As to conforming outwardly and living your own life inwardly, I do not think much of that. 

~ Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. 

~ James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. 

~ Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1819-1891)

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone. 

~ Czeslaw Milosz, poet and novelist (1911-2004)

To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged. 

~ Norman Mailer, author (1923-2007)

If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do. 

 ~ Erica Jong, writer (b. 1942)

The tragedy in the lives of most of us is that we go through life walking down a high-walled land with people of our own kind, the same economic situation, the same national background and education and religious outlook. And beyond those walls, all humanity lies, unknown and unseen, and untouched by our restricted and impoverished lives. 

~ Florence Luscomb, architect and suffragist (1887-1985)

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. 
~ Helen Adams Keller, lecturer and author (1880-1968 )

In the cellars of the night, when the mind starts moving around old trunks of bad times, the pain of this and the shame of that, the memory of a small boldness is a hand to hold. 

~ John Leonard, critic (1939-2008)

The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it. 

~ Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
~  Martin Luther King, Jr.

Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate. 

~ Ronald Reagan, 40th US President (1911-2004)

Our perception that we have "no time" is one of the distinctive marks of modern Western culture. 

~ Margaret Visser, writer and broadcaster (b. 1940)

Television knows no night. It is perpetual day. TV embodies our fear of the dark, of night, of the other side of things. 

~ Jean Baudrillard, sociologist and philosopher (1929-2007)

We should tackle reality in a slightly jokey way, otherwise we miss its point. 

~ Lawrence Durrell, novelist, poet, and playwright (1912-1990) 

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise. 

~ Alden Nowlan, poet, novelist, and playwright (1933-1983) 

The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings. 

~ William Hazlitt, essayist (1778-1830)

Ah, good taste, what a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. 

~ Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor (1881-1973)