"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."
~~ Frida Kahlo [1907-54]
"Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."
~~ George Gordon, Lord Byron [1788-1824]
"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!"
~~ George Washington [1732-99], in 1779
"Consciousness is an intellectual illusion."
~~ philosopher Daniel Dennett
"No amount of trouble outside the home can crush you if things are right at home; and no amount of success outside the home can satisfy you if things aren’t right at home."
~~ John Fogg of North Garden, VA
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
~~ Isaac Asimov [1920-92]
He warned his fiancée, Amélie Parayre, whom he married in 1898, when he was twenty-eight, “I love you dearly, mademoiselle; but I shall always love painting more."
~~ Henri Matisse [1869-1954]
"Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope."
~~ Edith Wharton [1862-1937]
"Why not sieze the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!"
~~ Jane Austen [1775-1817]
"There is an idiocy in current discourse, which calls things about which people can be angry or mistaken ‘controversial’."
~~ author & film critic Renata Adler, in 1972
"[America is] really just a nation of [340] million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."
~~ gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson [1937-2005]
"I think we should throw those [29] books in a fire."
~~ Rabih Abuismail, Spotsylvania County, Virginia school board member, after the board unanimously passed a resolution to remove certain books (including fiction about teens struggling to overcome sexual abuse) from a high school library in November 2021; board member Kirk Twigg seconded the idea
"When good Americans die, they go to heaven; if they've been very good, they go to Paris."
~~ paraphrase of Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"Good Americans, when they die, go to Paris."
~~ American artist Thomas Gold Appleton [1812-84]
"Anti-racist work - ridding our schools of anti-Blackness, for example - will require that all children are taught historical truths to understand how racism impacts our society, while being empowered with the tools to eradicate it. Liberation for our society means liberating all peoples."
~~ education writer Rann Miller in 11-2021
"All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by."
~~ from the poem "Sea-Fever" [1916] by John Masefield [1878-1967]
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
~~ from the poem "Endymion: A Poetic Romance" [1817] by John Keats [1795-1821]
"Round the world and home again, that's the sailor's way!"
~~ from the poem "Homeward Bound" [1866] by William Allingham [1824-89]
"Listen, you little wiseacre: I'm smart, you're dumb; I'm big, you're little; I'm right, you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it."
~~ character Harry Wormwood, as written by Roald Dahl [1916-90]
"The real immigration crisis in New Mexico is all the fools imported from Texas to the southern part of the state."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"The job of the artist is to always deepen the mystery."
~~ Sir Francis Bacon [1561-1626]
"No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]
"Procrastination is a great labor-saving device."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"There will be no recovery from this crisis until the Republican Party recommits itself to democracy."
~~ David Frum, in The Atlantic Magazine
"The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgment."
~~ Jiddu Krishnamurti [1895-1986]
"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man [that] I know."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
~~ Jack E. Leonard [1910-73]
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
~~ Cong. Thomas Brackett Reed [1839-1902]
"[Richard Nixon] inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
~~ author James Reston
"Don't let criticism destroy your dreams. The only person who never makes a mistake is someone who does nothing."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"Procrastinate wisely."
~~ The Atlantic Magazine
"[The year] 2020 was singularly awful, with the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the birth of the Big Lie Movement, led by the disgraced and deranged Donald Trump."
~~ Bill Leuders, editor at The Progressive Magazine
"Coca-Cola is the only business in the world where no matter which country or town or village you are in, if someone asks what do you do,
and you say you work for Coca-Cola, you never have to answer the question, What is that?"
~~ Muhtar Kent, chairman & CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, 2008-2017
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has 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 [1920-92]
"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]
"If without stories we live not, stories live not without us."
~~ Phyllis Trible, Old Testament scholar
"The best films are effectively real life wrapped in metaphor."
~~ film director Travis Knight
"You have two lives, the second one begins when you realize you only have one."
~~ Chinese philosopher Confucius [551-479 BCE]
"I'm not into that one night thing. I think a person should get to know someone and even be in love with them before you use and degrade them."
~~ entertainer Steve Martin
"One way or another every human being is unique, for better or for worse."
~~ Roald Dahl [1916-90]
"Republicans are using every dirty trick in the books to stem the tide of democracy and cling to power."
~~ Congresswoman Veronica Escobar [Dem TX-16]
"Over the next three to four weeks, we are going to see the number of [COVID-19] cases in this country rise so dramatically that we're gonna have a hard time keeping everyday life operating."
~~ Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy - in late 2021
"A watched clock never boils."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"That's part of your problem: you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies."
~~ entertainer Steve Martin {as Davis} in the movie "Grand Canyon" [1991]
"There is no elevator to cool . . . you have to take the stairs!"
~~ Baldo comic strip [est. 2000] by Cantú & Castellanos
"And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings."
~~ Meister Eckhart [1260?-1328?]
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve. This is true even of the pious brethren who carry the gospel to foreign parts."
~~ H.L. Mencken [1880-1956]
"Are any of you still doubting the Climate Crisis? As predicted - by Science - the problem goes beyond hot spells, drought, dying species, and melted glaciers to weather phenomena being bigger and stronger and of longer duration. Funny that folks are 'surprised', you should expect MORE and WORSE, just like Greta has been saying for years now (while our 'leaders' continue doing nothing but talk)."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
~~ Socrates [470?-399 BCE]
"With Chris Wallace leaving, Homer Simpson is now the smartest person on Fox."
~~ Tracey Edwards
"[Marjorie Taylor Greene] is bat-shit crazy. But she’s going to Congress."
~~ evangelical conservative commentator Erick Erickson, during her first campaign
"People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
