Demanding Freedom

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. - Martin Luther King, Jr.


Those who would take your freedom will never play Mr. Nice Guy.


(Other Posts on Freedom)

Step Up to the Plate

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort. - Sydney Smith 


We need all of your talent - step up.


(Other posts on Talent) 

Weigh Your Pack

Every horse thinks its own pack heaviest. - Thomas Fuller 


Don't guess at the weight of your pack.


(Other posts on Adversity) 

Scaredy Cats

Scalded cats fear even cold water. - Thomas Fuller 


Don't count on folks ignoring your past mistakes.


(Other posts on Mistakes) 

Time in One's Life

In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life. - Marcel Proust 

Living in the moment leaves no time for reflection or planning.

(Other posts on Time) 

Corrupt Means

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. - Georges Bernanos 


Machiavellian thinking is lazy thinking.


(Other posts on Government) 

Bad Alternatives

Having two bathrooms ruined the capacity to co-operate. - Margaret Mead 


Create a situation where the alternative to good behavior is undesirable and people will choose the good.


(Other posts on Persuasion) 

Imortallity

Live forever or die in the attempt. - Joseph Heller 


What a way to go!


(Other posts on Life) 

Ideally Beautiful

The ideal and the beautiful are identical; the ideal corresponds to the idea, and beauty to form; hence idea and substance are cognate. - Victor Hugo 


So it is with art.


(Other posts on Art) 

Living with Idealism

The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live. - Victor Hugo 

Art which is a image of just the way things are does not help you live. Look for art that shows you how things could be.

(Other quotes on Art) 

Perfect Happiness

To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it. - Victor Hugo 


Just as unearned wealth does not bring worth.


(Other posts on Achievement) 

Respect for Beliefs

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. - H. L. Mencken  

Just because someone believes something doesn't mean that it isn't false, wrong or dangerous.

(Other posts on Religion) 

Saving Humanity?

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. - H. L. Mencken 


The only way to rule is to limit individual liberty.


(Other posts on Liberty) 

Walking Machine

When man wanted to make a machine that would walk he created the wheel, which does not resemble a leg. - Guillaume Apollinaire 

Function follows form but that doesn't mean there can't be more than one form for any given function.

(Other posts on Problems) 

Worth Remembering

You pile up enough tomorrows and you'll be left with nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. - Meredith Willson 


Me too. How about you?


(Other posts on Time) 

Peace Talks

It is madness for sheep to talk peace with a wolf. - Thomas Fuller 


If your are going to negotiate you have to consider your adversaries nature, not your own.


(Other posts on War) 

Personal Goals

The solution is to gradually become free of societal rewards and learn how to substitute for them rewards that are under one's own powers. This is not to say that we should abandon every goal endorsed by society; rather, it means that, in addition to or instead of the goals others use to bribe us with, we develop a set of our own. - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 

I like the idea of having your own set of goals.

(Other posts on Goals) 

Inconvenient Poverty

Poverty us no disgrace to a man, but it is confoundedly inconvenient. - Sydney Smith 


Poverty is the natural state of man. It is through his genius and labor that he rises.


(Other posts on Wealth) 

Circle of Ideas

Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other. - Victor Hugo 

The closer facts are related to your ideas the more like a circle; The further apart, more like a line.

(Other posts on Ideas) 

Ripe Old Age

The wise man does not grow old, but ripens. - Victor Hugo   


Ripening is an improvement with time; aging is stagnation altered by time.


(Other posts on Time) 

Religion/Philosophy

Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God. - Victor Hugo  

This explains why so many more people are interested in religion than philosophy.

(Other posts on Religion) 

Joy of the Mind

The joy of the mind is the measure of its strength. - Ninon de Lenclos 


If you are not happy start by looking at your mind, not your circumstances.


(Other posts on Pleasure) 

Being Someone

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone. - Victor Hugo  

What kind of person do you want to be when you grow up?

(Other posts on People)