I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)

Men learn little from others’ experience. But in the life of one man, never the same time returns. ~ T. S. Eliot, in Murder in the Cathedral (died 4 January 1965)

The main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)

It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).
~ R.E.M. ~ (birthday of Michael Stipe, lead singer and major song writer in the band — which divides the credit on all its songs equally)

That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don’t know if I can do it
Oh no I’ve said too much
I haven’t said enough.
~ R.E.M. ~

The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.
The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. For the event of things predicted many ages before will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by Providence.
~ Isaac Newton

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/January#4

Every man’s memory is his private literature.
– Aldous Huxley

“There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”
– Everett Dirksen

Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.
– Lao Tzu

“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
– Voltaire

Determination and hope are key factors for a brighter future.

As I see it, compassion is the essence of a spiritual life.
-Dalai Lama

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty. ~Frank Herbert, Dune Chronicles

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the and the blind can see.
~ Mark Twain

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
♥ Japanese Proverb

☮Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
– Jill Jackson and Sy Miller

Ever since happiness heard your name,
it has been running through the streets trying to find you.
~ Hafiz

Our possibilities, opportunities and horizons expand and increase as our fears diminish and decrease. Fear itself has no physical reality of it’s own. The fact that it is a mental construct is the key to its own undoing. We are the only force that gives it any meaning or power over us through our belief in it and thus we can withdraw its hold over us by replacing it with a new meaning.
~ Hal Tipper

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.
♥ Author Unknown

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee… ~ John Donne

Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? ~ Cicero (born 3 January 106 BC)

Each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion (Tolkien born 3 January 1892)

The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. ~ “Gandalf” inThe Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

This is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake. ~ Gandalf in The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion

He who looks on a true friend looks, as it were, upon a kind of image of himself: wherefore friends, though absent, are still present; though in poverty, they are rich; though weak, yet in the enjoyment of health; and, what is still more difficult to assert, though dead, they are alive.
~ Cicero ~

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/January#3

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
– Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Even he, to whom most things that most people would think were pretty smart were pretty dumb, thought it was pretty smart.
– Douglas Adams

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
– Groucho Marx

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.
– Heinrich Heine

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profundity. Kindness in giving creates love.
~ Lao Tzu ♥

Better to remain silent & be thought a fool that to speak & remove all doubt.
– English proverbs

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.
– Wordsworth

I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.
~ Harold Kushner

Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!
-Ram Dass

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”
~ Albert Einstein

We are all in this together. ~ English proverb

How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection…That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Isaac Asimov (born 2 January 1920)

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov

When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field. ~ Isaac Asimov

It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be … ~ Isaac Asimov

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. ~ Isaac Asimov

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
~ Isaac Asimov ~

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/January#2

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
– Kurt Vonnegut

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”
– Pablo Picasso

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree… Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking… The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
– Albert Einstein

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.”
– Carl Sagan

“Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.

Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.

My life is my message.

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative, and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing.”
– William Butler Yeats

“By Being, It Is.”
– Parmenides

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
– Nietzsche

“When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear; when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.”
– Chief Seattle

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
– Carl Jung

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”
– Rene Descartes

“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.”
– Richard Feynman

“Then he said ‘Remember Bob, No Fear, No Envy, No Meanness’” “And I said ‘hmmm, right.’”
– Bob Dylan

“The reverse side also has a reverse side.”
– Japanese Proverb

“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
– William James

“If success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am and what I do… How would I be? What would I do?”
– Buckminster Fuller

“The most vital issue of the age is whether the future progress of humanity is to be governed by the modern economic and materialistic mind of the West or by a nobler pragmatism guided, uplifted and enlightened by spiritual culture and knowledge….”
– Sri Aurobindo

“The Self alone exists; and the Self alone is real. Verily the Self alone is the world, the I-I and God. All that exists is but the manifestation of the Supreme Being.”
– Ramana Maharshi

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

“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
– John F. Kennedy

Dont GO through life, GROW through life. ♥ Eric Butterworth

When will you begin your long journey into yourself?
– Mevlana Rumi

Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.
– Charles Dickens

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”
– Oscar Wilde

“My love of poetry is love of joy.”
– Jack Kerouac

I you can’t love do not come to my alley; if you can’t be naked don’t come to my river, if you have resentments stay on your side
– Rumi

We can’t wait for a miracle or simply pray for our dreams/ We can’t just condemn the violence and denounce the mean/ We are the ones who must be held to account/ For the mountain ahead, we can’t just give commentary; we must fight, climb and surmount.
– Cory Booker

We stand on this beautiful planet enjoying the sunrise sunset changeofseasons oceans mountains & lovely towns & cities we created together
– Yoko Ono

http://twitter.com/yokoono

An ancient dictum says that when Zeus wanted to destroy someone, he would first drive him mad.
– Jean-Marie Le Pen

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds; I will dance in triumph forever !
~Maulana Rumi

These words are a drop,
From love’s infinite ocean.
To the world,
thirst-quenching nectar,
To the soul,
everlasting life.

Stand with dignity in the magnificent current of my words and they will carry you into God’s arms.
~Rumi

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, yet again, come, come.

~Inscribed on Rumi’s Shrine in Konya, Turkey
What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognise myself.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;

I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heaven.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;

I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India , nor of China , nor of Bulgaria , nor of Saqsin.

I am not of the kingdom of ’Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise , nor of Hell.

I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the Placeless; my trace is the Traceless;

’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

– Rumi
The Soul of the Beloved

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognise myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heaven.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India , nor of China , nor of Bulgaria , nor of Saqsin.
I am not of the kingdom of ’Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise , nor of Hell.
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.

My place is the Placeless; my trace is the Traceless;
’Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away; I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds; I will dance in triumph forever.

~Maulana Rumi

Translate­d by Reynold A. Nicholson

http://www.facebook.com/beloved.of.rumi

“The capacity to be patient, to bear with others through thick and thin, is within the reach of anyone”
– Eknath Easwaran

✦ Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.
– Aristotle

A hug is like a boomerang – you get it back right away.
– Bil Keane

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. ♥ Jim Rohn

☮Nonviolence is absolute respect for each human being. – Adolpho Perez Esquival

☮If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace. ~ Ajahn Cha

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
– Italo Calvino

http://themodernword.com/

Be an angel to someone else whenever you can, as a way of thanking God for the help your angel has given you. ♥ Eileen Elias Freeman

All we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next.
~ J. D. Salinger ~

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die. ~ E. M. Forster (date of birth)

I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self defence, one has to formulate a creed of one’s own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer enough in a world where ignorance rules, and Science, which ought to have ruled, plays the pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy — they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long. ~ E. M. Forster

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse. ~ E. M. Forster

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. ~ E. M. Forster

The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it. ~ J. D. Salinger

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/January

A person hears only what they understand.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. ♥ Albert Einstein

☮Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain. — Marquis de Sade

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.”
— Leo Tolstoy

At each stage I reach a balance, a conclusion. At the next sitting, if I find that there is a weakness in the whole, I make my way back into the picture by means of the weakness — I re-enter through the breach — and I reconceive the whole. Thus everything becomes fluid again.
~ Henri Matisse ~

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe…
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
~ “Auld Lang Syne” by Robert Burns ~

For my part I have never avoided the influence of others. I would have considered it cowardice and a lack of sincerity toward myself. ~ Henri Matisse (born December 31, 1869)

It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy… Let’s go exploring! ~ Bill Watterson – Final strip of Calvin and Hobbes, published December 31, 1995

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. ~ George Marshall

When a thing is done, it’s done. Don’t look back. Look forward to your next objective. ~ George Marshall

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/December#31

Compassion creates a positive, friendly atmosphere. With such an attitude, you can create the possibility of receiving affection or a positive response from someone else. If the other person doesn’t respond to you in a positive way, your own feeling of openness gives you the flexibility and freedom to change your approach as needed and still allows for the possibility of having a meaningful conversation with them.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Awareness of impermanence and appreciation of our human potential will give us a sense of urgency that we must use every precious moment.
~Dalai Lama

☮If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. — Mother Theresa (1910-1997)

☮We do not inherit the earth from our fathers. We borrow it from our children.

☮Either war is obsolete or men are. — Buckminster Fuller

☮How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — Anne Frank

☮The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. — Baha’ullah

☮Nonviolence is the supreme law of life. — Indian Proverb

☮Imagine all the people living life in peace You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. — John Lennon

☮ — Albert Camus (1913-1960)

☮Nonviolence is absolute respect for each human being. – Adolpho Perez Esquival

http://twitter.com/PeaceQuotes

Man won’t fly for a thousand years.
– Wilbur Wright

http://themodernword.com/

“Love is the Ultimate Expression of Faith” –
– AntHallTheJedi

I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
~ Rudyard Kipling ~ (born 30 December 1865)

The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain, as a telegraphic message engraves itself on the ticker-tape, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest. ~ Romain Rolland(died 30 December 1944)

It is the artist’s business to create sunshine when the sun fails. ~ Romain Rolland
Justice has nothing to do with victor nations and vanquished nations, but must be a moral standard that all the world’s peoples can agree to. To seek this and to achieve it — that is true civilization. ~ Hideki Tojo

One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved. ~ Romain Rolland

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/December#30s

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
– Herman Melville

http://themodernword.com/

Procrastination isn’t the problem, it’s the solution. So procrastinate now, don’t put it off.
– Ellen DeGeneres

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
– Ernest Rutherford

I was the kid next door’s imaginary friend.
– Emo Phillips

He who knows patience knows peace.
♥ Chinese Proverb

Success is not the key to happiness. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
– Albert Schweitzer

The worried, heroic doings of men and women seem weary and futile to dervishes enjoying the light breeze of spirit
~ Rumi

Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities. ♥ Terry Josephson

I will make company with creators, with harvesters, with rejoicers; I will show them the rainbow and the stairway to the Superman. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra

If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet. ~ Andrew Johnson (born 29 December 1808)

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? There is a brotherhood among all men. This must be recognized if life is to remain. We must learn the love of man. ~ Pablo Casals

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not

poet enough to call forth its riches. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (Date of death)

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. ~ William Ewart Gladstone (born December 29, 1809)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Quote_of_the_day/December#29

Never mistake motion for action.
– Ernest Hemingway

http://themodernword.com

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust ☺

The good man is the friend of all living things.
– Mahatma Gandhi

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
~ G.K. Chesteron

When you say it’s difficult, it becomes more difficult. When you say it’s easy, it actually becomes easier.
♥ Nithya

At the top of the mountain, we are all snow leopards.
– Hunter S. Thompson

We all must seek and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

I believe a proper use of our time is to serve others if we can or at least refrain from harming them. That is the basis of my philosophy.
– Dalai Lama

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
– George Santayana

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.
– Francois de La Rochefoucauld

There’s no point in being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes.
– Doctor Who

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.
♥ Zig Ziglar

Speak truth to power. ~Marian Wright Edelman

I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. … Recently, we’ve managed to wade a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting.

For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise.

We are made of starstuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.
– Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.
– Aldous Huxley

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.
– Laurence J. Peter

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
– A. A. Milne

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
♥ Albert Einstein

A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us ââ,¬” there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise.

We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature.
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.

We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there ââ,¬” on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
– Carl Sagan

A person hears only what they understand.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.
– Marquis de Sade

I am still learning. ~ Michelangelo ☺

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift ~ Albert Einstein

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
– Carl Sagan

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
– Victor Hugo
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