St. Francis of Assisi: "He who works..."

"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist."

 —St. Francis of Assisi

John Adams: "I must study..."

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music..."

Itzhak Perlman: "One must always practice..."

"One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."

–Itzhak Perlman ("the thinking violinist")

Albert Einstein: "Everything is energy..."

"Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."

–Albert Einstein

George Carlin: "Don't just teach your..."

"Don't just teach your children to read... Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything."

-George Carlin

Neil Gaiman: "Go and make interesting mistakes..."

"Go and make interesting mistakes. Make amazing mistakes. Make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make Good Art."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "First of all..."

"First of all, when you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you're doing. This is great. People who know what they're doing know the rules and they know what is possible and what is impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can. If you don't know it's impossible, it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone from doing that particular thing again."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "If you have an idea..."

"If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go do that. And that's much harder than it sounds. And sometimes in the end so much easier than you might imagine... "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "A freelance life..."

"A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you. Appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out hundreds of things for every bottle that winds up coming back."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make your art..."

"Make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do... The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that's the moment you may be starting to get it right."


–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "You get work because..."

"You get work because you get work, but people keep working because their work is good, and because they're easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. People will forgive the lateness of your work if it's good and they like you. And you don't have to be as good as everyone else if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Be wise..."

"Be wise. Because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and then just behave like they would."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I wish you luck..."

"I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work and the more wisely you work, the luckier you will get. But there is luck. And it helps."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make Good Art..."

"Remember, whatever discipline you're in... you have one thing that's unique: you have the ability to make art. And for me, that's been a lifesaver... When things get tough this is what you should do: Make Good Art. Do what only you can do best: Make Good Art."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "The problems of failure..."

"The problems of failure can be hard. The problems of success can be harder because nobody warns you about them. "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I tended to do..."

"I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I decided I'd do..."

"I decided I'd do my best in the future not to write books just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. And if I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work. Every now and then I forget that rule. And whenever I do, the universe kicks me - hard - and reminds me."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Tina Fey: "So, my unsolicited advice..."

"So, my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this: when faced with sexism, or ageism, or lookism, or even really aggressive buddhism, ask yourself the following question... 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?'

If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you're in charge, don't hire the people that were jerky to you.

If the answer is yes, you have a more difficult road ahead of you...

If your boss is a jerk, try to find someone above or around your boss who is not a jerk. Is there such a thing as an all-jerk workplace? Yes... But if you're lucky your workplace will have a neutral proving ground... if so, focus on that. Again, don't waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions. Go Over, Under, Through - and opinions will change organically when you are the boss.

Or they won't. Who cares? Do your thing. And don't care if they like it."

–Tina Fey, audio book of Bossypants, (disc 3 track 10)

Kurt Vonnegut: "Go into the arts..."

"Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

–Kurt Vonnegut, novelist/essayist/artist

Gillian Flynn: "To be kissed on..."

"To be kissed on the lips by your husband is the most decadent thing."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "What a generous thing..."

"What a generous thing that is, I realize, for a husband to try to make his wife laugh."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "People want to believe..."

"People want to believe they know other people. Parents want to believe they know their kids. Wives want to believe they know their husbands."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn: "It's a very difficult era..."

"It's a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless automat of characters."

–Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

Shane Portman: "When I was a child..."

"When I was a child, I remember feeling very much like I do now: that the world is full of unanswered questions. Back then, when I was read bedtime stories and tucked in, I felt safe. And even excited about all the questions that lay in the dark. And I truly think we can get there again."

–Shane Portman, my college friend and the author of a new book called Allister Cromley's Fairweather Belle, Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups to Tell (a collection of stories that encourages grown ups to read aloud to each other)

Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Most of the shadows..."

"Most of the shadows in this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wendy Mass: "Mankind is the eye..."

"Mankind is the eye through which the spirit of God views his or her creation. Let us today, on this beautiful Sunday morning, be vessels through which we can see the infinite. For there rests our true natures. We are spiritual beings having an earthly life. When our life here is done, we return to the source. What is life? Life is love. Do not make the mistake of thinking loving is easy; it is not. We must love ourselves, not just other people. We must be awake. Do not sleepwalk through your life. Enjoy it fully, because none of us gets out of here alive."

–Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Wendy Mass: "An old man is teaching..."

An old man is teaching his grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old man replied simply, "The one you feed."

–Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Freidrich Nietzsche: "There is always some..."

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."

–Friedrich Nietzsche

Daniel Quinn: "That's not good enough..."

"That’s not good enough. The fact that something is not a waste of time does not inspire me to do it."

–Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Daniel Quinn: "It isn't the tale..."

"It isn’t the tale you tell that counts, it’s the way you actually live."

–Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Daniel Quinn: "If you are still..."

"If you are still then you will be better able to hear."

–Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Daniel Quinn: "Mere acquaintanceship leaves me..."

"Mere acquaintanceship leaves me unsatisfied, and few people are willing to accept the burdens and risks of friendship."

–Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Daniel Quinn: "To a mind ready..."

"To a mind ready for mythology, he was the beginning of what is meant by godlike. He had twice made a brief appearance in my life – and twice, with a single utterance, had transformed me."

–Daniel Quinn, Ishmael

Dave Eggers: "You couldn't measure it..."

"You couldn't measure it. You could say it was worth nothing - or you could say millions - and both would make sense."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "This is the truth..."

"This is the truth, and it's either unromantic or infinitely more romantic than you can imagine."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "Wait until you're older..."

"Wait until you’re older to try something like this – a lot older, I think - but then don’t wait much longer… I can’t believe we waited so long ourselves."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "Oh, to live among..."

"Oh, to live among peacocks. I’d seen them once in person and they defied so many laws of color and gravity that they had to be mad geniuses waiting to take over everything."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "Your job is to..."

"Your job is to be human. First, be human."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dave Eggers: "He had calm where..."

"He had calm where I had chaos and wisdom where I had just a huge gaping always-moving mouth."

–Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity

John Wesley: "Do all the good..."

Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
To all the souls you can,
In every place you can,
At all the times you can,
With all the zeal you can,
As long as you ever can.

–John Wesley

Hart & Kaufman: "Art is only achieved..."

"Art is only achieved through perspiration... but it helps if you've got a little talent with it."

–Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You (Kolenkhov & Grandpa)

Hart & Kaufman: "Oh, the world's not..."

Grandpa: "Oh, the world's not so crazy... It's the people in it. Life's pretty simple if you just relax... Life is kind of beautiful if you let it come to you. But the trouble is, people forget that."

–Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You (Grandpa's point of view)

Hart & Kaufman: "I'd follow you to..."

Tony: "I'd follow you to the end of the earth."
Alice: "Oh, just the kitchen is enough."

–Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You (Tony & Alice, the young lovers)

Hart & Kaufman: "Well, Sir, here we are..."

Grandpa: "Well, Sir, we've been getting along pretty good for quite a while now, and we're certainly much obliged. Remember, all we ask is to just go along and be happy in our own sort of way. Of course, we want to keep our health but as far as anything else is concerned, we'll leave it to You. Thank You." (Act I)

Grandpa: "Well, Sir, here we are again. We want to say thanks once more for everything You've done for us. Things seem to be going along fine... We've all got our health and as far as anything else is concerned we'll leave it to You. Thank You." (Act III)

–Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman, You Can't Take It With You (Grandpa's graces before dinner)

Robert H. Lincoln: "There are two rules..."

"There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know."

-Robert H. Lincoln

Maurice Sendak: "Oh, there's so many..."

–Maurice Sendak, (06/10/1928 - 05/08/2012) beloved children's book author of Where the Wild Things Are (and many others)

Neil deGrasse Tyson: "I am driven by..."

"I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you."

–Neil deGrasse Tyson

Anouk Markovits: "One day, courage might..."

"... one day, courage might call for a bigger self, not for making oneself smaller."

–Anouk Markovits, I Am Forbidden 

Patricia Ellis Herr: "I hate this..."

"I hate this. Nature is cruel... Life is full of pain. I don't want my daughters to ever really know this or understand it, but they must. It is the way things are. To sugarcoat reality is to lie, and I don't lie to my children."

–Patricia Ellis Herr, UP: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure

Patricia Ellis Herr: "What matters is that..."

"What matters is that, for the rest of their lives, both my daughters understand that to reach a goal, they must put one foot in front of the other and persevere. They know that they must expect and prepare for challenges. They know to ignore the naysayers and, instead, to have faith in themselves and their abilities to learn what they need to know. Above all else, they know that little does not mean weak, that girls are indeed strong, and that practically anything is possible."

–Patricia Ellis Herr, UP: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure

Natalie Taylor: "How can they be..."

"How can they be so profound and so ridiculous at the same time? The beauty of being a teenager."

–Natalie Taylor, Signs of Life

Natalie Taylor: "I remember a time..."

"I remember a time period when I judged moms. I was annoyed at moms who complained... I am sorry I said those things and thought those things. I didn't know. I wasn't a part of the club yet... At the time I cursed all of you, I wasn't a mom. Now that I am one, I know all the secrets. I am now one of you and this job is not easy. I didn't mean it."

–Natalie Taylor, Signs of Life

Natalie Taylor: "The one comfort that..."

"The one comfort that all of us can take is that we are not the only people on the planet who have something to swim against. We are not alone in our battle to disprove a statistic."

–Natalie Taylor, Signs of Life

Eric Schmidt: "Many people think they're..."

"Many people think they're doing something new, but they're not really changing the approach. But with Saul, he said, 'what we're going to do is not only are we going to make these interesting 10-minute videos, but we're going to measure whether it works or not. So here's a guy who's willing to say, if 'I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I'm going to keep changing until I get it right.' ...Innovation never comes from the established institution. It's always a graduate student, or a crazy person or somebody with a great vision."

—Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google

Edgar Degas: "Art is not what..."

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

—Edgar Degas

Pablo Picasso: "Inspiration exists, but it..."

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

—Pablo Picasso

Thomas Edison: "I haven't failed..."

"I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."

—Thomas Edison

Henry Ford: "If you think you..."

“If you think you can or think you cannot, you are correct.”

—Henry Ford

Barbara Kingsolver: "It seemed so ordinary..."

"It seemed so ordinary on the face of things, to try to do what nearly all people used to do without a second thought."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (on growing one's own food)

Barbara Kingsolver: "All stories, they say..."

"All stories, they say, begin in one of two ways: 'A stranger came to town,' or else, 'I set out upon a journey.'" The rest is all just metaphor and simile.

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "But rare is the perfect..."

"But rare is the perfect first attempt. I know as well as the next person who has ever been young."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "From a biological perspective..."

"From a biological perspective, the ultimate act of failure is to raise helpless kids."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "We're converts in progress..."

"Our locavore project nudged us constantly toward new personal bests. But is always remained fascination, not fanaticism. We still ate out at restaurants with friends sometimes, and happily accepted invitations to dine at their homes. People who knew about our project would get flustered sometimes about inviting us, or when seeing us in a restaurant would behave as if they'd caught the cat eating the canary.

We always explained, 'We're converts in progress, not preachers. No stone tablets.'"

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Cooking is 80 percent..."

"Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Where my kids are concerned..."

"Where my kids are concerned I find myself hoping for the simplest things: that if someday they crave orchards where their kids can climb into the branches and steal apples, the world will have trees enough with arms to receive them."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Food is not a product..."

"Food is not a product but a process, and it never sleeps. It just goes underground for a while."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "We all cultivate illusions..."

"We all cultivate illusions of safety that could fall away in the knife edge of one second."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "When moral superiority..."

"When moral superiority combines with billowing ignorance, they fill up a hot-air balloon that's awfully hard not to poke."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Whether you prefer to..."

"Whether you prefer to sit on a rock in a peaceful place, or take a wooden spoon to a simmering pot, it does the body good to quiet down and tune in."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Wendell Berry: "Eaters must understand..."

"Eaters must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."

—Wendell Berry

Barbara Kingsolver: "Even the smallest backyard..."

"Even the smallest backyard garden offers emotional rewards in the domain of the little miracle."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "People might wish to..."

"People might wish to sleep in, but cows never do."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Camille Kingsolver: "If everything my heart..."

"If everything my heart desired was handed to me on a plate, I'd probably just want something else."

—Camille Kingsolver (daughter of Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)

Barbara Kingsolver:" A thriving field of..."

"A thriving field of vegetables is as needy as a child, and similarly, the custodian's job isn't done till the good have matured and moved out."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "You can leave the..."

"You can leave the killing to others and pretend it never happened, or you can look it in the eye and know it."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  (on raising and harvesting poultry)

Barbara Kingsolver: "'Perfect' is not the..."

"'Perfect' is not the currency of farming."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Transporting a single calorie..."

"Transporting a single calorie of a perishable fresh fruit from California to New York takes a bout 87 calories worth of fuel. That's as efficient as driving from Philadelphia to Annapolis, and back, in order to walk three miles on a treadmill in a Maryland gym."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "'This is New York...'"

"'This is New York', she assured me. 'We can get anything we want, any day of the year.' So it is. And I don't wish to be ungracious, but we get it at a price. Most of that is not measured in money, but in untallied debts that will be paid by our children in the currency of extinctions, economic unravelings, and global climate change."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Jack Harlan: "The line between abundance..."

"The line between abundance and disaster is becoming thinner and thinner."

—Jack Harlan, Crops and Man

Barbara Kingsolver: "It is both extraordinary...

"It is both extraordinary and unsympathetic in our culture to refrain from having everything one can afford."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Pushing a refrigerated green..."

"Pushing a refrigerated green vegetable from one end of the earth to another is, let's face it, a bizarre use of fuel... Respecting the dignity of a spectacular food means enjoying it at its best... Eating home-cooked meals from whole, in-season ingredients obtained from the most local source available is eating well, in every sense. Good for the habitat, good for the body."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "I believe in vegetables..."

"I believe in vegetables in general, and this one in particular. Gardeners are widely known and mocked for this sort of fanaticism. But other people fast or walk long pilgrimages to honor the spirit of what they believe makes our world whole and lovely. If we gardeners can, in the same spirit, put our heels to the shovel, kneel before a trench holding tender roots, and then wait three years for an edible incarnation of the spring equinox, who's to make the call between ridiculous and reverent?"

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (on asparagus)

Barbara Kingsolver: "Our family values..."

"Our family values... include both 'love your neighbor' and 'try not to wreck every blooming thing on the planet while you're here.'"

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "I enjoy denial as..."

"I enjoy denial as much as the next person, but this isn't rocket science: our kids will eventually have to make food differently."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "It's true what the..."

"[It's] true what the strategists say about hearts and minds - you have to win them both. We will change our ways significantly as a nation not when some laws tell us we have to... but when we want to."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Margaret Mead: "I was wise enough..."

"I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had."

—Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead: "A small group of..."

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

—Margaret Mead

Jean Dubuffet: "Art does not lie down..."

"Art does not lie down on the bed that is made for it; it runs away as soon as one says its name; it loves to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called."

--Jean Dubuffet, French painter

Albert Einstein: "We cannot solve our..."

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

--Albert Einstein

Andre Gide: "One does not discover..."

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."

--Andre Gide

Lewis Carroll: "There's no use trying..."

"There's no use trying," Alice said. "One can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Rob Hopkins: "It is often said..."

"It is often said that new ideas go through three stages. First they are ridiculed, then they are ignored, and finally they are accepted as having always been the case."

--Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook (p30)

Barbara Kingsolver: "At its heart..."

"At its heart, a genuine food culture is an affinity between people and the land that feeds them."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Where are our ingrained..."

"Where are our ingrained rules of taste and civility, our ancient treaties between our human cravings and the particular fat of our land? Did they perhaps fly out the window while we were eating in a speeding car?"

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "Owing to synthetic fertilizers..."

"Owing to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic modification, and a conversion of farming from a naturally based to a highly mechanized production system, U.S. farmers now produce 3,900 calories per U.S. citizen, per day. That is twice what we need, and 700 calories a day more than they grew in 1980.

Commodity farmers can only survive by producing their maximum yields, so they do. And here is the shocking plot twist: as the farmers produced those extra calories, the food industry figured out how to get them into the bodies of people who didn't really want to eat 700 more calories a day. That is the well-oiled machine we call Late Capitalism."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "When we walked as..."

"When we walked as a nation away from the land, our knowledge of food production fell away from us like dirt in a laundry-soap commercial."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "... to many urban people..."

"... to many urban people the idea of growing your food must seem as plausible as writing and conducting your own symphonies for your personal listening pleasure."

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "The baby boom psyche..."

"The baby boom psyche embraces a powerful presumption that education is a key to moving away from manual labor, and dirt - two undeniable ingredients of farming. It's good enough for us that somebody, somewhere, knows food production well enough to serve the rest of us with all we need to eat, each day of our lives.

Is the story of bread, from tilled ground to our table, less relevant to our lives than the history of the thirteen colonies?"

—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver: "In two generations we've..."

"In two generations we've transformed ourselves from a rural to an urban nation. North American children begin their school year around Labor Day and finish at the beginning of June with no idea that this arrangement was devised to free up children's labor when it was needed on the farm.

Ayn Rand: "The question isn't who..."

"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me."

—Ayn Rand

Unknown: "Let your past make..."

"Let your past make you better, not bitter."

—Unknown

Thomas Edison: "Opportunity is missed by..."

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

—Thomas Edison

M. Scott Peck: "Life is difficult. This..."

"Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters."

—M. Scott Peck, from The Road Less Traveled, discovered on QuoteSnack.com

Winston Churchill: "The era of procrastination..."

"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."

—Sir Winston Churchill, November 12, 1936

Mark Twain: "What gets us into..."

"What gets us into trouble
is not what we don't know
it's what we know for sure
that just ain't so"

—Mark Twain

John McDonogh: "Study in the course..."

"Study in the course of your life to do the greatest possible amount of good"

—John McDonogh

Upton Sinclair: "It is difficult to..."

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

—Upton Sinclair

Occupied Wall Street: "You can't evict an..."

"You can't evict an idea."

—The Occupied Wall Street Journal Facebook Page

Saul D. Alinsky: "From time to time..."

"From time to time there have been external enemies at our gates; there has always been the enemy within, the hidden and malignant inertia that foreshadows more certain destruction to our life and future than any nuclear warhead. There can be no darker or more devastating tragedy than the death of man's faith in himself and in his power to direct his future."

—Saul D. Alinsky, from Rules for Radicals (p xxvi)

Saul D. Alinsky: "To lose your 'identity'..."

"To lose your 'identity' as a citizen of democracy is but a step from losing your identity as a person. People react to this frustration by not acting at all. The separation of the people from the routine daily functions of citizenship is heartbreak in a democracy... [Such a] citizen sinks further into apathy, anonymity, and depersonalization."

—Saul D. Alinsky, on democracy as an political system. From Rules for Radicals (p xxvi)

Saul D. Alinsky: "People who profess the..."

"People who profess the democratic faith but yearn for the dark security of dependency where they can be spared the burden of decisions. Reluctant to grow up, or incapable of doing so, they want to remain children and be cared for by others... the fault lies not in the system, but in themselves."

—Saul D. Alinsky, on democracy as an political system. From Rules for Radicals (p xxv)

Saul D. Alinsky: "People cannot be free..."

"People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others."

—Saul D. Alinsky, on democracy as an political system. From Rules for Radicals (p xxv)

Saul D. Alinsky: "Great dangers always accompany..."

"Great dangers always accompany great opportunities. The possibility of destruction is always implicit in the act of creation. Thus, the greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself."

—Saul D. Alinsky, on democracy as an political system. From Rules for Radicals (p xxiv)

Saul D. Alinsky: "Do one of three..."

"Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates."

—Saul D. Alinsky, advice to an activist after gassing and violence by the Chicago Police and National Guard during 1968 Democratic Convention. From Rules for Radicals (p xxiii).

John Adams: "The Revolution was effected..."

"The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the hearts and minds of the people... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."

—John Adams (as quoted in Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky)

James Madison: "Perhaps it is a..."

"Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions against danger, real or pretended from abroad."

—James Madison

Ludwig Von Mises: "There is no means..."

"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

—Ludwig Von Mises

George Eliot: "Any coward can fight..."

"Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat."

—George Eliot

Bruce Wayne: "A man, however strong..."

"A man, however strong, however skilled, is just flesh and blood. I need to be more than a man. I need to be a symbol."

—Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, Screenplay by David Goyer

David Goyer: "It is not enough..."

"It is not enough to be a man... you have to become an idea."

—David Goyer, Ducard in Batman Begins

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "Fairness, justice and freedom..."

"Fairness, justice and freedom are more than words — they are perspectives." [Full speech]

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "The building is a..."

"The building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people blowing up a building can change the world." [Full speech]

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "You really think blowing..."

EVEY: You really think blowing up Parliament's going to make this country a better place?
V: There's no certainty, only opportunity.
EVEY: I think you can be pretty certain that if anyone does show up, Creedy will black bag every one of them.
V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.
EVEY: And you're going to make that happen by blowing up a building?
V: The building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people blowing up a building can change the world.

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V and Evey in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "There is something terribly..."

"There is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object — to think and speak as you saw fit — you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others. And they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you. And in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent." [Full speech]

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "While the truncheon may..."

"While the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and, for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth." [Full speech]

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "Allow me first to..."

"Allow me first to apologize. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routines; the security of the familiar; the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration — whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or an end of an awful, bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday — I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and, for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object — to think and speak as you saw fit — you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others. And they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you. And in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace. And all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the 5th of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than words — they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing. If the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the 5th of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight outside the gates of Parliament. And together, we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never, ever be forgot."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Gandhi: "First they ignore you..."

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”

—Gandhi

Daniel Quinn: "The rule in crisis..."

"The rule in crisis management is, Don't make it your goal to control effects, make it your goal to control causes. If you control causes, then you don't have to control effects. This is why they make you go through airport security before you get on the plane. They don't want to control effects."

—Daniel Quinn

Derrick Jensen: "If monetary value is..."

“If monetary value is attached to something it will be exploited until it’s gone. That’s what happens when you convert living beings to cash. That conversion, from living forests to lumber, schools of cod to fish sticks, and onward to numbers on a ledger, is the central process of our economic system.”

—Derrick Jensen

Robert Shetterly: "The second strong feeling..."

"The second strong feeling --- the first being horror --- I had on September 11 was hope, hope that the United States would use the shock of this tragedy to reassess our economic, environmental, and military strategies in relation to the other countries and peoples of the world. Many people hoped for the same thing --- not to validate terrorism, but to admit that the arrogance and appetite of the U.S., all of us, have created so much bad feeling in many parts of the world that terrorism is inevitable. I no longer feel hopeful. If one looks closely at U.S. foreign policy, the common denominator is energy, oil in particular. The world is running out of oil. Political leadership that had respect for the future of the Earth and a decent concern for the lives of American and non-American people would be leading us away from conflict toward conservation and economic justice, toward alternative energy, toward a plan for the survival of the world that benefits everyone. We see hegemony and greed thinly veiled behind patriotism and security. We get pre-emptive war instead of pre-emptive planning for a sustainable future. The greatness of our country is being tested and will be measured not by its military might but by its restraint, compassion, and wisdom. De Toqueville said, “America is great because it is good. When it ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” A democracy, whose leaders and media do not try to tell the people the truth, is a democracy in name only. If the consent of voters is gained through fear and lies, America is neither good nor great. Nor is it America."

—Robert Shetterly, AmericansWhoTellTheTruth.org

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "We are told to..."

"We are told to remember the idea, not the man. A man can fail. He can be caught. He can be killed and forgotten. But 400 years later, an idea can still change the world.

I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them. And die defending them. But you cannot kiss an idea. Cannot touch it. Or hold it. Ideas do not bleed. They do not feel pain. They do not love. And it is not an idea that I miss — it is a man."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, Evey in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "People should not be..."

"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." [Full speech]

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas..."

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

—Eleanor Roosevelt

Howard Zinn: "The rule of law..."

“The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the authority of law. It allocates wealth and poverty in such calculated and indirect ways as to leave the victim bewildered.”

—Howard Zinn

Robert F. Kennedy: "Too much and too..."

“Too much and too long we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values to the mere accumulation of material things…The gross national product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America—except whether we are proud to be Americans.”

—Robert F. Kennedy, (Address, University of Kansas, March 18, 1968)

Salman Rushdie: "Human beings understand..."

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "Art is created by..."

"Art is created by individuals and there are no individuals in a world where you are told what to think."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "Artists use lies to..."

"Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, Evey in "V for Vendetta"

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "You cannot kill me..."

"You cannot kill me. There is no flesh and blood within this cloak to kill. There is only an idea. And ideas are bulletproof."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, V in "V for Vendetta"

Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can..."

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

—Albert Einstein

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "Must one have seen..."

"Must one have seen the world? In this village, in every house, in every shack, you will find the entire range of human emotions: love and hate, fear and jealousy, envy and joy. You needn't go looking for them."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "Love makes us beautiful..."

"Love makes us beautiful. Do you know a single person who loves and is loved, who is love unconditionally and who, at the same time is ugly? There's no need to ponder the question. There is no such person."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "Music, my father often said..."

"Music, my father often said, was the only reason he could sometimes believe in a god or in any heavenly power."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "Do children what to..."

"Do children want to know their parents as independent individuals? Can we see them as they were before we came into the world?"

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "The true essence of..."

"The true essence of things is invisible to the eyes. Our sensory organs love to lead us astray, and eyes are the most deceptive of all. We rely too heavily upon them. We believe that we see the world around us, and yet it is only the surface that we perceive. We must learn to divine the true nature of things, their substance, and the eyes are rather a hindrance than a help in that regard. They distract us. We love to be dazzled."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "Life... is a gift..."

"Life... is a gift full of riddles in which suffering and happiness are inextricably intertwined. Any attempt to have one without the other was simply bound to fail."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "What do we know..."

"What do we know about our parents, and what do they know about us? And if we don't even know the individuals who have accompanied us since birth - we not them and they not us - then what do we know about anyone at all?"

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "... there are wounds time..."

"... there are wounds time does not heal, though it can reduce them to a manageable size."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "And so there must be..."

"And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Jan-Philipp Sendker: "I speak of a love..."

"I speak of a love that brings sight to the blind. Of a love stronger than fear. I speak of a love that breathes meaning into life, that defies the natural laws of deterioration, that causes us to flourish, that knows no bounds. I speak of the triumph of the human spirit over selfishness and death."

—Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: "We must rapidly begin..."

"We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American clergyman & prominent activist in the civil rights movement

John Green: "The world may be broken..."

Susan Cain: "We are like rubber bands..."

“We are like rubber bands at rest. We are elastic and can stretch ourselves, but only so far.”

—Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Steve Wozniak: "Most inventors and engineers..."

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me – they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists.  And artists work best alone where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

— from Steve Wozniak's memoir iWoz, quoted in Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain: "...quiet midnights..."

“…quiet midnights and solitary sunrises…”

 
—Description of the late nights and early mornings that Steve Wozniak worked alone from Susan Cain's, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain: "I worry that there are..."

“I worry that there are people who are put in position of authority because they’re good talkers, but they don’t have good ideas… It’s so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent… we put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking.”

—Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain: "In the United States..."

"In the United States, conversation is about how effective you are at turning your experiences into stories, whereas a Chinese person might be concerned with taking up too much of the other person’s time with inconsequential information."

—Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain: "Americans responded to these..."

"Americans responded to these pressures by trying to become salesmen who could sell not only their company’s latest gizmo but also themselves."

—Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Adlai Stevenson, Jr: "If we value the..."

"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us."

—Adlai Stevenson, Jr.

Author Unknown: "On the outside..."

"On the outside, looks can fool even the smartest of people. It's on the inside where the transformation takes place. In the heart."

—The Velveteen Rabbit, a play, based on the classic children's book by Margery Williams, (author of the play is unknown to me)