Favorite Quotes

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.”- George Washington Carver

“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.” -Bertolt Brecht

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” – Noam Chomsky

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

“Keep not standing fixed and rooted.  Briskly venture, briskly roam.”  – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness – all foes to real understanding.  Likewise, tolerance or broad, wholesome charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in our little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” –  Mark Twain

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who, in time of crisis, remain neutral.” – Dante Alighieri

“I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” – Stephan Grellet

“The world in which you were born is just one model of reality.  Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.” – Wade Davis.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all true art and all science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein

“Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched.  Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfold fear.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.” – Albus Dumbledore

“When you open your door to the rap of life you let in many things.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” – Howard Zinn

“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.  And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” – Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14^h Dalia Lama

“A ship in the harbor is safe.  But that’s not what ships are built for.”

“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes.  A farewell is necessary before you can meet again.  And meeting again, after moments or a lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.” – Richard Bach

“You won’t do anybody any good by pretending to be less than who you are.” – Nora Walker

“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” – Maya Angelou

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” – Gandhi

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.”  – African Proverb

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” – Mohandas Gandhi

“An unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.” – Socrates

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

“Many people would sooner die than think.  In fact they do.” Bertrand Russell

“Open your mouth for the speechless.”-Proverbs 31:8

“I may not agree with what you say. But I will defend to the death your right to say it.” – Voltaire

“Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.” – Heinrich Heine

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

“If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.  If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?” Matthew 5:46.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde

“To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” – Albert Einstein

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr

“More than a cluster of words or a set of grammatical rules, a language is a glimpse of the human spirit, the filter through which the soul of each particular culture reaches into the material world.” – Wade Davis

“People do not like to think.  If one thinks, one must reach conclusions.  Conclusions are not always pleasant.” – Helen Keller

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” – Alan Cohen

“Sometimes we must interfere.  When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”  – Elie Wiesel

“If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the fields to produce bread; otherwise there will be no peace.”  – Norman Borlaug

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world.” – Howard Zinn

“We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.” – Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the 14^h Dalia Lama