Be A Rainbow In Somebody Else’s Cloud - Maya Angelou

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

Amen!

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. -P.J. O'Rourke, writer (b. 1947)

I guess these chickens have come home to roost:

The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits. -Dan Barker, former preacher, musician (b. 1949)

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. -Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defense of our nation worthwhile. -Earl Warren, jurist (1891-1974)

The doctrine of the material efficacy of prayer reduces the Creator to a cosmic bellhop of a not very bright or reliable kind. -Herbert J. Muller, educator, historian, and author (1905-1980)

"My colleagues, they study artificial intelligence; me, I study natural stupidity."

Amos Tversky

"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it". - PJ O'Rourke

From FB: I used to walk into a room full of people and wonder if they liked me.. now I look around and wonder if I like them.

Three related quotes:


Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science. - Charles Darwin


One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. - Bertrand Russell


Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius

Although I don't think this is working out too well for Trump, you can't say he isn't trying. The fact is, his "enemy" changes daily and sometimes more than once a day.

There is no greater gift to an insecure leader that quite matches a vague enemy who can be used to whip up fear and hatred among the population. -Paul Rusesabagina, humanitarian (b. 1954)

From my Facebook feed ~ something we all need to remember! ~ Sooz

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."
~ Thomas Paine

Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except myself, to injure me. -Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France (1769-1821)

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. -Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (b. 1928)

On of the most poignant sentences/quotes I've read in a long while. It breaks my heart to think of the hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions, of children to whom this applies around the world.

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. -Harry S Truman, 33rd US president (1884-1972)

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. -Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (1759-1797)

“There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press.” — Samuel Adams, 1768

Too bad we forget this and too bad that we let some of our leaders direct us away from this with their chants and tag lines that smack of jingoism.

"All men -- whether they go by the name of Americans or Russians or Chinese or British or Malayans or Indians or Africans -- have obligations to one another that transcend their obligations to their sovereign societies." -Norman Cousins, author, editor, journalist and professor (1915-1990)

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold. -Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 B.C.)

For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money. -Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924)

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels but they live like men. -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)