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な

なんくるないさ〜

Okinawan for it will be ok - something will happen.

A

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

-

-Bayard Rustin, civil rights activist (17 Mar 1912-1987)

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.

B

Beings long to free themselves from misery, but misery itself they race to catch. We long for joy, but in our ignorance, destroy it, as we would a hated enemy.

Shantideva

C

Come, live in my heart and pay no rent.

Samuel Lover, songwriter, composer, novelist, and artist (24 Feb 1797-1868)

D

David Brin, scientist and science fiction author (b. 6 Oct 1950)

It's 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. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.

Don't make excuses for nasty people. You can't put a flower in an asshole and call it a vase.

unknown

Dr. Martin Luther King

Everybody can be great . . . because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

E

Eddie Murphy

English is a great language. I love that "take out" means food, dating and murder.

Edward Lee

The years we had were not enough, but, even if we were gifted a thousand upon a thousand I would still wish for more.

Ellen Jane Willis, writer (14 Dec 1941-2006)

In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary".

English is a difficult language. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.

- anon.

I

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.

-Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones), schoolteacher, dressmaker, organizer, and activist (1 Aug 1837-1930)

If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

Lenny Bruce

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

James Baldwin, writer (2 Aug 1924-1987)

K

Knowing that life is short, enjoy it. Moment by Moment.

Suzuki Roshi

M

Mary Robinson, 7th President of Ireland (b. 21 May 1944)

When I am asked, "What, in your view, is the worst human rights problem in the world today?" I reply: "Absolute poverty." This is not the answer most journalists expect. It is neither sexy nor legalistic. But it is true.

Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones), schoolteacher, dressmaker, organizer, and activist (1 Aug 1837-1930)

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.

N

Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that.

-Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, preacher, journalist, and activist (12 May 1802-1861)

Nelson Mandela

Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion.
Our world is divided into wise people and fools.
And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.

P

Penn Jillette, magician, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author (b. 5 Mar 1955)

For 50 million years our biggest problems were too few calories, too little information. For about 50 years our biggest problem has been too many calories, too much information. We have to adjust, and I believe we will really fast. I also believe it will be wicked ugly while we're adjusting.

People share a common nature but are trained in gender roles.

-Lillie Devereux Blake, novelist, essayist, and reformer (12 Aug 1833-1913)

Q

Quite frankly I talk about the fact that I'm a feminist as often as I can, and every time I do it gets huge reaction .... I will keep saying that until there is no more reaction to that when I say it, because that's where we want to get to.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 25 Dec 1971)

R

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look.

Pema Chödrön

Ryokan

Begging

today's begging is finished; at the crossroads
i wander by the side of Hachiman Shrine
talking with some children.
last year, a foolish monk;
this year, no change!

S

Self knowledge is not good news.

- Lilly Tomlin

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

- Zora Neale Hurston

T

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (27 Apr 1759-1797)

The family is like a forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has it's position.

Yaa Gyasi

the only one qualified to ever throw a stone . . .

. . . didn't.

There is no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign.

Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (13 Nov 1850-1894)

There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.

-Ogden Nash, poet (19 Aug 1902-1971)

Toni Morrison

There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.

U

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955)

Ursula Le Guin

There is a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everyone else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.

W

W.E.B. Du Bois, educator, civil rights activist, and writer (23 Feb 1868-1963)

The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

~ James Baldwin

We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.

Albert Einstein

We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are.

Anais Nin

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

- Helder Camara