I would rather that my spark should burn out
in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled
by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
Jack London
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“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.”
”We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”
Edward R. Murrow, 1954
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Living in a Grateful World
Be grateful to those who have hurt or harmed you,
for they have enforced your determination.
Be grateful to those who have deceived you,
for they have deepened your insight.
Be grateful to those who have hit you,
for they have reduced your karmic obstacles.
Be grateful to those who have abandoned you,
for they have taught you to be independent.
Be grateful to those who have made you stumble,
for they have strengthened your ability.
Be grateful to those who have denounced you,
for they have increased your wisdom and concentration.
Be grateful to those who have made you firm and resolute
and helped in your achievement.
- The Venerable Master Chin Kung
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“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989)
“In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.”
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp]
“A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.”
Adlaia Stevenson
their acts of pretended legislation. - Declaration of Independence
“..it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds..” – Samuel Adams
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is
striking at the root.” — Henry David Thoreau
