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A Collection of Quotes which Address Dignity and Humiliation

 

None of us can be free until we all are free!
- Saying that circulates in various versions

Linda M. Hartling
We are not a cult; we are cultivating a culture of connection.
We are not building an ideology; we are building ideas.
- Linda M. Hartling, November 24, 2010.
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A world without humiliation dignifies us all!
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For me, rather than thinking of human dignity as an individual, internal phenomena, I like to think of human dignity as a co-created experience. It is a experience developed through respectful connection (interpersonal, social, international, etc.) in which people feel known and valued, they feel that they matter... It is our responsibility to participate in the construction of this relational experience for all people.
- These are reflections sent to us by Linda Hartling on October 11, 2006.
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The starting point for new economic possibilities may be emphasizing that relationships should lead rather than follow economic strategies.
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Humiliation is a violation of unity in dignity and respect.
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We, in the HumanDHS network, are developing a community that is not motivated by materialism in its various forms: economic, intellectual, power, or status. We are not building a cult of personality, but, as relational ecologists and social global artists, we engage in collaborative "thought farming" and build a sustainable community of collaborators, a relational permaculture of connection, a sustainable landscape of relationships and relational ecology, a dignicommunity.
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We are human beings not human doings!
We, in the HumanDHS network, give up on doing, going, having and performing; instead we are moving toward being and being in relationships!
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In our mutually dignifying community (dignicommunity), I like to think our values are NOT survival of the fittest, NOR survival of the fastest, but survival of the most prolifically patient and the most prolifically compassionate. That is, survival of the most lovingly understanding, people who share the courage to keep moving forward together, also in the face of overload. This is a radically relational reconfiguration of action in the world!
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There's no learning in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the learning zone.
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The orthodox way is to get ready, aim, and fire. We do it differently: we get ready, then we fire, and then learn and recalibrate.

Quotes collected by Linda M. Hartling
Linda Hartling and Rick Slaven have opened our first HumanDHS Dialogue Home in Oregon, USA! Please see their kind invitation, and see the pictures of the opening celebration on August 8, 2009 with all the quotes and messages decorating the walls of the house! See here some transcriptions:
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See here a transcription of Bronson Alcott's Maxims on Education.
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When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
- Cree prophecy.
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Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet (1803 - 1882).
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Objectivity is the subjectivity of the dominant group.
- Laura S. Brown.
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Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie 1867-1934.
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The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
- George Bernard Shaw.
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Dreams come a size too big, so that you can grow into them.
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There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
- Martha Graham (1894–1991), American modern dancer.
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We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
- Native American Proverb, 2010-2011, National Wildlife Federation, Calendar, www.nwf.org.

Evelin Lindner
We are blind to our blindness.
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Wringing our hands just slows us down from pushing up our sleeves!
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Pessimism is a luxury we can afford only in good times, in difficult times it easily represents a self-inflicted, self-fulfilling death sentence
- Evelin Lindner & Jo L., Auschwitz survivor, 2004.
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Optimism is never as needed as much as in times of pessimism
- Evelin Lindner, 2011.
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Human rights must serve human dignity!
- Evelin Lindner, 2011.
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Perpetrators become more violent through violent actions; bystanders become more passive as they watch suffering without taking action.
- Evelin Lindner, in Emotion and Conflict, p. 29.
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Pessimism is a luxury we can afford only in good times, in difficult times it easily represents a self-inflicted, self-fulfilling death sentence
- Evelin Lindner & Jo L., Auschwitz survivor, 2004.
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Optimism is never as needed as much as in times of pessimism.
- Evelin Lindner, 2011.
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Human rights must serve human dignity.
Rights, in general, must serve dignity.
A focus on rights can destroy dignity.
A focus on rights can trigger humiliation.
Dignity comes before rights.
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Rather than seeking control, we should be seeking flow.
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The world is too small for walls and too small for wars.
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Big paradigm shifts cannot be formulated as “small changes” within the old paradigm.
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A house is a home only if you fill it with loving relationships. A house can also be a prison.
A home cannot be bought. A home has to be built and nurtured everyday.
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Today, community, love without reason, and beauty are the words which describe my core life orientation and experience. My religion is love, humility, and awe in the face of a universe too large for us to fathom.

Quotes Collected by Evelin Lindner
Humility is Grace - Humiliation is Disgrace
- Victor Zurbel, 2004.
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There is a time for pessimism, that is, for considering worst-case scenarios in order to appropriately prepare for them. This does not mean one should not be hopeful, but only that one should be prepared for adverse outcomes rather than blithely assume that all will turn out well. Rather than being naively (indiscriminately) optimistic or pessimistic, it is better to be strategically optimistic and pessimistic.
- Seymour Epstein, 2005.
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Building walls creates an illusion of safety; walls can become prisons.
("The world is too small for walls" was a message written on the Berlin wall after the fall of the wall. Thank you, dear Linda, for making us aware!)
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I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The truth has shed so much of itself in me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman...
- Fourteenth century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz
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Outwitted:
He drew a circle that shut me out --
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
- Edwin Markham, Oregon poet laureate (1923-1940)
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When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
- Cree prophecy
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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. or: No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We have to learn to see the world anew.
- Albert Einstein
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You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- Buckminster Fuller
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Entre le fort et le faible c'est la liberté qui opprime et la loi qui affranchit. (Between the weak and the strong, between the rich and the poor, between the lord and the slave, it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free.)
- Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802–1861)
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
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People ask me, "Why are we here?" We are here to complete the final step in the evolutionary process, the simple step that has eluded humanity for thousands of years: Treat everyone around you with human dignity.
- Philip S. Berg
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You are not required to complete the task [of tikkun olam, healing the world]; neither are you allowed to lay it down. You don't measure your individual contribution against the totality of the task. You measure your contribution against the totality of your life.
- attributed to Rabbi Tarfon (as written in the Talmud) We work for the unseen harvest. - Irwin Abram

Antonio Gramsci
Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will
- Antonio Gramsci, (1891–1937), an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. We thank Tim Jackson for drawing our attention to this quote.

Wringing your hands just slows you down from pushing up your sleeves!
- Proverb

The person who says "it cannot be done" should not interrupt the person doing it.
- Chinese Proverb. We thank Christine Locher for making us aware of this quote.

Seymour Epstein
There is a time for pessimism, that is, for considering worst-case scenarios in order to appropriately prepare for them. This does not mean one should not be hopeful, but only that one should be prepared for adverse outcomes rather than blithely assume that all will turn out well. Rather than being naively (indiscriminately) optimistic or pessimistic, it is better to be strategically optimistic and pessimistic.
- Seymour Epstein, 2005.

Eric Hoffer
In times of change, the learners inherit the world, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
- Eric Hoffer.

Hafiz
I have learned so much from God that I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. The truth has shed so much of itself in me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman...
- Fourteenth century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz.

Margaret Mead
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead.

Eleanor Roosevelt
We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together, or we are going to learn to live together and if we are going to live together, we will have to talk!
- Eleanor Roosevelt.
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Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.
- Eleanor Roosevelt.
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For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Max Planck
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
- Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and other Papers, translated by Frank Gaynor (Philosophical Library, New York, 1950), pp. 33-34.

Javier Perez de Cuellar
The measure of civilization/society is how they treat their weakest members.
- H.E. Javier Perez de Cuellar.
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Let all bear in mind that a society is judged not so much by the standards attained by its more affluent and privileged members as by the quality of life which it is able to assure for its weakest members.
- H.E. Javier Perez de Cuellar.

Bob Fuller
Humiliation is the most important obstacle to a post-predatory era for humankind.
- Bob Fuller

Hubert Humphrey
The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped.
- Hubert Humphrey.

Donald C. Klein
"Appreciative Being" relates to life events via our human inherent capacity for experiencing awe and wonderment at being part of the universe.
- Donald C. Klein.

Rachel Carson
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.
- Rachel Carson.
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If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.
- Rachel Carson.
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It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.
- Rachel Carson.

Swami Satchidananda
Once, we were fine. We were all one.
Then, we de-fined ourselves: this person is white, this one is black, this one is English, this one is Russian and this one is Chinese.
Now, it's time to re-fine ourselves, and once again see that we are all one. So we were fine, we de-fined, now we must re-fine.
- Swami Satchidananda.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by descending itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., minister, political activist (1929-1968)
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Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposites - so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. .....  What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
- A Testament of Hope:  The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., edited by James M. Washington. This quote comes from Martin Luther King Jr.  1967, SCLC presidential address. This quote was kindly provided to us by Linda Hartling.
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I am sure that there are some things in our world to which we should never be adjusted. There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence.
- King's Challenge to the Nation's Social Scientists, APA Monitor Online, 30 (1, January 1999).
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We will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., minister, political activist (1929-1968). This quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.
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Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963 Western Michigan University Speech.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Violence… seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than convert… it creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Longfellow said, 'In this world a man must either be an anvil or a hammer.' We must be hammers shaping a new society rather than anvils molded by the old.
- Martin Luther King Jr., Autobiography, p. 332. We thank Paul Chapell for making us aware of this quote.
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True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We thank Onaje Muid for this quote.

Arunduti Roy
For those of us who are on the wrong side of Empire, the humiliation is becoming unbearable. Each of the Iraqi children killed by the United States was our child. Each of the prisoners tortured in Abu Ghraib was our comrade. Each of their screams was ours. When they were humiliated, we were humiliated. The U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq - mostly volunteers in a poverty draft from small towns and poor urban neighborhoods - are victims just as much as the Iraqis of the same horrendous process, which asks them to die for a victory that will never be theirs.
- Arunduti Roy, San Francisco, September 2004.

Albert Einstein
The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
- Albert Einstein (1879–1955).
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The world is dangerous not because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything.
- Albert Einstein.
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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
or:
No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We have to learn to see the world anew.
- Albert Einstein.
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The intuituive 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. We thank Carol Routh and Yves Musoni for making us aware of this quote.
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Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.
- Albert Einstein. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.
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The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
- Albert Einstein. We thank Betty Reardon for making us aware of this quote.
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Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
- Albert Einstein.
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If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
- Albert Einstein. We thank Yves Musoni for making us aware of this quote.
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Die Majorität der Dummen ist unüberwindbar und für alle Zeiten gesichert. Der Schrecken ihrer Tyrannei ist indessen gemildert durch Mangel an Konsequenz.
- Albert Einstein.
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"... appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest."
- Albert Einstein, on his deathbed. We thank Garry Davis for making us aware of this quote.

Buckminster Fuller
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- Buckminster Fuller, this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Ezra Taft Benson
Pride is concerned with who is right,
Humility is concerned with what is right.
- Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994). This quote was kindly provided by Kathryn Crawford, April 2005.

George Bernard Shaw
We are made wise not by recollections of the past, but by our responsibility to the future.
- George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856–1950). This quote was kindly provided by Anita Wenden, April 2005.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.
- Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–1273), Persian poet of Afghanistan who later settled in Konia Turkey. This quote was kindly provided by Noor Akbar Khalil, April 2005.
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There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don't look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.
I am blasphemy and religion, pure and impure;
Old, young, and a small child.
If I die, don't say that he died.
Say he was dead, became alive, and was taken by the Beloved.
In the waters of purity, I melted like salt
Neither blasphemy, nor faith, nor conviction, nor doubt remained.
In the center of my heart a star has appeared
And all the seven heavens have become lost in it.
If you show patience, I'll rid you of this virtue.
If you fall asleep, I'll rub the sleep from your eyes.
If you become a mountain, I'll melt you in fire.
And if you become an ocean, I'll drink all your water.
You personify God's message.
You reflect the King's face.
There is nothing in the universe that you are not
Everything you want, look for it within yourself -
you are that.
- Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–1273), Persian poet of Afghanistan who later settled in Konia Turkey. We thank Latha Nrugham for this link: peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumipoetry3.html. And we thank Lasse Moer for this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9u8GpH9Oco.
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Out beyond the world of right doings and wrong doings, there is a field. I meet you there.
- Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī
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The Guest House
This being human is a guesthouse.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and attend them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture, still,
treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
- Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207–1273), Persian poet of Afghanistan who later settled in Konia Turkey. We thank Jacqueline Howell Wasilewski for making us aware of this poem.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Human beings are not our enemy. Our enemy is not the other person. Our enemy is the violence, ignorance, and injustice in us and in the other person. When we are armed with compassion and understanding, we fight not against other people, but against the tendency to invade, to dominate, and to exploit.
- Thich Nhat Hanh in Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames.

Mahatma Gandhi
It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948).
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The very right to live is only afforded to us if we fulfill our duty as citizens of the world. Nationalism is not the highest concept. The highest concept is a world community.
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Unity of hearts is all that is necessary. If this cannot be had, all else is futile; if this is accomplished, nothing else is necessary.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.
- Mahatma Gandhi in Non-Violence in Peace and War, Vol. 2, 1948.
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"What do I think of Western Civilization?" "I think it would be a good idea."
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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First they ignore you,
then they ridicule you,
then they fight you,
then you win
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There are lots of causes I'm willing to die for - but not one cause I'm willing to kill for.
- Mahatma Gandhi. We thank Arve Elvik for making us aware of this quote.
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There is no path to peace. Peace is the path. (NOT: If you want peace, prepare for war!)
- Mahatma Gandhi. We thank Fredrik Heffermehl for making us aware of this quote.
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You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi.
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Those of us who have more than we need are trustees of our surplus for the benefit of those who have less than they need.
- Mahatma Gandhi, as referred to by Howard Richards, Joanna Swanger, and Alicia Cabezudo, 2011 .
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Because we repeal the rule that people only work when they are paid
Simultaneously we repeal the rule that to get food you need money to pay for it
Both rules are replaced by the restoration of the Hindu concept of dharma, i.e. duty.
- Mahatma Gandhi, as referred to by Howard Richards, Joanna Swanger, and Alicia Cabezudo, 2011.
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Hate the sin, love the sinner.
- Mahatma Gandhi
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The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles
- Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, from a letter written to him, see William Stafford.
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The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems
- Mohandas Gandhi, we than Glen Parker for making us aware of this quote.

Vaclav Havel
Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
- Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright, president.
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I am not an optimist because I am not sure that everything ends well, nor am I a pessimist because I am not sure that everything ends badly. I just carry hope in my heart. Hope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. Hope is just a feeling that life and work have meaning. It is not an estimate of the state of the world. It is something that you either have or you dont, regardless of the state of the world that surrounds you. It is a dimension of human existence.
- Vaclav Havel, Oslo Conference, The Anatomy of Hate, 1990.

Elie Wiesel
Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to only by other human beings.
- Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born US writer.
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In the word 'question', there is a beautiful word - quest. I love that word. We are all partners in a quest. The essential questions have no answers. You are my question, and I am yours - and then there is dialogue. The moment we have answers, there is dialogue. Questions unite people.
- Elie Wiesel. We thank Gay Rosenblum-Kumar for making us aware of this quote.

Amin Maalouf
For the Americans, the English and some others, the English language is of course the language of identity. But for the rest of mankind, that is to say more than nine-tenth of our contemporaries, it cannot fill that role, and it would be dangerous to try to make it so unless we want to produce hordes of people who are unhinged and disoriented, with personalities that are unbalanced. No one should be forced to become a mental expatriate every time he opens a book, sits down in front of a screen, enters into a discussion or thinks. People ought to be able to make their own modernity instead of always feeling they are borrowing it from others.
- Amin Maalouf in On Identity (2000). Kindly provided to us by Bill Templer, Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Phitsanulok, Thailand.
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Unprecedented challenges require unprecedented solutions.
- Amin Maalouf. We thank Federico Mayor for making us aware of this quote!

Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.
- Edwin Hubbel Chapin.

Helen Keller
Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.
- Helen Keller.

Gifford Pinchot
The vast possibilities of our great future wil become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for our future.
- Gifford Pinchot.

Indira Gandhi
Wer die Faust ballt, kann nicht die Hand reichen.
[Those who make a fist, can't shake hands.]
- Indira Gandhi.

Franz Kafka
Wege entstehen dadurch, dass man sie geht.
[Paths come into being by walking them.]
- Franz Kafka.

Im Leben ist es wie beim Radfahren:
Kurz bevor es wie von selbst geht, scheint es uns am allerschwierigsten.
[In life, it is like with riding a bycicle: Just before it is easy, it appears to be impossible.]
- Anonymous.

Es gibt keinen Mut ohne Angst.
[There is no courage without fear.]
- Anonymous.

Anita Brookner
Humiliations, though ineradicable, must be repaired before they take root.
- Anita Brookner in Bay of Angels, 2001. This quote was kindly provided to us by Linda Hartling. Linda kindly writes (October 15, 2006): I think this sentence accurately captures the enduring impact of humiliation while emphasizing the urgency to repair these breaks in relationships. Like Brookner, I tend to believe that once a humiliation has occurred it cannot be completely erased. Without timely intervention, victims become marked or haunted by these experiences - their humiliation takes root in their lives.
This quote lends additional support for Victoria Fontan's concept of "humiliation awareness." Perhaps humiliation awareness could not only reduce new incidents of humiliation, it could prevent humiliation from taking root in people's lives.

Alliance of Civilisations
Peoples who feel that they face persistent discrimination, humiliation, or marginalisation are reacting by asserting their identity more aggressively.
- Alliance of Civilisations report, 13th November, 2006.

Minds are like parachutes: They only work when they are open!
- Anonymous.

Victor Zurbel
Humility is Grace - Humiliation is Disgrace
- Victor Zurbel, 2004
...
To find that heart of compassion in brutal leaders and people in power situations is, I imagine, one of your greater challenges. Power by humiliation is an acquired disease, cultivated by thousands of years of pathological history. We need to find the antidote, which is compassion coupled with a firm, non-violen use of resistance and pressure.
- Victor Zurbel, November 30, 2006, in a personal message.

Swami Rama
Close your eyes and you will see clearly
Cease to listen and you will hear truth
Be silent and your heart will sing
Seek no contact and you will find union
Be still and you will move forward on the tide of the Spirit
Be gentle and you will need no strength
Be patient and you will achieve all things
Be humble and you will remain entire
- Swami Rama, seen in Victor Zurbel's house, mounted in a frame, November 6, 2010.

Jean Baker Miller, MD
Authenticity is ever-evolving, not achieved at any one momentit is a persons ongoing ability to represent herself in relationships more fully (1999).
- Jean Baker Miller
...
Authenticity and subordination are totally incompatible (1976).
- Jean Baker Miller
....
The attempt at authenticity requires a clear and direct risk (1976).
- Jean Baker Miller
...
What then is all this saying--and not saying? First that people have to participate in, and foster the development of other people, not once, in infancy, but all through life.  The quality and quantity of such participation may vary with each stage of life but the necessity exists because development always requires participation of others.  The very tendency to think of this activity as a static, almost one-shot (or one time period) phenomenon may indicate how far our culture has become removed from recognizing that this "need" exists at all times, not just when we are "dependent," but is a constant necessity in human development and human development is a necessity all through life.
- Jean Baker Miller, MD, (1976, October), Minutes - Board of Overseers. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College.
...
Jean Baker Miller emphasized the use of the term "sense of worth." She moved away from using "self-worth" because the word "self" tends to imply human separateness and disconnection, what she would describe as a "separate self model" of psychological development. Further, she would suggest that the "self" concept is still tied to Western notions of rugged individualism (see alsoCushman, P. (1995). Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural history of psychotherapy. Garden City, NY: Da Capo Press). It seems that latest social neuroscience supports her early view that humans develop within a matrix of relationships throughout their lives, that we are always inter connected as human beings. Consequently, rather than self worth, she would say that people develop a "sense of worth" through participation in mutually empathic, mutually empowering relationships, that is, through participation in "growth-fostering relationships." Rather than using the word "self," she preferred the term "relational being." From her perspective, we are all relational beings, rather than separate selves.
- Linda Hartling, in a personal communication, July 27, 2011.

Seymour M. (Mike) Miller
My three-fold delineation of power: the taming of power to make it less onerous, the transfer of power to the less powerful and the transformation of power so that it is less demanding and, indeed, can be relational.
- Seymour M. (Mike) Miller, in a personal communication to Linda Hartling, June 10, 2011. See The Future of Inequality, 1970, second section of the book.

Peace
It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.
- unknown.

Anthony J. Marsella
Show, by your actions, that you choose peace over war, freedom over oppression, voice over silence, service over self-interest, respect over advantage, cooperation over competition, action over passivity, diversity over uniformity, and justice over all.
- Anthony J. Marsella ((2006). Justice in a Global Age: Becoming Counselors to the World. In Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 19 (2, June), 121-132, on page 131.
...
The Golden Rule - Eleven Religions
"If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself." (Baha'i)
"One should seek for others the happiness one derives for one's self."  (Buddhism)
"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." (Christianity)
"What you do not want done to yourself, do not unto others."  (Confucianism)
"Do naught to others which if done to thee would cause pain."  (Hinduism)
"No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Islam)
"We should . . . refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear   undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves."   (Jainism)
"What is hurtful to yourself, do not do to our fellow man." (Judaism)
"As thou deemest thyself, so deem others." (Sikkhism)
"To those who are good to me, I am also good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good.  And thus all get to be good."  (Taoism)
"Do as you would be done by."  (Zoroastrianism)
- Anthony J. Marsella, 2002, adapted and expanded from Steven Blessman, December 2001, personal communication (January 31, 2011).

Virginia Woolf
We can best help you to prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods but by finding new words and creating new methods.
- Virginia Woolf, 1938.
...
Imaginative work is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; it is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but attached to all four corners of the earth.
- Virginia Woolf. We thank Linda Hartling for bringing this quote to us!

Buddha
Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live, giving up victory and defeat.
- Gautama Buddha.

"You can look back to the past, just don't stare!"
- Anonymous, related to us by Stephanie Heuer.

George Bernard Shaw
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.
- George Bernard Shaw.

Ludwig Robert
To the eagle spoke the dove: where thinking ceases, there begins faith. Right, he replied, but with this difference, where you already believe, I still reason."
"Zu dem Adler sprach die Taube:
Wo das Denken aufhört, da beginnt der Glaube;
Recht, sprach jener, mit dem Unterschied jedoch,
Wo du glaubst, da denk' ich noch."
- Ludwig Robert, German poet. We thank Inge Danaher for making us aware of this quote. This poem was often quoted to her by her father, Peter Roehlen, as follows: "Beyond knowledge comes belief" and the eagle replied "yes, but where you already believe, I still know."

Black Elk
The thoughts of men... should rise high as eagles do.
- Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, quoted from Native Voices of Indian America Universe, by Native American tribal leaders, writers, scholars, and storytellers; with a foreword by W. Richard West, Jr., edited by Gerald McMaster and Clifford E. Trafzer, Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museums of the American Indian, in association with National Geographic, 2004, p. 11.

Peter Roehlen
"Herr sei das Herz, der Verstand stehts Knecht, doch der tüchtigste Knecht, sei dem Herrn nur recht"
Translated: "Master be the heart, the mind always it's servant, however let only the most diligent servant be good enough for the master"
- Inge Danaher's father, Peter Roehlen.

Terri Swearingen
We are living on this planet as if we have another one to go to.
- Terri Swearingen; this quote is written in huge letters on a wall of qm, the Queensland Museum South Bank, in Brisbane, Australia, admired by Evelin on 10th August 2007.

Marshall McLuhan
There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.
- Marshall McLuhan; this quote is written in huge letters on a wall of qm, the Queensland Museum South Bank, in Brisbane, Australia, admired by Evelin on 10th August 2007.
...
Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.
- Marshall McLuhan

Wringing your hands just slows you down from pushing up your sleeves!
- Anonymous.

Abigail Van Buren
People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes.
- Abigail Van Buren.

Sydney J. Harris
There's no point in burying the hatchet if youre going to put up a marker on the site.
- Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986); this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Every person should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones.
- Anonymous; this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Rabindranath Tagore
The winds of grace are always blowing. It is you that must raise your sails.
- Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali poet, composer, philosopher (1861-1941); this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

John Hancock
A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.
- John Hancock, politician, Revolutionary leader (1737-1793), this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

A man visits a Quaker meeting for the first time. After sitting in silence for several minutes, he turns to his neighbor and asks, 'When does the service start?' to which his neighbor replies, 'After the meeting.'"
- Anonymous, this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Lewis L. Dunningham
The greatest force for making people bigger and better than they are now is the belief in your heart and mind that they have the infinite potential for growth. Even when they fail us, we are to continue to carry and express the mental image of what they may become. To have someone believe in you, even whey you fail is the most blessed and creative force in the universe.
- Lewis L. Dunningham, this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Walt Whitman
Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman, poet, journalist (1819-1892); this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Julius and Augustus Hare
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.
- Julius and Augustus Hare, British writers (1795-1855 and 1834-1903); this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Bernard Shaw
This is the true joy in life, being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
- George-Bernard Shaw; this quote was kindly provided to us by Yoav Peck, who gathered it from the "Character Counts" website.

Andrew Greeley
It should be no surprise that when rich men take control of the government, they pass laws that are favorable to themselves. The surprise is that those who are not rich vote for such people, even though they should know from bitter experience that the rich will continue to rip off the rest of us. Perhaps the reason is that rich men are very clever at covering up what they do.
- Andrew Greeley (Chicago Sun-Times, February 18, 2001).

Harold Laski
A state divided into a small number of rich and a large number of poor will always develop a government manipulated by the rich to protect the amenities represented by their property.
- Harold Laski (1930).

Plutarch
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
- Plutarch - Mestrius Plutarchus (c. 46 AD- 127 AD) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist.

Woodrow Wilson
I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.
- Woodrow Wilson.

James Baldwin
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
- James Baldwin Biography - Fiction Writer, Essayist, Social Critic, 1924-1987.
...
The moment we cease to hold each other
The moment we lose faith with one another
The sea engulfs us
And the light goes out
- James Baldwin. We thank Rita Anita Linger for making me aware of this quote.

Prayer
I asked for Strength.........
And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom.........
And God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for Prosperity.........
And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage.........
And God gave me Danger to overcome.
I asked for Love.........
And God gave me Troubled people to help.
I asked for Favours.........
And God gave me Opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted
I received everything I needed
My Prayer has been answered.

Karl Jaspers
Was der Mensch ist, das ist er durch die Sache, die er zur seinen macht.
- Karl Jaspers.

It's far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.
- see a discussion at http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/09/20.html
Det er for sent å være pessimist nå.
- Finn Tschudi forklarer at dette er tittelen på en bok som er et festskrift til fredsaktivisten Ole Kopreitan på hans 70 årsdag, redaktør Knut Tønsberg, Emilia forlag.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Peace is the opposite of security.
- "The Church and the People of the World," sermon delivered by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which
he delivered at the Ecumenical Conference of churches in Fano, on August 28, 1934. We thank Ralph Lentz for making us aware of this quote! See pictures from 2007 of his memorial in Breslau.

Worry is thought attached to the illusion of control.
- Anonymous.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.
- Unknown.

Jimi Hendrix
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix.

Intelligence and humility are compatible as long as humility comes first.
- Unknown.

Joanna Harcourt-Smith
Humiliation is the disease, and dignity is the cure.
- Joanna Harcourt-Smith (listen to http://www.futureprimitive.org/GAIAlogues.html#latest).

Frank Barron
Never take a person's dignity: it is worth everything to them, and nothing to you.
- Frank Barron.

Kofi Annan
Whether its genocide or ethnic cleansing it always starts with humiliation of one individual.
- Kofi Anan in ‘It Sits On Your Conscience,’ Newsweek, Feb 9, 2008.

Richard Rorty
... [The liberal ironist] thinks that what unites her with the rest of the species is not a common language but just susceptibility to pain and in particular to that special sort of pain which the brutes do not share with the humans - humiliation...
- Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, p. 92.
...
Rorty does believe in moral progress, understood as development "in the direction of greater human solidarity... the ability to see more and more traditional differences (of tribe, religion, race, customs, and the like) as unimportant when compared with similarities with respect to pain and humiliation - the ability to think of people wildly different from ourselves as included in the range of 'us'."
- Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, p. 192.

It takes faith to leave the unfinished unfinished!
- related to us by Steve Kulich.

Upton Sinclai
It is difficult to make a man understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
- Upton Sinclair.

Elik Elhanan
If indignity tears relationships apart, dignity can put them back together.
- Elik Elhanan, in "Learning to speak: I defeat my enemy when I make him my friend," Ode Magazine, May 2008 issue, p. 72. We thank Michael Nagler for making us aware of this quote.

Marcus Aurelius
The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it.
- Marcus Aurelius.

Paulo Freire
No one educates anyone, and nobody is self educated; all of us learn from each other, mediated by the world we live in.
- Paulo Freire.

Det er vondt å bli sint når ingen blir redd!
- Norwegian saying.

The arrogance of ignorance...
- Saying.

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
- Saying.

Understand the Differences, Act on the Commonalities!
- Saying.

George Bernard Shaw
A reasonable person adapts to the world. An unreasonable person adapts the world to herself!
- George Bernard Shaw, 1856–1950.

It's not tolerance I'm asking for, it's respect!
- Niels van Quaquebeke, Daniel C. Henrich and Tilman Eckloff.

The nearest of neighbors are often the ones who get entangled in the longest of conflicts.
- Saying.

Diana Eck
Diversity is a fact. Pluralism is an accomplishment.
- Diana Eck.

Paul Grignon
Conventional economics is a rationalization for victimization through fraud.
- Paul Grignon, monetary theorist, offering a visionary shift in monetary thinking.

Frederic Bastiat
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
- Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850, The Law. We thank Paul Grignon for this quote.

John Sherman
Those few who can understand the system (check book money and credit) will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors, that there will be little opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear it burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests.
- John Sherman (1823-1900), US Republican Congressman, later Secretary of the Treasury, quoted by the Rothschild Brothers, London in a letter sent June 25th, 1863 to New York Bankers, Ikleheimer, Morton, and Gould seeking an alliance to create a private national bank in America. We thank Paul Grignon for this quote.

John H. Hotson
People today have more erroneous ideas about money than Victorians had about sex.
- John H. Hotson, professor emeritus of economics University of Waterloo, executive director, Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform. We thank Paul Grignon for this quote.

Frederick Douglass
Power concedes nothing without demand.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of the waters. This struggle may be both moral and physical, but it must be struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. And these wrongs will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
- Frederick Douglass, 1857. We thank Paul Grignon for this quote.

Aidan Davison
"...the verb sustaining holds open the actively normative questions that the idea of sustainability raises. We are required to probe: What truly sustains us? Why? And how do we know? Conversely, we must ask: What are we to sustain above all else?  Why? And how may we do so?"
- Aidan Davison, Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability, 2001, p. 64.

Winston S. Churchill
...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on...
- Winston S. Churchill.
...
"Excellence is . . .
Caring more than others think is wise
Risking more than others think is safe
Dreaming more than others think is practical
Expecting more than others think is possible.
- Winston Churchill. We thank Cheryl Wells for making us aware of this quote.

Bertrand Russell
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.
­ Bertrand Russell.

Rick Ingrasci
I really feel that our generation, the sixties generation, had made a breakthrough that was almost like a recidivist, that we went back and rediscovered what indigenous cultures have known for many, many years, which is that carnival and festivity and ritual and ways to experience communitas, which is really spontaneous love in community, is probably a part of how we're going to find our way out of the jam we're in, as a planet let's say.
- Rick Ingrasci, in his talk Joy, Social Intelligence & the Ethical Imagination, held at Commonweal on April 19th, 2007.

Brian Piergrossi
Love is the new religion of the 21st century You don’t have to be a highly educated person Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it It comes from the intelligence of the heart Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings.
- Brian Piergrossi, in The Big Glow: Insights, Inspirations, Peace and Passion. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Carlos Santana
There is definitely enough love and resources to go around. I have wondered over the years when this could be realized and who would be the ones to do it. Today, I am convinced more than ever that this is the time and that we are the ones we have been waiting for – generations of conscious beings from all walks of life with the courage, communications, and know how to change the world for the better. We are the Architects of A New Dawn and this is what we came here to do.
— Carlos Santana, on http://architectsofanewdawn.com/. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!
...
All things that rise converge.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. We would like to thank Michael W. Fox for this inspirational quote!

Peter Block
The essential challenge is to transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole. The key is to identify how this transformation occurs.
- Peter Block, in Community: The Structure of Belonging. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Vimila Takar
The challenge awaiting us is to go much deeper as human beings, to abandon superficial prejudices and preferences, to expand understanding to a global scale, integrating the totality of living, and to become aware of the wholeness of which we are a manifestation."
- Vimala Thakar, in Spirituality & Social Action: A Holistic Approach. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Andrew Beath
Conscious activism is activism from the heart. It is composed of loving-kindness and requires nothing in return. If we love something, we want to help it thrive: redwood trees, rivers, and everyone's children. As our capacity for love appreciates, our world grows larger. As our connection with the living planet deepens, so does the place in our hearts from which we experience joy.
- Andrew Beath, in Navigating the Future: A Guide for Conscious Activism. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Pema Chodron
If you have a bird's-eye perspective on the Earth and you look down at all the conflicts that are happening, all you see are two sides of a story where both people think they are right. So the solutions have to come from a change of heart, from softening what is rigid within us.
- Pema Chodron, in Practicing Peace in Times of War. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!

Plato
A person who achieves wealth and power by excluding justice and virtue will lose the health of her body. Life, in this case, is no longer endurable, although pampered with all kinds of meats and drinks. Is such a life worth living? The question itself is ridiculous.
- Plato.
...
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
- Plato. We thank Federico Hewson for making us aware of this quote.

Aristotle
What is the essence of life? To serve others and do good.
- Aristotle. We thank Kamran Mofid of always reminding me of Aristotle's saying.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Rest not. Life is sweeping by,
Go and dare before you die.
Something mighty and sublime,
Leave behind to conquer time.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. We would like to thank the 2009 Hollyhock Summer Gathering for this inspirational quote!
...
Every Creature is a Word of God
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. We would like to thak Michael W. Fox for making us aware of this quote.
...
To take what's made and then re-make it,
So that it never rigidifies,
Eternal living action works.
And what never was must become…”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, from One and All. We thank Götz Werner for making us aware of this quote.
...
The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Jiddu Krishnamurti
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Ubiratan D'Ambrosio
Killing the dignity of individuals is the most subtle form of violence practiced in our societies.
- Ubiratan D'Ambrosio.

Leonardo Da Vinci
There are three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
- Leonardo da Vinci
...
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do.
- Leonardo da Vinci
...
Art is never finished, only abandoned.
- Leonardo da Vinci
...
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" Leonardo da Vinci 
- Leonardo da Vinci. we thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Nancy Harrisson
A friend is someone who reminds you of your song when you've temporarily forgotten it.
- Nancy Harrisson.

William Stafford
Every war has two losers.
...
You may win a war you are sorry to have started.
...
Creating the emergencies that justify emergency action.
...
A speech is something you say to distract attention from what you do not say.
...
The trouble about language is that people sometimes believe what you say, and you were only trying it out.
...
There are probably ways to live so as to shut out chances to be victimized. Those ways are probably worse than being a victim.
...
The sickness of lusting after justice.
...
...one trend is toward confrontation, vulgarity; another trend is toward social action against some of the results of vulgarity (prejudice, bullying, harassment). Confused people entangle themselves in both.
...
History is the lies people have agreed upon?
...
We dominate the world; for the future it is essential that we reach community, not supremacy.
...
We drown in ugliness. Art helps teach us to swim.
...
Lostness is a function of your assumptions about where you belong.
...
An individual's intellect and emotions should be like a good seismograph: sensitive enough to register what happens but strong enough not to be wrecked by the first little thing that happens.
...
...as a teacher I believe that if there is such a thing as the lowest person in the class, they deserve the same level reception and cordiality as anybody else.
...
Success may not mean you did right.
- William Stafford, in Stafford, Kim (Ed.). (2003). Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War. Minneapolis: Milkweed Press, p. 64.
...
If I start in the stance of being the judge, the advocate of culture, the parental figure, I will have a hard time reaching into the spontaneous thoughts and feelings of the group.
- William Stafford, an Oregon pacifist, poet, and activist who became the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. We thank Linda Hartling for making us aware of these quotes that she gathered from:
Stafford, Kim (Ed.). (2003). Every War Has Two Losers: William Stafford on Peace and War. Minneapolis: Milkweed Press.
Stafford, W., Merchant, P., & Wixon, V. (2003). The Answers Are Inside the Mountains: Meditations on the Writing life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Stafford, W. (2003). You Must Revise Your Life. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Elise Boulding
Listening is the beginning of peace.
- Elise Boulding.

Kenneth Boulding
Anybody who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.
- Kenneth Boulding.
...
All learning takes place through the orderly loss of information.
- Kenneth Boulding. We thank Mary Lee Morrison for making us aware of this quote.

Martin Niemöller
Poem (1976 version)
Original
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

Translation:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
- Martin Niemöller (1892–1984), a prominent German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor.

Victor Hugo
The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved.

Oscar Wilde
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde.

Andre Gide
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide. We thank Zuzana Luckay for making us aware of this quote!

Pisces mortui solum cum flumine natant.
(Only dead fish go with the flow.)

Benjamin Franklin
Time lost is never found again.
- Benjamin Franklin.

Rachel Bagby
Nothing caresses your feet as the Earth.
- Rachel Bagby, Hollyhock, 2009.

Mark Twain
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain, via thank for Brian Ward to make us aware of this quote.

Humility is the only certain defense against humiliation.
- Saying.

Benjamin Franklin
Humility makes great men twice honorable.
- Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America (1706-1790).

Thomas Merton
Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.
- Thomas Merton, American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (1915-1968).

John Buchan
Without humility there can be no humanity.
- John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist and Unionist politician and 15th Governor General of Canada (1875-1940).

George Arliss
Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of life.
- George Arliss, English actor (1868-1946).

Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable.
-Anonymous.

Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin
Crisis may give rise to salvation.
- Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin.

Antonio Machado
Only a fool confuses value and price.
- Antonio Machado.

Barack H. Obama
We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning.
- Barack H. Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009.

Emery Reves
There is no "first step" toward world government. World Government is the first step.
- Emery Reves, The Anatomy of Peace, 1945, 1904–1981.

Richard Sennett
Respect seems so fundamental to our experience of social relations and self that we ought to define more clearly what it is.
- Richard Sennett, Respect in a World of Inequality, 2003, p. 49. We thank Werner Schirmer for this quote.

H. Jackson Brown
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not by strength but by perseverance.
- H. Jackson Brown.

Thomas Jefferson
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
...
Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd President of the United States (1801-09)

André Gide
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
- Andre Gide.

Helen Keller
When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller.

Nelson Mandela
Only free people can negotiate.
- Nelson Mandela.

The "practices of a Hawaiian," and the "spirit and practice of aloha"
as explained by Princess Lehu'anani in the local library of Lahaina on Maui on 29th August 2009:
1. being aware of others and recognizing that there is value in everyone
2. developing a feeling for another's needs, having the sensitivity and awareness to assist without being asked
3. not pushing another down to pull yourself up
4. forgiving a person who has injured you, and then dropping the issue permanently

Ubuntu
Umunthu ngamunthu ngabantu. [A person is a person through other people.]
- Nguni proverb
...
Africans have this thing called UBUNTU. It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being able to go the extra mile for the sake of others. We believe that a person is a person through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with with yours. When I dehumanise you, I inexorably dehumanise myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms and therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in belonging.
- Desmond Tutu Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, quoted from www.cyc-net.org/today2000/today000328.html. We thank Latha Nrugham for this link.
...
Yves Musoni (Goma, Congo, currently Nashville, Tennessee, USA) wrote on 21st June: "I love the logo design of the World Dignity University! I see ubuntu wisdom through it: "None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think, or walk, or speak, or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are." Desmond Tutu.

Bible
Do unto others as you would.....
- Latha Nrugham, connecting the message of Ubuntu with the message of the Bible.
...
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
- Bible, Proverbs Chapter 11 Verse 2

The Bhagvad Gita
The Bhagvad Gita teaches us that real dignity is that which inherent and inalienable as it is within us, that which is today bestowed upon us by someone will also by taken away by someone because all that has a begining, also has an end.
- Latha Nrugham, connecting the message of Ubuntu with the message of the Bible. She wrote (23rd January 2011): "This is my understanding of the message of Bhagavad Gita, which has many facets. The same understanding, I think, underlies the Declaration of Human Rights and all the other UN charters on the fundamental equality of each and every human being. It is that level that we are all so equal and that equality is inalienable. I understood the Declaration of Human Rights as based in reality, not just to-be-aspired-for idealism, only after I understood the message of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. It is this inalienable 'I' that Ramana Maharishi says we should find out within ourselves: Ask yourself: 'Who am I?' Rest in the final answer."
- Bhagvad Gita

You cannot see me with your terrestrial eyes, so I will give you a divine eye.
- Bhagavadgita (Chapter 11). We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Anthony J. Marsella
Show, by your actions, that you choose peace over war, freedom over oppression, voice over silence, service over self-interest, respect over advantage, cooperation over competition, action over passivity, diversity over uniformity, and justice over all.
- Anthony J. Marsella.

Thomas Paine
Independence is my happiness and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world…”
- Thomas Paine. We thank Garry Davis, who uses this quote at the beginning of his book My Country Is the World: The Adventures of a World Citizen, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1961.

Albert Schweitzer
The human race must be converted to a fresh mental attitude if it is not to suffer extinction. A new renaissance, much greater than that in which we emerged from the Middle Ages, is absolutely essential. Are we going to draw from the spirit enough strength to create new conditions and turn our faces once again to civilization, or are we going to draw our inspiration from our surrounding and go down with them to ruin?
- Albert Schweitzer. We thank René Wadlow for making us aware of this quote.
...
Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
- Albert Schweitzer. We thank Michael W. Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Howard Zinn
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
- Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times, p. 208.

The Golden Rule in Eleven Religions
“If you seek justice, choose for others what you would choose for yourself." (Baha’i)
“One should seek for others the happiness one derives for one’s self.” (Buddhism)
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Christianity)
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not unto others.” (Confucianism)
“Do naught to others which if done to thee would cause pain.” (Hinduism)
“No one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Islam)
“We should . . . refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.” (Jainism)
“What is hurtful to yourself, do not do to our fellow man.” (Judaism)
“As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.” (Sikkhism)
“To those who are good to me, I am also good; and to those who are not good to me, I am also good. And thus all get to be good.” (Taoism)
“Do as you would be done by.” (Zoroastrianism)
- Anthony J. Marsella - Adapted and Expanded from Steven Blessman, December, 2001.

Arthur Ashe
True heroism is unremarkable, sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, whatever the cost.
- Arthur Ashe. We thank Chris Bennett for this quote.

Napoleon Bonaparte
In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit.
- Napoleon Bonaparte.

Glen T. Martin
The Earth Constitution is the political form of love as well as justice. Equality and dignity are not exhausted by law, but they must be legislated and protected under law. Uniting the world under the principle of unity in diversity will help create the very transformation of consciousness that they desire.
- Glen T. Martin, in a personal communication, 14th February 2010.

Diogenes
We believe and think what we chose to think and believe.
- Diogenes. We thank Michael W. Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Henry David Thoreau
I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.
- Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862, American Essayist, Poet, Naturalist. We thank Michael W. Fox for making us aware of this quote.
...
Goodness is the only investment which never fails.
- Henry David Thoreau. We thank Ardian Adžanela for making us aware of this quote. He shared with us his own formulations: "If Goodness competition were as popular as sports, the world would enjoy much more Peace and Proseprity," and "If we compete in Goodness as much as we compete in sports, greediness, personal popularity, prestige and other things, we would see a much better world."

John Gilmore
The net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
- John Gilmore, American computer science innovator, Libertarian, Internet activist, and one of the founders of Electronic Frontier Foundation. See also www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/.

Michael W. Fox
The Empathosphere is real, and it is through compassion's sympathetic resonance with the Earth and all who dwell therein that we may yet evolve, and give Life a chance before we extinguish the life and beauty of our planet Earth and become even less human than we are already with cloned animals and genetically engineered crops.
- Michael W. Fox, in a personal communication on March 11, 2010.

Andrew Masondo
Understand the differences; act on the commonalities.
- Andrew Masondo, African National Congress.

Celia Kitzinger
Feminist understandings of power have shifted from unitary notions of something bad when men have it and something good when women have it, towards recognition of its multiple levels of operation. Power is not something we have. but something we swim in, a matter of discourse and practice rather than quantity."
- Celia Kitzinger, "Feminism Psychology and the Paradox of Power," in Feminism and Psychology, Volume I, 1991.

Yoav Peck
The grass is always greener where you water it.
- Yoav Peck.

Rollo May
Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.
- Rollo May. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

John Tarrant
Compassion is something that needs to be encouraged, like an endangered species, perhaps.
- John Tarrant. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Lao Tzu
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Irwin Corey
If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going.
- Irwin Corey. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Mark Nepo
To listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.
- Mark Nepo. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Barbara De Angelis
You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.
- Barbara De Angelis. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Ursula LeGuin
Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
- Ursula LeGuin. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

J.E. Buckrose
Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded, it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again – this is the brave and happy life. – J.E. Buckrose, author (1868-1931). We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Emmet Fox
Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you. If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you.
– Emmet Fox, spiritual leader (1886-1951). We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Chinese Proverb
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
- Chinese Proverb. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Ambrose Redmoon
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
- Ambrose Redmoonv. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Robert Schuller
Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.
- Robert Schuller. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Hermann Hesse
It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.
- Hermann Hesse. We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Alexander Pope
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
– Alexander Pope, British poet (1688-1744). We thank Yoav Peck for making us aware of this quote.

Frederic Bastiat
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
- Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), French economist. We thank Rodrigue Tremblay for this quote.

Steven Weinberg
I think that on balance the moral influence of religion has been awful. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg, 1979 Nobel Laureate in Physics. We thank Rodrigue Tremblay for this quote.

Henry Ford
It is well enough that people ... do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
- Henry Ford, American industrialist. We thank Rodrigue Tremblay for this quote.

Dave Ramsey
We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.
— Dave Ramsey. We thank Ardian Adžanela for this quote.

Diogenes
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world
- Diogenes (412-323 BCE), we thank Anthony Marsella for making us aware of this quote.

In women, courage is often mistaken for insanity
- Doctor in Iron Jawed Angels (2004 film about the American women's suffrage movement during the 1910s). We thank Linda Hartling for making us aware of this quote.

Thornton Wilder
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
- Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Albert Einstein
Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.
- Albert Einstein. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Many Faiths, One Religion
- Rig Veda, Gandhi, Kant in Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Immanuel Kant
The spirit of commerce, which is incompatible with war, sooner or later gains the upper hand in every state. As the power of money is perhaps the most dependable of all the powers (means) included under the state power, states see themselves forced, without any moral urge, to promote honorable peace and by mediation to prevent war wherever it threatens to break out.
- Immanuel Kant, in Perpetual Peace. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.
...
Everything has either a price or dignity.
- Immanuel Kant, in Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, second edition, Immanuel Kant and Lewis White Beck, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997, page 51, paragraph 3. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.
...
Love of ease does more harm than all the ills of life.
and
Children should be allowed to learn everything as if it were in play.
- Immanuel Kant and Annette Churton, in On Education, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003, pages 52-53, 67 (respectively). We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.
...
Eternal peace is no "empty idea, but a task which, gradually solved, steadily approaches its end."
- Immanuel Kant. We thank Margrethe Tingstad for making us aware of this quote.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
- Chinese proverb, reference Barbara Bailey Reinhold, Ed.D. (1996). Toxic Work: How to Overcome Stress Overload, and Burnout and Revitalize your Career. New York: Plume, p. 97. We thank Linda Hartling for making us aware of this quote.

George Eliot
Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending.
- George Eliot, Middlemarch. We thank Zuzana Luckay for making us aware of this quote.
...
It will never rain more roses. When we want more roses, we must plant more roses.
- George Eliot. We thank Libby & Len Traubman for making us aware of this quote!

T.S. Eliot
Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
- T.S. Eliot. We thank Kamran Mofid for this quote.

Socrates
Socrates refused to be paid for his philosophical teachings. Just as charging for beauty, he argued, is prostitution, so it is that money cannot be exchanged for wisdom.
- We thank Kamran Mofid for explaining this to us.
...
DIGNITY - The Definition of the well-educated human By Socrates (469b.C. - 399 B.C.)
Athens, Greece, 4th December 2011
Approximately 2.500 years ago, my ancestor and teacher Socrates defined the well-educated man by saying, “the well-education is a matter of attitude…”.
Consequently he didn’t speak at all about the collecting of knowledge, but he considered as well-educated the humans who are skilled with the following:
• The man who is able to control any situation, but he is not controlled by situations.
• The man who faces all the events with braveness and logic.
• The man who is honest in his converses.
• The man who manages to face all bad events and any obnoxious human, amiably.
• The man who may control his appetence and delectations.
• The man who was never vanquished by his infelicities and collapses.
• The man who was never decayed by his victories and glories.
• The man who managed to “find” and “know” him-self.
As a conclusion on the above, as a student of life, I believe that the unity of faith in both the spiritual freedom of a man and his moral conscience, is mandatory. In others words, the meaning, the purpose and the constant practice, the constant daily struggle of the “athlete” man in the difficult arena of life, to conquer mentality of completeness and therefore the whole freedom, which will earn him the true meaning of life and the deep sense of solidarity with his fellows, is the most valuable safeguards for human existence and DIGNITY.
- Takis Ioannides, Student of this life…

Günter Grass
Truth exists nearly always in the plural.
- Günter Grass iIn a poem written for his Nobel Prize speech, December 7, 1999. We thank Donna Hicks for making us aware of this quote.

Kofi Annan
Let us remember that the most expensive peacekeeping operation costs far less than the cheapest war.
- Kofi Annan. We thank Sylvester Lahai for making us aware of this quote.

Gregory Baum
True dialogue takes place only among equals, for the master will listen only as long as his/her power remains intact, and the servant will limit his communication to which he/she cannot be punished.
- Gregory Baum. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

The longest journey starts with a single step

Mitch Albom
Love is the only rational act.
Mitch Albom, American Author. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

M.C. Beaton
Religion is for those who believe in hell, and spiritual belief is for those who've been there.
M.C. Beaton. We thank Mark Singer and Pegge Patten for making us aware of this quote.

John Keats
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all you know, and all you need to know.
- John Keats. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Conflict is inevitable - war is optional

Ardian Adžanela
One dignifying message a day keeps the clouds away.
- Ardian Adžanela, old proverb.

Solon
Justice will not come until those who are not hurt feel just as indignant as those who are hurt.
- Solon, c. 638 BC–558 BC, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and poet.

Alexander Graham Bell 
Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.
- Alexander Graham Bell. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Julia Butterfly Hill
We cannot have peace on the Earth unless we also have peace with the Earth.
- Julia Butterfly Hill. We thank Linda Hartling for making us aware of this poem.

Edwin Markham
Outwitted:
He drew a circle that shut me out --
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
- Edwin Markham, Oregon poet laureate, 1923-1940. We thank Linda Hartling for making us aware of this poem.

Oscar Arias
The global arms trade, and its accompanying glut of military spending, continues to represent the single most significant perversion of worldwide priorities known today. It buttresses wars, criminal activity and ethnic violence; destabilises emerging democracies; inflates military budgets to the detriment of health care, education and basic infrastructure; and exaggerates global relationships of inequality and underdevelopment. Without massive and coordinated action, militarism will continue to be a scourge on our hopes for a more peaceful and just 21st century.
- Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica Nobel Peace Laureate. We thank Colin Archer, General Secretary of the International Peace Bureau, for this quote!

King Hussein of Jordan
Nothing is more useless in developing a nation's economy than a gun, and nothing blocks the road to social development more than the financial burden of war.
- King Hussein of Jordan. We thank Colin Archer, General Secretary of the International Peace Bureau, for this quote!

Maya Angelou
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou. We thank Philipos Petros Gile for this quote!

John Dana
Finding our way to dignity, where we all belong.
- John Dana

Friedrich Nietzsche
What do you regard as most humane? To spare someone shame.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Gay Science, original title Die fröhliche Wissenschaft. We thank Jean-Marie Guéhenno for this quote.

Lila Watson
If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk together...
- Lila Watson/Austrialian Aborginal Woman. We thank Onaje Muid for this quote.

Pablo Neruda
There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song - but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny.
- Part of Pablo Neruda's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. We thank Eva Haller for this quote!

Amory Lovins
Markets make a good servant, a bad master and a worse religion.
- Amory Lovins.

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Leadership is:
•  Caring more than others think is wise
•  Risking more than others think is safe
•  Dreaming more than others think is practical
•  Expecting more than others think is possible
- Detective James Shanahan, at the 2010 Workshop on Transforming Humiliation and Violent Conflict, Columbia University, New York, December 9-10, 2010.

Outwitted, by Edwin Markham
He drew a circle that shut me out --
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
- Edwin Markham (1852-1940). We thank Linda Hartling for bringing this poem to us!

John Gardner
What we have before us are some breathtaking opportunities, disguised as insoluble problems.
- John Gardner, former US Cabinet member and seminal thinker.

Carl Jung
We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.
- Carl Jung. We thank Libby & Len Traubman for making us aware of this quote!

William James
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can change their lives by modifying their mental attitudes.
- William James, American psychologist and philosopher of the 19th century. We thank Libby & Len Traubman for making us aware of this quote!

Francisco Gomes de Matos:
One of the serious gaps in the preparation of researchers is TERMINOLOGY SCIENCE. Since we deal with concepts-terms, we should be minimally knowledgeable about the form-meaning-use of terms in our specific areas! FREQUENCY, too, is important (the DICTIONARIES OF FREQUENCY are being published, see the Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary American English, by Mark Davies and Dee Gardner, published by Routledge, 2010, and, also by the same publisher, Frequency Dictionary of Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.)

When the words injustice and indignity entered written English:
Justice made itself visible in English from 1175
Injustice entered written English from 1350 (Humiliation, too!)
Dignity was born visually in English from 1150
Indignity made its written debut from 1575
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 15th January 2011. His source: The Random House Webster's College Dictionary, 1997. Published by Random House, New York.
...
Mercy - 1120; Pity - 1175; Compassion -1300; Humaneness - 1500; Sympathy - 1560; Commiseration - 1585.
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 24th March 2011.
...
Self-worth was coined in 1960, self-respect appeared in writing from 1650, self-regard 1585.
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 16th July 2011.
...
The more peacefully we communicate and the more humanizingly we interact, the more human dignity we will elevate and relational dignity will become a fact.
- Francisco Gomes de Matos' Plea for Communicative Dignity, epitaph in his chapter in The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, edited by Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman (Springer, 2011)
...
Education is the power to appreciate life
- Brigham Young, epitaph in Francisco Gomes de Matos' chapter in The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, edited by Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman (Springer, 2011)
...
Nonviolence is the greatest and most active force in the world. One cannot be passively nonviolent. One person who can express ahimsa in life exercises a force superior to all the force of brutality.
- Gandhi, epitaph in Francisco Gomes de Matos' chapter in The Psychological Components of Sustainable Peace, edited by Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman (Springer, 2011)

Let´s never harm
Let´s never hate
Let´s never hurt
Let´s never humiliate!
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 11th January 2011

Everybody let's respect
and Dignity we'll perfect
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 7th February 2011

As the concept of EQUALITY is central to DEMOCRACY,
so the concept of  DIGNITY is central to HUMANITY.
As the concept of SOLIDARITY is central to SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY,
so the concept of HUMILITY is central to TRANQUILITY
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 11th March 2011

The FDCAE says that DIGNITY is among the 5,000 most frequently used words in English.
•  The ADJECTIVES that cooccur with DIGNITY: human, great, personal, quiet, EQUAL, inherent
•  The VERBS most frequently used together with DIGNITY: treat, maintain, die, restore, lose, RESPECT, preserve, uphold, constitute
•  The NOUNS that collocate (hang out together with) DIGNITY: sense, RIGHT, person, honor, freedom, worth, grace, value, BEING
(Capitalization by Francisco Gomes de Matos)
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 16th May 2011

Roads of INdignity may lead us astray
but Roads of DIGNITY will show us the right way.
- Francisco Gomes de Matos, 15th November 2011

Edward Sapir
Language is a great force of socialization, probably the greatest that exists.
- Edward Sapir, "Language", Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol.ix, 1933. We thank Francisco Gomes de Matos for making us aware of this quote.

Frank Pavone
This misunderstanding often causes people to criticize those whose individual or group ministry focuses on a specific issue exclusively . . . It is somewhat like accusing the Alcoholics Anonymous movement of not doing anything about the arms race . . . [and] it can tend to expect the impossible, and expect people and groups to use their already limited time and resources to address any number of issues, any one of which could easily require a lifetime of effort. . . . Yet there is a truth here which must be stressed: no person or group is free to be unconcerned about all the attacks on human dignity, nor are we free to ignore the interdependence of all the efforts on behalf of human life. There are numerous activities being carried out in defense of human dignity. There may not be room for all of them on our schedule, but we must make room for all of them in our heart.
- Frank Pavone, Director, Priests for Life. We thank Francisco Gomes de Matos for making us aware of this quote.

Dignity Quotes
- We thank Ardian Adžanela for making us aware of this site.

Gore Vidal
When Confucius was asked what would be the first thing he would do if he were to lead the state, he said, ‘rectify the language.’ Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action. Words are used to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. Words must be so twisted as to justify an empire that has now ceased to exist, much less make sense. Is rectification of our system possible for us?
– Gore Vidal, found on The Media Education Foundation.

Amin Malouf
A situation without precedent requires solutions without precedent.
- Amin Malouf. We thank Federico Mayor for this quote.

Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
- William Ernest Henley, (1849–1903), an English poet, critic and editor. a poem that inspired Nelson Mandela.

The Tagalog term for "nonviolence," or alay dangal, means to "offer dignity"
- We thank Michael Nagler for making us aware of this connection! (The standardized form of Tagalog is commonly called Filipino.)

Anonymous protest poem 1764 or 1821
They hang the man and flog the woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leave the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose
- Anonymous protest poem 1764 or 1821.

Vince Lombardi
I believe that good must be done not for a reward but for goodness itself, despite the rank ambitions that others pursue. I am inclined to believe that ambition is the death of true inspiration - to be inspired, to live in the spirit - that which is the intrinsic, creative source of the universe itself.
- Vincent L. Lombardi, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, 11/16/09. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Robert Frost
I am not a teacher, I am an awakener.
- Robert Frost. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Culturomics.org
This is a database of words as found in the 15 million books scanned for the Google Books project. On the website one can check how often a chosen word or phrase appears in that set of books. Here is an example for "human dignity."
- We thank Uli Spalthoff for making us aware of this project.

Google Labs
Type in a word or phrase in one of seven languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Russian, Chinese) and see how its usage frequency has been changing throughout the past few centuries.

Paul Chappell
Anyone who thinks ending war is naive hasn't put enough thought into it. What's naive is to think that wars can continue and humanity will survive.
- Paul Chappell, from an interview in the April 2011 issue of The Sun Magazine.

Rav Philip S. Berg
People ask me, "Why are we here?" We are here to complete the final step in the evolutionary process, the simple step that has eluded humanity for thousands of years: Treat everyone around you with human dignity.
- Philip S. Berg. We thank Latha Nrugham for making us aware of this quote.

Rabbi Tarfon
You are not required to complete the task [of tikkun olam, healing the world]; neither are you allowed to lay it down.
You don't measure your individual contribution against the totality of the task. You measure your contribution against the totality of your life.
- attributed to Rabbi Tarfon (as written in the Talmud). We thank Helen Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Irwin Abrams
We work for the unseen harvest.
- Irwin Abrams, quoted in Susan G. Cannon, Think, Care, Act: Teaching for a Peaceful Future (Information Age Publishing, 2011).

Eli Sagan
The French Revolution has been going on for a hundred years before it started.
- We thank Michael Britton for sharing with us that Eli Sagan shared this sentence to him!

Henrik Ibsen
A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed.
- Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. We thank Michael Holmboe for making us aware of this quote!

A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
- Popularized by the Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich.

Mark Singer
Being "for peace" is not the same as being "anti-war"
Being "for peace" is not the same as Kant's being "for perpetual peace."
Kant might say that peace that is not based on love will not last.
- Mark Singer, 24th May 2011

Michael White
Every person who carries universal peace in their hearts represents an Imaginal cell. In every nation there are groups of these cells that have begun to cluster together to form an organ of peace.
- Michael White, with respect to what is happening to humanity. We thank Brigitte Volz and Scilla Elworthy for making us aware of this quote.

J. B. Lacordaires
Entre le fort et le faible c'est la liberté qui opprime et la loi qui affranchit. (Between the weak and the strong, between the rich and the poor, between the lord and the slave, it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free.)
- Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802–1861). We thank Audun Øfsti for making us aware of this quote.

Isaiah Berlin
Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective… seldom predictable, at times incompatible.
- Isaiah Berlin, Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century. We thank S.M. Miller for making us aware of this quote.

Edward Said
Equality or nothing.
- Edward Said. We thank Sam Bahour for making us aware of this quote.

Romain Rolland
Quand l'ordre est injustice, le désordre est déjà un commencement de justice.
- Romain Rolland.

Helen Exley
Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled "this could change your life!"
- Helen Exley. We thank Margrethe Tingstad for making us aware of this quote!

Nordahl Grieg
Skaper vi menneskeverd, skaper vi fred.
- Nordahl Grieg. We thank Margrethe Tingstad for making us aware of this quote!

Einar Gerhardsen
Jeg har ikke bare et grunnsyn som holder i bunn og grunn, men også et gangsyn som skifter fra gang til gang. - Einar Gerhardsen, quote taken from www.samtiden.no/. We thank Margrethe Tingstad for making us aware of this quote!

Sjur Bergan
Fundamental values must come from more than value added.
- Sjur Bergan, Council of Europe, Head of the Department of Higher Education and History Teaching

Those, who too hastily believe, stop asking and thinking.

Robert F. Kennedy
The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads. And if GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
- Remarks of Robert F. Kennedy at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968. We thank Brian Ward for making us aware of this quote.

Thomas Aquinas
When you hear a statement, never ask: 'Who' made the statement? You should only ask: 'What" does the statement say? If it is good, if it is conducive to the welfare of all people without exception, then proceed to follow it even if it comes from a garbage man. If it is not good or it is conducive to the welfare of some but to the exclusion of others, then reject it even it comes from the king."11
- Thomas Aquinas, quoted from Josef Pieper, Guide to Thomas Aquinas, Ignatius Press, 1995. We thank Charles Mercieca for making us aware of this quote that calls for the avoidance of what social psychology calls "reactive devaluation."

Nordahl Grieg
Vi er så få i dette landet, hver en fallen er en venn og bror. [We are so few in this country, each one who has fallen is a friend and brother.]
- Nordahl Grieg (1902-1943). Evelin Lindner (24th July 2011): "This saying is not just relevant for Norway. Everyone on this tiny planet Earth, in our entire human family, is a friend, a sister, and a brother!"

Ole Petter Ottersen
There is hope. I was struck by a statement by one of the young AUF leaders that narrowly escaped the massacre at Utøya: "If there can be so much hatred in one man, imagine how much compassion and love can be mustered in the entire Norwegian population."
- Ole Petter Ottersen, Rector of the University of Oslo, in a personal communication on 24th July 2011, after the horrific violence that shook Norway on 22nd July 2011; Stine Renate Håheim was the young leader who said: "Om én mann kan vise så mye hat, tenk hvor mye kjærlighet vi alle kan vise sammen."

Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra
We need agents of social change who can turn the tides of violence in favour of peace. It is a herculean task, but it is need of the hour. When I think about this, the great souls like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Aung San, Martin Luther King Jr. come to my mind. The tragedy is that we have fossilized our religious systems, and forgot to follow the religious founders. We seldom remember Jesus's Love Thy Neighbour when facing our rivals, or Buddha's Middle Path by means of peace and non-violence, or Veda's Vasudhiava Kutumbakam (the whole world is one family), and the very meaning of Islam is peace.
- Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra, in reaction to the events of 22nd July 2011 in Oslo.

Julie Nelson
Climate change is changing not only our physical world, but also our intellectual, social, and moral worlds. We are realizing that our situation is profoundly unsafe, interdependent, and uncertain. ...
This essay suggests three major requirements: first, that we take action; second, that we work together; and third, that we focus on avoiding the worst, rather than obtaining the optimal.
- Julie A. Nelson, Ethics and the Economist: What Climate Change Demands of Us. GDAE Working Paper 11-02, by Julie A Nelson May 2011

Daniel Quinn
What we need are not new programs but new paradigms.
- Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael. We thank Howard Richards for making us aware of this quote.

Antoine de Saint Exupery
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
- Antoine de Saint Exupery. We thank Yves Musoni for making us aware of this quote.
...
One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Antoine de Saint Exupery. We thank Yves Musoni for making us aware of this quote.

Juan Gabriel Valdés
Any international intervention which seeks to supplant, rather than support and strengthen the domestic architecture is likely to fail, and possibly fuel more not less conflict.
- Juan Gabriel Valdés, The Evolution of Conflict and its Implications for Peacemaking Summary, Spring 2011, Rapporteur, Josie Lianna Kaye.

Jorge Luis Borges
The past is indestructible, sooner or later things turn up again. One of the things that turn up is a plan to destroy the past.
- Jorge Luis Borges. We thank Rita Anita Linger for making us aware of this quote.

Warren
Without the act (of committing to a point of view), our inquiry remains ghostly and impotent, but without the recognition of ambiguity, our knowledge degenerates into ideology and our acts so easily lead to systems of totalitarian oppression, irrational indifference, and human sorrow.
- Warren. We thank Patrick Gruczkun for making us aware of this quote.

Muriel A. Howard
Let us show "pathological optimism"!
- Muriel A. Howard, President of the American Association of State Colleges & Universities (AASCU), on 29th June 2011, at the conference "Reimagining Democracy," in Oslo, Norway.

Mette Lebech
Human dignity can be fostered, but not created.
One of the best ways of fostering it is through genuine dialogue, also in its organized forms, i.e. education, political discussions, participation in all societal activities. The creation of good structures in which human dignity can be fostered is a political task, which is never ending, just like household chores. Thus, there is not one way of doing it, but a multitude of adjustments that continually has to be performed. The core is kindness, i.e. the recognition of the fact that we are of the same kind.
- Mette Lebech, in a personal message, 10th August 2011.

Amartya Sen
The logic of the market must be restrained and supplemented by other logics, many of them non-commercial.
- Amartya Sen. We thank Howard Richards for making us aware of this quote.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.
- An English language children's rhyme. It persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-natured. The phrase is found at least as early as 1872, where it is presented as advice in Tappy's Chicks: and Other Links Between Nature and Human Nature, by Mrs. George Cupples. We thank Brian Ward fo rmaking us aware of this.
See Susanne Quinger and her version: "Stones will break my Bones … But Words will sink my Soul."

Worry is the misuse of imagination.
- We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

There is none so blind as those who will not see (none so deaf as those who will not hear).
- We thank Brian Ward fo rmaking us aware of this.
See also:
- Il n'est si mavais sours que chuis ch'oër ne voeilt, there is no person so deaf as the one who does not wish to hear.
- mid 14th-cent. Fr.
• Who is so deafe, or so blynde, as is hee, That wilfully will nother here nor see?
- 1546 J. Heywood Dialogue of Proverbs ii. ix. K4.
• I perceyve by thys geare, That none is so deaf, as who wyll not heare.
- c 1570 T. Ingelend Disobedient Child C2V.
• I have not interfered in this Trial one word, only in my Applications to you and Mr. Foxcraft, both of which turn a deaf Ear: for none so deaf as those who will not hear.
- 1766 in B. Franklin Papers (1969) XIII. 18.
• "Don't worry, Vicar. Of course you've got to be up at the parish church more than here. He ought to know that but there you are, there's none so deaf as him who won't listen."
- 1993 F. Secombe ‘Hello, Vicar!’ in Chronicles of a Vicar (1999) i. 8.

Mark Twain
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain. We thank Mark Singer for making us aware of this quote.

Michel Foucault
Our greatest political problem is lack of imagination.
- Michel Foucault, as referred to by Howard Richards, Joanna Swanger, and Alicia Cabezudo.

We were always equals. Love makes people so.
- Return to Cranford, Part Two, Britain: BBC Films, 2010.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
- African Proverb.

Albert Camus
Live to the point of tears.
- Albert Camus.

Galileo Galilei
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
- Native American Proverb.

John Todd
Tomorrow is our permanent address.
- John Todd.

Honoré de Balzac
Finance, like time, devours its own children.
- Honoré de Balzac.

Amy Goodman
Go to where the silence is and say something.
- Amy Goodman, investigative journalist.

Leonard Cohen
There is a crack in everything-that's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen. We thank Laura S. Brown for making us aware of this quote.

Warren Wagar
... the peace movement has tended to lose itself in narrow and doctrinaire byways. A movement whose only goal is peace (i.e. the absence of war) will never achieve it. One might as well start a happiness movement. Peace is the bliss and felicity that we may live to earn if we create a new world civilization; yet, in and of itself, it is nothing at all.
- W. Warren Wagar, Building the City of Man: Outilnes of a World Civilization (New York, 1971), p. 54. We thank Adriano Sverko for making us aware of this quote.

Lyn Beth Neylon
You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law.
- Lyn Beth Neylon. We thank Ardian Adžanela for sending us this quote.

Alan Bloom
It may well be that a society's greatest madness seems normal to itself.
- Alan Bloom. We thank Michael Wilson Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Edmund Burke
For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke. We thank Michael Wilson Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Diogenes
We believe and think what we chose to think and believe.
- Diogenes. We thank Michael Wilson Fox for making us aware of this quote.

Bell Hooks
To begin by always thinking of love as an action rather than a feeling is one way in which anyone using the word in this manner automatically assumes accountability and responsibility.
- Bell Hooks, in Brené Brown (2011). Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.

Brené Brown
When looking at the attributes associated with masculinity, the researchers identified these as important attributes for men: emotional control, primacy of work, control over women, and pursuit of status.
- Brené Brown (2011). Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, p. 52.

Seamus Heaney
History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.
- Seamus Heaney. We thank Paul Raskin for making us aware of this poem.

The Fallen Elm
Self-interest saw thee stand in freedom's ways
So thy old shadow must a tyrant be.
Thou'st heard the knave, abusing those in power
Bawl freedom loud and then oppress the free.
- John Clare, describing the felling of the tree he loved, presumably by his landlord, that grew beside his home.

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