The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. 

~ George Orwell, writer (25 Jun 1903-1950) 

Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first. 

~ Ambrose Bierce, writer (24 Jun 1842-1914) 

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. 

~ Blaise Pascal, philosopher and mathematician (19 Jun 1623-1662) 

Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right. 

~ Igor Stravinsky, composer (17 Jun 1882-1971)

The [Nobel] prize is such an extraordinary honor. It might seem unfair, however, to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize plant to solve specific problems and then watching its responses. 

~ Barbara McClintock, scientist, Nobel laureate (16 Jun 1902-1992) 

No one has ever become poor by giving. 

~ Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (12 Jun 1929-1945)

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful. 

~ John Constable, painter (11 Jun 1776-1837) 

The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and only later works like a bookkeeper. 

~ E.O. Wilson, biologist (b. 10 Jun 1929) 

The memory of most men is an abandoned cemetery where lie, unsung and unhonored, the dead whom they have ceased to cherish. 

~ Marguerite Yourcenar, novelist (8 Jun 1903-1987) 

I'm sometimes asked "Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?" I answer: "I am working at the roots." 

~ George T. Angell, reformer (5 Jun 1823-1909)

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. 

~ Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937) 

There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few. 

~ Lawrence Lessig, professor and political activist (b. 3 Jun 1961) 

The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things. 

~ Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet (2 Jun 1840-1928) 

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.

~ John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (29 May 1917-1963)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. 

~ William Pitt, British prime minister (28 May 1759-1806) 

Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization. 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (25 May 1803-1882)