I collect lots of quotes, periodically posting them here at DI (follow this link for many dozens of quote postings). Here is my latest offering: "The tragedy of life is not death ..but what we let die inside of us while we live." Norman Cousins “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.” Albert Einstein "New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings…" Lao Tzu “I want an avowed atheist in the White House. When time comes to push that button, I want whoever's making the decision to understand that once it's pushed, it's over. Finito. They're not gonna have lunch with Jesus. Won't be deflowering 72 virgins on the great shag carpet of eternity, or reincarnated as a cow. I want someone making that decision who believes life on this Earth isn't just a dress rehearsal for something better -- but the only shot we get.” ― Quentin R. Bufogle "There was a footpath leading across the fields to New Southgate, and I used to go there alone to watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not, however, commit suicide, because I wished to know more of mathematics." —Bertrand Russell "Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles." -Mark Twain “One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn't require religion at all.” ― Arthur C. Clarke "No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behaviour to sin; he does not say, "You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go." He attempts to find out what is wrong and to set it right. An analogous way of treating human beings is, however, considered to be contrary to the truths of our holy religion." - Bertrand Russell in "The Doctrine of Free Will" “Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.” Howard Zinn “It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'Try to be a little kinder.” ― Aldous Huxley, Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics & the Visionary Experience "To refrain from an act is no less an act than to commit one." —Sir Charles Sherrington "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Dorothy Parker, (attributed) “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” Ralph Waldo Emerson "To change one’s life start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions." William James. “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” ― Thomas Paine, The Crisis "I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it." - Audrey Hepburn "Once consequentialism is properly formulated, it is hard to see how anyone, Kant included, could fail to be a consequentialist." —R. M. Hare "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." —Thomas Paine "The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces." —Philip Zimbardo "Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." Mark Twain "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Frederick Douglass "War does not determine who is right - only who is left." ~Bertrand Russell "Whoever doesn’t flare up at someone who’s angry wins a battle hard to win." -The Buddha "We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." Joseph Campbell "Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens." Howard Zinn “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” ― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time "There is the past and its continuing horrors: violence, war, prejudices against those who are different, outrageous monopolization of the good earth's wealth by a few, political power in the hands of liars and murderers, the building of prisons instead of schools, the poisoning of the press and the entire culture by money. It is easy to become discouraged observing this, especially since this is what the press and television insist that we look at, and nothing more. But there is also the bubbling of change under the surface of obedience: the growing revulsion against endless wars, the insistence of women all over the world that they will no longer tolerate abuse and subordination. There is civil disobedience against the military machine, protest against police brutality directed especially at people of color." Howard Zinn (in the 1999 version of A People's History of the United States): "Iowa is so flat you can watch your dog run away for three days." Quote from Reddit: "The highest compliment one can give a writer is not to say that one wholeheartedly agrees with his observations, but that he provoked — really, forced — difficult thinking about consequential matters and internal questioning of one’s own assumptions, often without quick or clear resolution." Glenn Greenwald