Quotes – A Pondering Mind

Nothing In Nature

“Nothing in nature is by chance… Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.”

~ Baruch Spinoza

“Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.” ~ Vernon Howard

Climate Change

We have to face the reality of climate change. It is arguably the biggest threat we are facing today.

~William Hague

Sports and politics don’t mix. ~Eric Heiden

Endangered Species

What is a fish without a river? What is a bird without a tree to nest in? What is an Endangered Species Act without any enforcement mechanism to ensure their habitat is protected? It is nothing.

~Jay Inslee

“The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.” ~Aldous Huxley

Who You Are

“To me, clothing is a form of self-expression – there are hints about who you are in what you wear.”

~ Marc Jacobs

Human Conception

“Life is life – whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage.”

~ Sri Aurobindo

Human Rights

“The humanity of all Americans is diminished when any group is denied rights granted to others.”

~ Julian Bond

The Rule of Fools

“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”

~ Plato

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. ~Ann Landers

“All men by nature are equal in that equal right that every man hath to his natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man; being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.”

~ John Locke

Be Who You Are

“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.”

~ Rita Mae Brown

Coffee and love are best when they are hot. ~German Proverb

Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify. ~Henry David Thoreau

Wisdom Is Everywhere

Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe.

~ Josh Billings

Wisdom And Learning

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

~ Sandra Carey

Learn By Doing

“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

~ Richard Branson

Sublime Natural Beauty

To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.

~ Eleanor Catton

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” ~ Winston Churchill

Vain And Inspiring Men

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

~ Samuel Adams

Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments. ~ Rose Kennedy

What Is

“The ‘what should be’ never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no ‘what should be,’ there is only what is.”

~ Lenny Bruce

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. ~Salvador Dali

Voting

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

~Charles Bukowski

Reading Is The Key

“Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.”

~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them. ~Mark Twain

“The majority of men…

“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

You Were Meant To Be

“Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you’ve been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are.”

~ H. G. Wells

Elections Belong To The People

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

Your life story would not make a good book. Don’t even try. ~Fran Lebowitz

Octopus On Roller Skates

Talent without discipline, is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.

~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. ~Anais Nin

Talk about a dream, try to make it real. ~Bruce Springsteen

“Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.” ~ Agatha Christie

“The path to paradise begins in hell.” ~ Dante Alighieri

A short story must have a single mood and every sentence must build towards it. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Herd Mentality

The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.

~ David Icke

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ Harper Lee

Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do. ~Potter Stewart

Ethics must begin at the top of an organization. It is a leadership issue and the chief executive must set the example. ~ Edward Hennessy

“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

He is happiest, be it king or peasant, who finds peace in is home. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Only ignorance excuses stupidity. ~ Nalini Singh

3 3 3. Only half evil. ~ Cheyenne McCray

Self-Control

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

~ Franz Kafka

Theatre is life. Cinema is art. Television is furniture. ~Anonymous

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” ~ Che Guevara

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~ James A. Baldwin

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Intuitive And Rational Mind

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

~ Albert Einstein

“The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.” ~Aldous Huxley

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don’t know. ~ Bertrand Russell

Don’t you hate people who say they’re not complaining and then complain? ~Edna Ferber

Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government. ~Bertrand Russell

Remembering A Civil Rights Icon – John Lewis, May you Rest In Peace

“You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.”

~ John Lewis

Population Growth

It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world it for us right now.

~ David Attenborough