I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.... The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. ..... Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: “the Kingdom of God is within man” - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite! - Charlie Chaplin
"Your existence is not impossible, but its also not very likely." - Cecil Baldwin, 'Welcome To Night Vale' I managed to write an entire personal essay for a class based solely around this quote. Seriously, thinking about the actual probability of any one thing existing is super cool.
"There are as many nights as there are days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity." - Carl Jung
I kind of like that one. I've been thinking about that lately. I crave a world where magic actually existed, but you know what, technology is pretty darn close. As for me, muh signature I guess.
Anything by Henry David Thoreau. He bursted with wisdom like very few ever have. But this is one good enough to copy: "The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer." Honorable mention to Oscar Wilde, whom I believe was the one who said "Imitation is suicide."
"Tchefuncte is neither here nor there." -My anthropology prof, 2years ago She made this ambiguous statement and I thought it pretty much sums up what I learned in college. No clue why I remembered it. Also: "One swallow does not make a summer."-Aristotle
"Don't keep looking back, or youll never be able to see the good things ahead" - Good friend of mine said that to me once when i was sad about something and for some reason it actually helped and has stuck with me since ^^
"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." - Kate moss I tell this to myself whenever I feel like binging.
Im not religious at all, but this has always stuck with me: One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there were one set of footprints. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints. So I said, "You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life, there have only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most,have you have not been there for me?" The Lord replied, "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, is when I carried you." Thinking of that has helped get me through some pretty shitty moments over the years.
I know that quote very well. i used to be religious and even though im far from religious now, that quote has stuck with me through some very dark times in my life.
Can't pick just one, so... "Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed." -Dwight D. Eisenhower "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.". -Calvin Coolidge "Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." - Lao Zi "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -Martin Luther King, Jr. "With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look - for dizzier heights." -Nikola Tesla Oh, and my signature.
My signature speaks to me really: "I'd rather be a dork and not have anybody care". One day, I hope to get there.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear--Dune, Frank Herbert Also “You're so nice. You're not good, you're not bad, You're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right. I'm the witch. You're the world.” --The witch, Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim
"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandhi I've realized after more than a year of truly being out to myself and huge amounts of personal development that I want to be someone who is not afraid to stand up for what is right or not to be afraid to deviate from the crowd. I've got a long way to go, but if you'd compare me to how I was a year ago it's quite a difference.
