#quotes
“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
— Mark Twain
#Q4TD #Quote #Quotes http://q4td.blogspot.com/2023/06/i-am-old-man-and-have-known-great-many.html
Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.
-- Jim Rohn
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Seashells #Everglades #Florida
I often woke up and lay there in the dark. Usually, this was about a quarter to four. "I'm the wrong person," I thought. "I'm living the wrong life in the wrong body."
To which, I would respond:
"You're a maniac, an idiot! You have a life–a lot of other people dream about a life–so full of blessings that your heart hurts!"
To which, I would respond:
"I know, still."
–She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan
A quotation from Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr.:
«««««
Professor. — What message do people generally send back when you first call on them?
Old Age. — Not at home. Then I leave a card and go. Next year I call; get the same answer; leave another card. So for five or six, — sometimes ten years or more. At last, if they don’t let me in, I break in through the front door or the windows.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wendell/61060/
A quotation from La Bruyere, Jean de:
«««««
Discourtesy is not one specific vice of the soul but the result of several vices: foolish vanity, ignorance of one’s duties, laziness, stupidity, thoughtlessness, contempt for others, and jealousy.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/la-bruyere-jean-de/50904/
#quote #quotes #quotation #discourtesy #impoliteness #incivility #rudeness #vice
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
- Mary Wortley Montagu
#books #quotes #booktoot #photography #read @bookstodon@a.gup.pe
A quotation from Russell, Bertrand:
«««««
Since I do not admit that a person without bias exists, I think the best that can be done with a large-scale history is to admit one’s bias and for dissatisfied readers to look for other writers to express an opposite bias. Which bias is nearer to the truth must be left to posterity.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/61025/
#quote #quotes #quotation #bias #disclaimer #future #historian #history #humannature #truth
A quotation from Bierce, Ambrose:
«««««
APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offense.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/39267/
#quote #quotes #quotation #apologize #apology #contrition #dissembling #future #hypocrisy #recidivism #regret
A quotation from Child, Lydia Marie:
«««««
All who strive to live for something beyond mere selfish aims find their capacities for doing good very inadequate to their aspirations. They do so much less than they want to do, and so much less than they, at the outset, expected to do, that their lives, viewed retrospectively, inevitably look like failure.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/child-lydia-marie/61020/
#quote #quotes #quotation #aspiration #capability #disappointment
"How many years of work on that book did it take you to make it feel as if you were just making it up as you went along?"
"Two or three."
"See, this is the worst thing about being a supposedly comic writer. In order for the prose to work, it has to feel effortless, almost weightless. And yet, if you do your job right, everyone's going to think that you didn't work hard enough." […]
"Exactly" I said, "sucks for us, doesn't it?"
Russo shrugged. "Sucks for you, Boylan."
POST FREE ADS!
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www.myadz.co.za
#motivation #advice #success #future #myadz #justmyadzit #quotes #quotesdaily #quotesoftheday #quotestoliveby
Technology seems to always start out promising specialization and personalization. In the end, it delivers more homogenization instead.
-- Lee Gomes
⬆ #Quotes #LeeGomes #Computers
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #DefianceHouse #LakePowell #Utah
A quotation from Euripides:
«««««
His mother was the high priestess. It was her right to go first. To begin the killing, and so she threw herself at him.
He tore the headband from his head so that she would recognize him — oh, poor Agave — to stop her from killing him.
He touched her face and said:
It’s me, mother.
It’s me. Your son, it’s Pentheus.
You…
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/euripides/61017/
"Whenever they tell me children want this sort of book and children need this sort of writing, I am going to smile politely and shut my earlids. I am a writer, not a caterer. There are plenty of caterers. But what children most want and need is what we and they don't know they want and don't think they need, and only writers can offer it to them."--Ursula K. Le Guin
#Authors #WritersOfMastodon #AmWriting #AmWritingSciFi #AmWritingFantasy #Writing #Quotes
💬 T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets
📸 Filippo Cesarini
There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
The only reason we don't open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don't feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else's eyes.
Pema Chodron #quotes #pemachodron
#Quotes #Love #LifeLesson #MignonMcLaughlin
This is a tough thing to learn. You can't force someone to love you the way you want.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind. -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (6 Jun 1913-1983)
life really is so simple when you sit back and realise you don’t actually have to do a lot of things. i don’t have to be on my phone constantly. i don’t have to sit inside all day. i don’t have to reply to peoples messages straight away. i don’t have to have what’s in my fridge. i can go out and get groceries and make things that I’m craving. i can go on a walk. i can turn my phone off for a day or two. i can sit and read for hours on end. i can journal for as long as i want. i can mediate. i can cook. i can clean. i can breathe deeply. i can get myself a tea or a coffee. i can have meaningful conversations with my family. i don’t have to be in a constant state of “online”. i can disconnect. I’m not obliged to be here. my name isn’t being called out on a list. i can leave. i can take time away. i am allowed to live.
- wvterways
https://wvterways.tumblr.com/post/686097363175161856/life-really-is-so-simple-when-you-sit-back-and
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
There are two kinds of fools: One says, "This is old, therefore it is good"; the other says, "This is new, therefore it is better." -William R. Inge, clergyman, scholar, and author (6 Jun 1860-1954)
“Your truest friends are the ones who will stand by you in your darkest moments--because they're willing to brave the shadows with you--and in your greatest moments--because they're not afraid to let you shine.”
― Nicole Yatsonsky
A Truth in art is that whose contradictory is also true.
—Oscar Wilde
🪷
A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a great truth.
—Thomas Mann.
🪷
The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
—Niels Bohr
#truth #art #science #philosophy #literature #meditation #spirituality #quotes #Tuesday #life
If only we had only we had started taking action 40 years ago.
“There is a tendency at every important but difficult crossroad to pretend that it's not really there.”
― Bill McKibben, The End of Nature
#CanadaFires #ClimateChange #quotes
From: @cbc_top_stories
https://mstdn.ca/@cbc_top_stories/110497159883246658
Here's some of the most popular Bahá'í content for the 4th day of ‘Aẓamat, 180 B.E. Share and enjoy!
https://www.bic.org/news/ten-bahai-women-executed-together-40-years-ago-global-campaign-honors-them-support-gender-equality-iran-calling-public-creative-contributions
Ten Baha’i women executed together 40 years ago: Global campaign...
https://news.bahai.org/story/1668
BIC Geneva: Campaign honors Bahá’í women executed in Iran 40 years...
https://news.bahai.org/story/1670
In conversation: Counsellors on youth and social transformation
🏷️ #quotes #belief #askabahai #Science #Reflections
https://bahai.fyi/discover/
One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. #inspiration #quotes #bahai
Life isn’t what you’re given; it’s what you create, what you overcome, and what you achieve that makes it beautiful.
-- Richard Feynman
⬆ #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Life
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
Universal benefits derive from the grace of the Divine religions, for they lead their true followers to sincerity of intent, to high purpose, to purity and spotless honor, to surpassing kindness and compassion, to the keeping of their covenants when they have covenanted, to concern for the rights of others, to liberality, to justice in every aspect of life, to humanity and philanthropy, …
‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 98
#bahai #quotes
“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.”
— Stanislaw Jerszy Lec
#Q4TD #Quote #Quotes http://q4td.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-only-fool-bigger-than-person-who.html
“Remember when you could drive anywhere? Remember when everyone lived in the pleeblands? Remember when you could fly anywhere in the world without fear? Remember hamburger chains, always real beef, remember hotdog stands? Remember before New York was _New_ New York? Remember when voting mattered?”
From “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood.
#Bookstodon #Quotes #RememberWhen #ThatWorldIsDead #ItCouldHaveBeenDifferent #EveryCrisisIsAManMadeCrisis
Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.
-- David Steindl-Rast
⬆ #Quotes #DavidSteindlRast #Gratitude #Happiness
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunset #Kayaks #Everglades #Florida
“ Some people write to make a living; others to share their insights or raise questions that will haunt their readers; others yet to understand their very souls. None of these will last. That distinction belongs to those who write only because if they did not write they would burst… These writers give expression to the divine — no matter what they write about.” — Anthony de Mello #quotes
'True #love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence.
And the being we love must not be mysterious and sphinx-like, but clear and limpid as a diamond; so that admiration and attachment may grow with #knowledge .'
Henri-Frédéric Amiel
#Rationalism is a philosophical position or view that #reason is the source of knowledge.
Vernon J. #Bourke wrote that rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of #truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive."
⸺
#quotes #philosophy #epistemology #patriarchy #whiteness #agnotology #historyOfScience #intelligence #factChecking #knowledge #publicOpinion #learning #sociology #wordsMatter #hashtags @psychology #TESCREAL
"Stories and songs enable us to locate ourselves in other people's experience and they increase our compassion. But these things in a vacuum are useless. A story doesn't cultivate empathy just by virtue of having been thought up; it must be engaged with to become powerful; the story must be read, the song must be listened to, in order to acquire its full power."
~ Kae Tempest
#PrideMonth #TellYourStory #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Bookstodon #Arts #Music #Quotes #Books #Poetry
But if you write a version of Ragnarok in the twenty-first century, it is haunted by the imagining of a different end of things. We are a species of animal which is bringing about the end of the world we were born into. Not out of evil or malice, or not mainly, but because of a lopsided mixture of extraordinary cleverness, extraordinary greed, extraordinary proliferation of our own kind, and a biologically built-in short-sightedness.
- A.S. Byatt - “Ragnarok”
"A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked, but only that they be spineless.
*
The past is not dead; it is living in us, and will be alive in the future which we are now helping to make.
*
To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.
*
One can acquire everything in solitude except character."
— Marguerite Yourcenar
The rich man to-day does not only rule by using private property; he also rules by treating public property as if it were private property.
--G K Chesterton (1917) "Utopia of Users"
#Capitalism #Property #PrivateProperty #Public #Exploitation #Plutocracy #EatTheRich #History #HistoryRepeat #GKChesterton #Quotes
Some people say: How can you live without knowing?
I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing.
- Richard Feynman
“I’m proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me.”
Tim Cook, CEO of #Apple
#Quotes
#PrideMonth
"Telling politicians that their decision-making will be made public only drives them to take those decisions in places where no one is watching. Transparency does not breed openness; it breeds paranoia."
Jonathan Sumption
As we have daily proof.
#Quotes #UKPolitics #CovidInquiry
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
- Herman Melville - Moby Dick
(Replace "sea" with "the woods" and you've got it.)
‘Draw into yourself and look and if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful.
He cuts away here, he smooths there. He makes this line lighter, that one purer.
Cut away all the excess.
Straighten all that is crooked.
Bring #light to all that is overcast.
Labor to make all one glow or #beauty and never cease chiseling your statue’
— Plotinus
#philosophy #spirituality #quotes #SilentSunday #psychology #Sunday #motivation
"There is no 'joining' WITCH.
If you are a woman
and dare to look
within yourself,
you are a Witch."
WITCH Manifesto (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell),
New York, 1968
"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that dignity."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - The Danger of a Single Story
#PrideMonth #TellYourStory #Quotes #Bookstodon
#Quotes #DesperatePeople #GOPCircus #DesperateGOP
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people. -Cornel West, author and philosopher (b. 2 Jun 1953)
"Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced -- even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it." – John Keats #quotes
"Poverty isn’t a “moral medicine” that clears out the bad in society. It doesn’t make people better or harder working. It ruins people. It’s a cancer. It spreads."
#MichaelOChurch, 2012
'This #book is a collection of aphorisms - bite-size observations that range from lighthearted quips to deeply spiritual proverbs.
It is eminently quotable and re-readable, and the #author strikes an excellent balance of tone and subject matter so that the book stays interesting throughout its brisk read time...
Great for fans of #micropoetry and #words of #wisdom.'
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/quarantine-notes-yahia-lababidi/1143515787
@bookstodon #boost #poetry #WritingCommunity #spirituality #quotes #books #life
Python++ will not only be whitespace sensitive, it will actually be kerning-dependent.
-- Noah Friedman at The Plus
The Universe did not choose to exist either. We have no right to complain.
-- Sakari Maaranen @ G+, many moons ago
(And it has one hell of a gripe list.)
“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
#books #bookstodon #scifi #reading #quotes
"There are those men who say to repay evil with kindness. But I say, how then are we to repay kindness? Repay kindness with kindness, but repay evil with justice." – Confucius #quotes
🌈 The Soul Would Have No Rainbow If The Eyes Had No Tears💧
#wisdom #nativeamerican #books @bookstodon #bookstodon #quotes #motivation #inspiration #spirituality #faith
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
Donald Trump, in his first act of sedition.
“How do you pick your nose if you have a mustache?”
William Shatner
#Quotes
A quotation from Jones, Robert Jr.:
«««««
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.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/jones-robert-jr/60968/
#quote #quotes #quotation #disagreement #intolerance #love #meme #oppression
“The Sun can rise anytime in your dreams. And there night may fall anytime as well.” ― Munia Khan.
Art:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/melting-night-alex-mir.html
#art #BuyIntoArt #dreams #dreaming #moon #night #surreal #AlexMir #quotes
Quote from Virginia Woolf’s 1926 essay “How Should One Read A Book?”
Welcome Time Travellers! This is 2023 where you can find yourself locked out of your toothbrush after too many failed password attempts.
-- quingcharles @ HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36133661
"Successful people have libraries. The rest have big screen TVs." – Jim Rohn
I guess by this definition I'm successful then, I don't own a television but I have a library of books. 😆
Not sure how I feel about this quote, came across it and thought I would share it on here.
A quotation from Russell, Bertrand:
«««««
In all affairs — love, religion, politics or business — it’s a healthy idea, now and then, to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
»»»»»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/3382/
#quote #quotes #quotation #acceptance #assumption #axiom #doubt #premise #questioning #reevaluation #reexamination #reexamine #revalidation #skepticism #takingforgranted
"When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale and never tried it again."
- Bill Clinton, on the topic of cannabis
"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
- Barack Obama, on the topic of cannabis
''I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love.''
Mitt Romney
#Quotes
^ I shit you not. That is a real quote, and I can’t believe it either. 😂
"Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. " – Shakespeare ("Henry IV, Part I, Act V, Scene 1", [no later than] 1597) #quotes
"My life is a rather grim one. One day I shall perhaps describe it to you in great detail." ― John Kennedy Toole ("A Confederacy of Dunces", 1980) #books #writing #FlashMemoir #SouthernGothic #florida #quotes
@argumento They reply: "La migrazione dell'anguilla europea è un it eats creativity. it eats quality and shits quantity.” william s. burroughs #quotes."
“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.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
comic by: kerebrin
🔗:https://higgsbison.tumblr.com/post/718331175538737152/happy-glorious-25th-of-may
<<Nos parece imposible que existan los unicornios pero vemos totalmente normal que haya gente pobre defendiendo a gente multimillonaria diciendo que si tienen tanto dinero es porque se lo han ganado. Un unicornio es un caballo con un pincho en la frente, no es una cosa tan loca.>>
Jorge de Cascante.
#popazo #art #mastoart #quotes #citas #lectura #libros #books #literatura #escribir #literaverso #relato #cuentos #tales
An architect proves his skill by turning the defects of a site into advantages.
-- Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini
“That was always the dream, wasn't it? 'I wish I'd known then what I know now'? But when you got older you found out that you NOW wasn't YOU then. You then was a twerp. You then was what you had to be to start out on the rocky road of becoming you now, and one of the rocky patches on that road was being a twerp.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
#Glorious25thOfMay #Discworld #TerryPratchett #Quotes #books #bookstodon
"Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple." — Unknown (but attributed to Coach Barry Switzer) #quotes
"America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves." ― Kurt Vonnegut #quotes
"Manuscripts don’t burn." – Mikhail Bulgakov ("The Master and Margarita", 1967) #quotes
My new #book of short meditations is available to order, on #Amazon 🤩
✨Yahia Lababidi’s work is characterized by a contemplative tone in line with #Rumi, whom he often #quotes. Lababidi is a Muslim voice for peace, celebrating the #wisdom in ancient traditions and pointing out the ridiculous in the rush & cynicism of contemporary life. ✨
—Plough magazine
Thank you, for your support 🙏🏼
@bookstodon #books #boost #WritingCommunity #poetry #wisdom #meditation
“That's always the way in this world. The chappies you'd like to lend money to won't let you, whereas the chappies you don't want to lend it to will do everything except actually stand you on your head and lift the specie out of your pockets.” – P.G. Wodehouse, ‘Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg’ #wodehouse #quotes #books
"Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food." – Austin O'Malley ("Keystones of Thought", 1914) #quotes
Listen, maybe I can’t change the world, but I can pass eggs over the fence to my neighbor to save them a few dollars. I can cross the street and fix another neighbor’s cabinets. I can send my kid to the house next door with a can of tomato sauce they need and they’ll come back with a box of cocoa powder they weren’t going to use. We can leave our old furniture at the curb and one of us will drive by and pick it up to fix and sell or keep. I’ll plant a garden since I have the space and time and I’ll share what I can and I’ll get calls from someone else asking if I can use a crate of oranges.
I may not be able to change the world but I can do something
- thededfa
https://thededfa.tumblr.com/post/684448372226179072/listen-maybe-i-cant-change-the-world-but-i-can
"It is also crucial for us to recognize that it is equally valid for a trans person to decide to transition and live as the other sex as it is for them to instead choose to blur gender boundaries and identify themselves outside the gender binary. There is no one right way to be trans. Each of us simply needs to figure out what works best for us and what allows us to best express who we feel we are." - Julia Serano – Whipping Girl
"And by the time I made the decision to transition, my gender dissonance had gotten so bad that it completely consumed me; it hurt more than any pain, physical or emotional, that I had ever experienced. I know that most people believe that transsexuals transition because we want to be the other sex, but that is an oversimplification." - Julia Serano – Whipping Girl
“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, 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 tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.” — Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” - Rabbi Hillel
"All fanaticism is repressed doubt." - Carl Jung
"The driver was thinking seriously of buying aluminum siding for his
home in Little Rock, and he begged Trout to give him an honest answer to this question: “From what you’ve seen and heard—the people who get aluminum siding, are they happy with what they get?”
“Around Cohoes,” said Trout. “I think those were about the only really happy people I ever saw." — Kurt Vonnegut #quotes
"One’s point of view makes all the difference in the world. There is a famous story of the days when Sir Christopher Wren was building St. Paul’s Cathedral. On one occasion he was making a tour of the work in progress. He came upon a man at work and asked him: “What are you doing?” The man said: “I am cutting this stone to a certain size and shape.” He came to a second man and asked him what he was doing. The man said: “I am earning so much money at my work.” He came to a third man at work and asked him what he was doing. The man paused for a moment, straightened himself and answered: “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build St. Paul’s Cathedral.” (Source Unknown)
"To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight - and never stop fighting." - E. E. Cummings
“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. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
"A strong military, a tool of misfortune
All things detest it" - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, chapter 31