless bird in a cage. The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it. As a rule, the devils have been better friends to man than the gods. We must remember that we have to make judges out of men, and that by being made judges their prejudices are not diminished and their intelligence is not increased. Laughing has always been considered by theologians as a crime. The history of progress is written in the lives of infidels. The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray. In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences. Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself. As long as woman regards the bible as the charter of her rights, she will be the slave of man. Our hope of immortality does not come from any religion, but clearly all religions come from that hope. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273) (Most Rumi quotes in English are rendered by Coleman Barks and not considered particularly faithful) And don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots are down there riotous. You have seen my descent. Now watch my rising, There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about; but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life. It's as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do. So human beings come to this world to do particular work. That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you don't do it, it's as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat. Why do you stay in prison when the door is wide open? Maybe you are searching among the branches, for what only appears in the roots. We should split the sack of this culture and stick our heads out. Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder. Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames. Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place. When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home. Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. On the endless path in God Don't stay in any of the stations, Don't stay in any station you have won-- Go on! Go on! Desire more and more! The person who has dropsy can never have enough water. The Divine Courtyard is an infinite plane; Leave behind you the place of honor. What is the real place of honor? The path itself. I was water; I became wind; I have come to deliver the thirsty ones from this mirage. Speech is that wind which was formerly water. Be not an expectant spectator on this path, for by Allah, there is no death worse than expectancy. What bread looks like depends on whether you are hungry or not. All the parts of the world are lovers, and every part of the universe is drunk with encounter. Tie two birds together. They will not be able to fly even though they now have four wings. Everything I am I draw from you Battered old bucket Dipping in your well Say nothing, froth not, do not raise the lid of the cauldron; Simmer well, and be patient, for I am cooking you. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases. Masses! the calamity is the masses. I do not wish any mass at all, but honest men only, lovely, sweet, accomplished women only, and no shovel-handed, narrow-brained, gin-drinking million stockingers or lazzaroni at all. If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential. Away with this hurrah of masses, and let us have the considerate vote of single men spoken on their honor and their conscience. The worst charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving. The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitants of the northern temperate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. Evermore in this world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats. Great me are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality. The history of man is a series of conspiracies to win from nature some advantage without paying for it. All nobility in its beginnings was somebody’s natural superiority. [my note: that seldom got inherited] The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature. Why drag this dead weight of a Sunday School over the whole of Christendom? It is natural and beautiful that childhood should inquire, and maturity should teach; but it is time enough to answer questions when they are asked. The years teach much which the days never know. I do not hesitate to read good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable - any real insight or broad human sentiment. Children are all foreigners. Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. We do what we must, and call it by the best names. Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individualty of his rowing. There can be no excess to love, none to knowledge, none to beauty when these attributes are considered in the purest sense. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. People only see what they are prepared to see. The secret of education is respecting the pupil. Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. Savages cling to a local god of one tribe or town. The broad ethics of Jesus were quickly narrowed to village theologies, which preach an election or favoritism. Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. The element running through entire nature, which we popularly call Fate, is known to us as limitation. Whatever limits us, we call Fate. The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number. To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success. Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it. The man who knows how will always have a job. The man who also knows why will always be his boss. Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine. Every actual state is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. The manners and morals of mankind are all at the mercy of a new generation. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death and afraid of each other. Character is that which can do without success. Nature is loved by what is best in us. Democracy becomes a government of bullies, tempered by editors. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. [full essay is here: http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm] That which we call sin in others is experiment for us. The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods. We cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a cat, of a spider. Far better was the Roman rule to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly; feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable. In a declining state of public morals, men will be so blinded to their true interests as to put the incapable and unworthy at the helm. It is therefore vain to complain of the follies or crimes of a government. We must lay our hands on our own hearts and say, "Here is the sin that makes the public sin." No man can have society upon his own terms. If he seek it, he must serve it too. Let him go where he will, he can only find so much beauty or worth as he carries. There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race. A man is not to aim at innocence, any more than he is to aim at hair; but he is to keep it. I am glad to the brink of fear. All power is of one kind, a sharing of the nature of the world. The mind that is parallel with the laws of nature will be in the current of events, and strong with their strength. Wild liberty breeds iron conscience; natures with great impulses have great resources and return from far. Pain, indolence, sterility, endless ennui also have their lessons for you, if you are great. ******************************************************************************************************\ Quotations from Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790) When the well is dry we will know the worth of water. Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason. We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor. All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety... deserve neither safety nor liberty. [Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759] Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged. To bring about government by oligarchy, masquerading as democracy, it is fundamentally essential that practically all authority and control be centralized in our Federal government. . . The individual sovereignty of our states must first be destroyed. No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Be sincere, be brief, be seated. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. If we do not halt this steady process of building commissions and regulatory bodies and the special legislation like huge inverted pyramids over every one of the simple constitutional provisions, we shall soon be spending many billions of dollars more. ****************************************************************************************************** Quotations from William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Do as adversaries do in law. Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. How far that little candle throws its beams. So shines a good deed in a naughty world. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child. He that loves to be flattered is worthy of the flatterer, Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, And cry 'Content' to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions. A terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him. I do desire that we may be better strangers. She shook the holy water from her heavenly eyes. Words pay no debts. But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he is most assured, His glassy essence, like an angry ape, Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, As to make the angels weep. Let the end try the man There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red... I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground... My deeds upon my head! I crave the law. Despising, for you, the city, thus I turn my back: there is a world elsewhere. You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.... Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere. There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will. Sweet are the uses of adversity. Peace, sisters, the charm’s wound up. This rough magic I here abjure...I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and, deeper than did ever plummet sound, I’ll drown my book. They are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that starve with nothing. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be Ere one can say “It lightens.” Virtue is choked with foul ambition. He is winding the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike. I dote on his very absence. O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy— Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue— A curse shall light upon the limbs of men. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain. Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, as men take diseases, one from another; therefore, let all take heed as to the society in which they mingle, for in a little while they will be like it. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues, we write in water. Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know. I will be correspondent to command, And do my spiriting gently. This our life ... finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything. That's a fair thought to lie between maid's legs. |
****************************************************************************************************** Quotes used to illustrate Yijing themes, already published in my Commentary section, except thse already cited. Gua 01 A man must be Solomon before his magic ring will work Hafiz Character is destiny. Heraclitus, Novalis Because Allah has no other hands than yours. Sufi proverb Much can be done to change the nature of man himself. Julian Huxley Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et malum Gen.3:5 An epoch will come when people disclaim kinship with us as we disclaim kinship with monkeys. Khalil Gibran Gua 02 The breathing of the true human being comes from the heels. Zhuangzi “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where -' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation. 'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.” Lewis Carroll Sitting quietly / Doing nothing Spring Comes / The grass grows by itself Tōyō Eichō Tis a gift to be simple, ‘Tis a gift to be free Tis a gift to come round to where we ought to be. “Simple Gifts” We shall not cease from exploring / And the end of our exploring Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot Gua 03 Character consists in what you do on the third and fourth tries. James Michener We will now discuss in a little more detail the Struggle for Existence... Charles Darwin It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself. Goethe Necessity does the work of courage. George Eliot (Marian Evans) In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Rilke Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers. Victor Hugo Every man expects somebody or something to help him. And when he finds that he must help himself, he says he lacks liberty and justice. Edgar Watson Howe Trials teach us what we are. Charles Spurgeon Gua 04 Stay hungry, Stay foolish. motto from The Whole Earth Catalog It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Eugene Ionesco In order to digest food, a man needs a stomach. Who troubles himself to inquire, however, whether a would-be wise man is correspondingly well prepared? Idries Shah, Reflections What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn. Henry Adams Lessons are not given, they are taken. Cesare Pavese Gua 05 An inquisitive professor once visited Nan-In to pay his respects, but he could hardly bring himself to stop talking. Nan-In served him tea, pouring the cup full and not stopping. “It is overfull,” cried the professor, “no more will go in!” “Like this cup,” said Nan-In, “you are full of your opinions and speculations. I cannot show you Zen unless you first empty your cup.” Muju And hap’ly Fate’s a Theist-word Subject to human chance and change. The Kasidah When tomorrow comes, think tomorrow’s thoughts. Arabic proverb If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble. Elbert Hubbard Gua 06 One more such victory and we are lost. Pyrrhus If there were a verb meaning “to believe falsely,” it would not have any significant first person, present indicative. Wittgenstein I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension. Benjamin Disraeli A man who is doing his true will has the inertia of the universe to assist him. Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed. Charles Caleb Colton Gua 07 A government needs a hundred soldiers for every guerrilla it faces. Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future. Adolf Hitler, 1935 Whither depart the souls of the brave that die in battle Die in the lost, lost fight for the cause that perishes with them Arthur Hugh Clough A king may choose his garments as he will, there is no certain test. But a beggar cannot hide his poverty. Aleister Crowley, Liber Legis Gua 08 But we, to little state and transient God Gave all our souls and let our loved ones bleed... Again we come out of our lesser loyalties, in tears, To build love’s well-earned city in the rich sod. Warren McCulloch Embodiments of Mind But when the sagely man appeared, limping and wheeling about in the exercise of benevolence, pressing along and standing on tiptoe in the doing of righteousness, then men began to be universally perplexed .... Then men began to be separated from one another. Zhuangzi Neither the country nor the society we build out of it can be healthy until we stop raiding and running, and learn to be quiet part of the time, and acquire the sense not of ownership but of belonging. Wallace Stegner Gua 09 We cannot be kind to each other here for an hour. We whisper, and hint, and chuckle, and grin at a brother’s shame. However we brave it out, we men are a little breed. Tennyson A myriad races came and went; This sphinx hath seen them come and go. The Kasidah. Tr. Sir R.F. Burton The happiness of most people we know is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things. Ernest Dimnet Small causes are sufficient to make a man uneasy, when great ones are not in the way: for want of a block he will stumble at a straw. Jonathan Swift Men trip not on mountains, they stumble on stones. Hindustani proverb He that condemeth small things shall fall by little and little. Ecclesiastes These trifles will lead to serious mischief. Horace Gua 10 One has no protecting power save prudence. Juvenal If oxen or lions had hands which enabled them to draw and paint pictures as men do, they would portray their gods as having bodies like their own. Xenophanes, fr. 15, or: The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black, While the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, And could sculpt like men, then the horses would draw their gods Like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape Bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own. Xenophanes, c. 570 – c. 475 BCE To be capable of respect is today almost as rare as to be worthy of it. Joseph Joubert Man is still a savage to the extent that he has little respect for anything that cannot hurt him. Edgar Watson Howe Though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest. Bion Gua 11 Allah is great, no doubt, and Juxtaposition his prophet. Arthur Hugh Clough ...when the oak begs permission of the birch to make an acorn- valleys accuse their mountains of having altitude- and march denounces april as a saboteur then we’ll believe that incredible unanimal mankind (and not until) e.e. cummings, XIAPE People do not understand that that which is at variance with itself agrees with itself. There is a harmony in the bending back, as in the cases of the bow and the lyre. Heraclitus, fr. 117 Gua 12 The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Francis Bacon Adversity What loneliness is more lonely than distrust? George Eliot Woe is wondrously clinging: the clouds ride by. Anon. Corruption / never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left the mountains. Robinson Jeffers Gua 13 The world does not know that we must all come to an end here, but those who know it - their quarrels cease at once. Buddha, The Dhammapada “Know thyself” is a good saying, but not in all situations. In many it is better to say “know others.” Menander A wise man associating with the vicious becomes an idiot; a dog travelling with good men becomnes a rational being. Arabic proverb Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty years can never have loved mankind. Sebastien Chamfort Gua 14 The ass loaded with gold still eats thistles. German proverb Natural wealth is limited and easily obtained; the wealth defined by vain fancies is always beyond reach. Epicurus I desire...to leave this one fact clearly stated: there is no wealth but life. John Ruskin Gua 15 But if you could hide the world in the world, so that ther was nowhere it could be removed, this would be the grand reality of the ever-enduring thing. Zhuangzi Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity, a.k.a. Occam’ razor) William of Occam Gua 16 A sorcerer asks the question “if we’re going to die with the totality of ourselves, why not, then, live with that totality?” Castaneda, Tales of Power Earnestness is the path of immortality, thoughtlessness is the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die. Those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. Buddha, The Dhammapada The measure of an enthusiasm must be taken between interesting events. It is between bites that the lukewarm angler loses heart. Edwin Way Teale Without any intentional, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself as you are is the most important thing. Shunryu Suzuki Gua 17 It is forbidden to decry other sects; the true believer gives honor to whatever is in them that is worthy of honor. Emperor Asoka, India People never bother to think that a doctrine might not accept them. Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams He does not believe that does not live according to his belief. Thomas Fuller This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it. Sufi saying Gua 18 He is virtuous who does not acquit himself of the people’s faults. Khalil Gibran Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth. Oliver Wendall Holmes Opinions have vested interests just as men have. Samuel Butler The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water and breeds reptiles of the mind. William Blake In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering. William James Gua 19 Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. Yoda Carpe diem. (Seize the day) Horace Opportunities multiply as they are seized. Sunzi We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness; it is always urgent. Ortega Y Gasset ...you must live in the world today as you wish everyone to, live in the world to come. That can be your contribution. Otherwise, the world you want will never be formed. Alice Walker, The Temple of My Familiar The time will come when Winter will ask us ‘“what were you doing all Summer?” Bohemian proverb Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Gua 20 Yes, the Springs had need of you. Many a star was waiting for you to spy it. Many a wave would rise on the past toward you... All this was a trust. But were you equal to it? Were you not always distracted by expectation, as though all this were announcing someone to love? Rilke, 1st Duino Elegy Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations. Machiavelli There must be the true man, and then there is the true knowledge. Zhuangzi ... for our complicated experiments have no longer anything to do with nature in her own right, but with nature charged and transformed by our own cognitive activity. Werner Heisenberg Gua 21 Alexander finding himself unable to untie the Gordian knot, the ends of which were secretly twisted round and folded up within it, cut it assunder with his sword. Plutarch, Alexander Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife - chopping off what’s incomplete and saying “Now it’s complete because it’s ended here.” Frank Herbert, Dune Let the sword decide after the stratagem has failed. Arabic proverb Truth has rough flavors if we bite it through. George Eliot Gua 22 What use is your plaited hair, fool, and your raiment of goatskins. Within you is ravening and the outside you make clean. Buddha, The Dhammapada What kind of truth is this which is true on one side of the mountain and false on the other? Michel de Montaigne Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. Schopenhauer For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities and are more often influenced by the things that seem than by those that are. Machiavelli Half the work that is done in this world is to make things appear what they are not. E.R. Beadle Gua 23 There are people who are followed all through their lives by a beggar to whom they have given nothing. Karl Kraus Et tu, Brute Julius Caesar Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effect from superior power. William Pitt In history the way of annihilation is invariably prepared by inward degeneration, by decrease of life. Only then can a shock from outside put an end to the whole of it. Jakob Burckhardt Gua 24 All these tidal gatherings, growth and decay, Shining and darkening, are forever Renewed, and the whole cycle impenitently Revolves, and all the past is future. Robinson Jeffers Bao Jiao vaunted his conduct and condemned the world, but he suicided with his arms around a tree. Zhuangzi Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends something. Paul Valery Gua 25 Perfect sincerity offers no guarantee. Zhuangzi In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few. Shunryu Suzuki An honest man is always a child. Martial I am too much a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything. T.H. Huxley Seek simplicity and distrust it. A.N. Whitehead Gua 26 If men have not that in them that fits them to precede others, they are without the way proper to man. They...can only be pronounced defunct monuments of Antiquity. Zhuangzi If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Sir Isaac Newton The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. Dietrich Bonhoeffer The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. Herbert Spencer Gua 27 A hungry man is not a free man. Spanish proverb Grub first, then ethics. Bertold Brecht We of the Tleilaxu believe that in all the universe there is only the insatiable appetite of matter, that energy is the only true solid. And energy learns. Hear me well, Princess, energy learns. This, we call power. Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah I saw them eating and I knew who the were. Khalil Gibran Gua 28 ...they content themselves with dark surmisings of nature’s magic language, playing on fancy as a child might play on his father’s magic wand. They know not what forces they have as vassals, what worlds are bound to obey them. Novalis, The Novices of Sais Now we are once again at the limits of our wits, where the minds of you mortals go overboard. Why do you make common cause with us if you cannot follow through? You want to fly and are not proof to dizziness? Did we force ourselves on you, or you on us? Goethe, Faust Great necessities call out great virtues. Abigail Adams Do not be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You cannot cross a chasm in two small jumps. David Lloyd George Gua 29 You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt For all on a razor’s edge it stands. Homer, The Iliad A decent boldness ever meets with friends. Homer, The Odyssey Necessity, mother of invention. William Wycherley A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice. Edgar Howe Every man has a right to risk his life in order to preserve it. Rousseau “I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself, you see.” “I don’t see,” said the caterpillar. Lewis Carroll Gua 30 I seem to be a verb. Buckminster Fuller We burn daylight. Thomas Kyd, 1592, and Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor There is no nature at an instant. A. N. Whitehead Sunshine proves its own existence. Arabic proverb All flesh is grass. Isaiah 40:6 Gua 31 No, one body does not diminish beneath another. There is no amorous oil to lose. The woman bathing in her blue pool renews not her flesh but her readiness. John Hawkes Eunuchs, abortive Platonists and priests speak always very wisely about love. Theodore Spencer Chastity is the most unnatural of the sexual perversions. Remy de Gourmont All argument will vanish before one touch of nature. George Coleman If our elaborate and dominating bodies are given to us to be denied at every turn, if our nature is always wrong and wicked, how ineffectual we are - like fishes not meant to swim. Cyril Connolly All real living is meeting. Martin Buber Gua 32 For a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson No well informed person has declared a change of opinion to be inconstancy. Cicero Gua 33 Men of great wisdom, looking at things far off or near at hand, do not think them insignificant for being small nor unwieldy for being great. Zhuangzi They who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things. Francois de la Rochefoucald It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for. Ricky Gervais What better faith can a man have than to refuse to die for the things he believes in? Kenneth Patchen A feeling for the faraway is at the same time one for history. At a distance space becomes time and the horizon means the future. Spengler Il faut reculer pour mieux sauter. Montaigne Gua 34 Power is not revealed by striking hard and often, but by striking true. Balzac There is no need to fear the strong. All one needs to know is the method of overcoming them. There is a special jujitsu for every strong man. Yevgeny Yevtushenko The hallucination of power corrupts as efficiently as power. Leonard Wolf Power, n., The ability or capacity to perform or act effectively....the rate at which work is done. American Heritage Dictionary Gua 35 Go and wake up your luck. Persian proverb The flow of energy through a system acts to organize that system. Harold Morowitz, Energy Flow in Biology The greatest obstacle to progress is not man’s inherited pugnacity, but his incorrigible tendency to parasitism. William Ralph Inge Gua 36 Here, perhaps, some advantageous act may be achieved by sudden onset, either with hell-fire to waste his whole creation, or possess all as our own, and drive, as we were driven, the puny habitants, or, if not drive, then seduce them to our party, that their God may prove their foe, and with repenting hand abolish his own works. This would surpass common revenge, and interrupt his joy in our confusion, and our joy upraise in his disturbance; when his darling sons, hurl’d headlong to partake with us, shall curse their frail original and faded bliss, faded too soon. Advise if this be worth attempting, or to sit in darkness here, hatching vain empires. Milton, Paradise Lost The greatest vested interest is not property but ignorance. Jacob Jovanovich Live unknown. Epicurus Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. ibid. Gua 37 Give and give until you wave goodbye. Niakan maxim One hour’s teaching is better than a whole night of prayer. Mohammed A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams Man’s sense of himself as separate from and opposed to the universe is a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him. A. Crowley, Magick The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. William Ross Wallace Home is heaven for beginners. Charles H. Parkhurst Place the work of a wife and mother on the same footing as other work; that is, on the footing of labor worth its hire. G.B. Shaw Gua 38 Thank Allah, for in his wisdom he put death at the end of life and not at its beginning. Arabic proverb Resist much, obey little. Walt Whitman ...who wield a poem huger than the grave from whom shall time no refuge keep all wierd worlds must be opened? e.e. cummings We are all in this alone. Lily Tomlin The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no difference between men. Pascal There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others. Montaigne Gua 39 I can think, I can wait, I can fast. Herman Hesse, Siddhartha It is quite a three-pipe problem. Arthur Conan Doyle To know when to stop is the highest attainment. Those who cannot do so will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. Zhuangzi ... grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr, “The Serenity Prayer” Gua 40 ...but let him come....plunder whatever dregs that in the ceaseless strife of his staunch body have not found time as yet to turn from flesh and bone into pure spirit, lightning, deeds and joy. The archer has fooled you, Death, he’s squandered all your goods. Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail. Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), The Ordeal of Change, 1964 To change your idea of the world is the crux of sorcery. Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power The jailor can’t go home until the prisoner is free. Tom Brady Gua 41 You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something. G.B. Shaw Less is more. Robert Browning The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Hans Hofmann Economy is a distributive virtue and consists not in saving but in selection. Edmund Burke I started out with nothing. I still have most of it. Michael Davis Our life is frittered away by detail....Simplify, simplify. ibid. Power provides according to your impeccability. Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power Gua 42 Give me a lever and one firm spot on which to stand and I will move the earth. Archimedes Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Chinese proverb The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one. Russel Lynes And I asked myself about the present. How wide it was, how deep it was. And how much was mine to keep. Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five A man who is so dull that he can only learn by personal experience is too dull to learn anything important by experience. Don Marquis Gua 43 It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. Alfred North Whitehead All our final resolutions are made in a state of mind which is not going to last. Proust Gua 44 She’s the sort of woman who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression. C.S. Lewis How savage is love that plants a flower and uproots a field; that revives us for a day and stuns us for an age. Khalil Gibran No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object. Goethe Gua 45 Trust in Allah - but tie your camel first. Mohammed A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle. Japanese proverb To bear all naked truths / And to envisage circumstance, all calm That is the top of sovereignty Keats To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself. Seneca Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light / The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Phillips Brooks Gua 46 Whatever you can do, or dream you can - begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe The safest opportunity for the average man to seize is hard work. Arthur Brisbane The world was always yours; you would not take it. Archibald MacLeish A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. Francis Bacon What is work? And what is not work? are questions that perplex the wisest of men. The Bhagavad Gita Chance favors the trained mind. Louis Pasteur Gua 47 Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatique. Andre Gide Much of your pain is self-chosen. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Khalil Gibran And spring brought me the idiot’s frightful laughter. Rimbaud, A Season in Hell Gua 48 The gods help them who help themselves. Aesop Enough is as good as a feast. Joshua Sylvester It never occurs to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united. Goethe Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when it stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, “If the hill will not come to Mahomet will go to the hill.” quoted by Francis Bacon, “Boldness” The well of Providence is deep. It’s the buckets we bring to it that are small. Mary Webb Gua 49 El tiempo y yo contra cualquier dos Time and I, against (any) two. Baltasar Gracian Life has a way of overgrowing its achievements as well as its ruins. Edith Wharton Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible will make violent revolutions inevitable. J.F. Kennedy Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Bob Dylan Gua 50 Abjure the why and seek the how. The Kasidah, tr R.F. Burton In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth, and the paths, of spirits and conjurations, and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things, certain things follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophical validity to any of them. Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice You are an alchemist; make gold of that. Pope Gua 51 Which of us listens to the hymn of a brook when the tempest speaks? Khalil Gibran Yet I know that I dwell in the midst of the roar / of the Cosmic Wheel / In the hot collision of Forces, and the clangor / of Boundless Strife / Mid the sound of the speed of worlds, the rushing / worlds, and the peal / Of the thunder of Life. William Watson, “Dawn on the Headland” Gua 52 How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. Spanish proverb This quietness / The shrilling of cicadas / Stabs into the rocks. Basho First there is no mountain / then there is no mountain / then there is Zen lore, adapted by Donovan Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say. Will Durant Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. Lin Yutang Gua 53 “Begin at the beginning,” the king said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Lewis Carroll, Alice Success generally depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. Montesqieu Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing. Seneca One of the sources of pride in being a human being is the ability to bear present frustrations in the interests of longer purposes. Helen Merrell Lloyd Gua 54 People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility. Eric Hoffer Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. Joseph Addison If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: “It seemed a good idea at the time.” Dame Rebecca West Gua 55 Give your decisions, never your reasons, your decisions may be right, your reasons are sure to be wrong. Lord Mansfield Guess if you can, choose if you dare. Corneille For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required. Luke 12:48 Gua 56 All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost. J.R.R. Tolkein To live outside the law you must be honest. Bob Dylan I have been a stranger in a strange land. Exodus Think, in this battered Caravanserai Whose portals are alternate night and day How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp Abode his destined hour, and went his way. Omar Khayyam The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. Samuel Johnson Much travel is needed before the raw man is ripened. Arabic proverb If it is dark enough, one candle is plenty. Arabic proverb Gua 57 At least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then. Lewis Carroll And the wind - the wind / the wind hides in a hollow tree and whistles out at me. Lawrence Ferlinghetti We think in generalities, but we live in detail. A.N. Whitehead ...the magic of necessary words.... Words that may become alive and walk up and down in the hearts of the hearers. Kipling Speak to each one in accordance with his degree of understanding. Mohammed No problem is too difficult to be solved by a theoretician. Arabic proverb I can’t give you brains, but I can give you a diploma. The Wizard of Oz Gua 58 Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. Hosea Ballou Unhappy is the man, though he rule the world, who does not consider himself extremely blessed. Seneca What hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life. Bertrand Russell while you and I have lips and voices which are for kissing and to sing with who cares if some one-eyed son of a bitch an instrument to measure Spring with? e.e. cummings You have only to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Mary Oliver Follow your bliss. Joseph Campbell Gua 59 I came like water, and like wind I go. Omar Khayyam ... The mind / passes, the eye closes, the spirit is a passage; The beauty of things was born before eyes and sufficient to itself; the heart-breaking beauty Will remain when there is no heart to break for it. Robinson Jeffers My soul, do not seek immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible. Pindar For I have never seen, and never shall see, that the cessation of the evidence of existence is necessarily evidence of the cessation of existence. William De Morgan ...the ultimate wisdom, which deals with beginnings, remains locked in a seed. Hal Borland ...many people who imagine that they can talk and think about metaphysics wouldn’t know it if they found it in their soup. Idries Shah Gua 60 I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. Epictetus Without a sense of proportion there can be neither good taste nor genuine intelligence, nor perhaps, moral integrity. Eric Hoffer Know your measure. Arab proverb To drown in treacle is just as unpleasant as drowning in mud. Idries Shah Gua 61 Truth has not such an urgent air. Boileau If the cultivation of the understanding consists in one thing more than another, it is surely in learning the grounds of one’s own opinions. J.S. Mill Gua 62 Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar. Wordsworth Not a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows. Charles Reade It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character. Schopenhauer Interesting people can find something interesting in all things. Idries Shah To carry the self forward and realize the ten thousand dharmas is delusion. That the ten thousand dharmas advance and realize the self is enlightenment. Dogen Enumerate as you may the parts of the chariot - you do not thereby gain the chariot. Better to rumble like rocks than to jingle like jade. Laozi Local activity is the keynote of the dervish path. Yasavi Gua 63 Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder Paul Valery Of what small spots pure white complains. John Donne A finished product is one that has already seen its better days. Art Linkletter The real problem is what to do with the problem solvers after the problems are solved. Gay Talese Useless is a wonderful milk yield from a cow that kicks the pail over. Chisti, quoted by Idries Shah when man determined to destroy / himself he picked the was of shall and finding only why / smashed it into because e.e. cummings Gua 64 Live dangerously. ibid. We cannot remain consistent with the world save by growing inconsistent with our past selves. Havelock Ellis |