Words ,as slippery as smooth grapes, 

words exploding in the light

like dormant seeds waiting 

in the vaults of vocabulary, 

alive again, and giving life:  once again the heart distills them. 

~ Pablo Neruda, poet, diplomat, Nobel laureate (12 Jul 1904-1973) 

People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within. 

~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, psychiatrist and author (8 Jul 1926-2004) 

Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. 

~ Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (7 Jul 1907-1988) 

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals. 

~ Peter Singer, philosopher and professor (b. 6 Jul 1946) 

It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning. 

~ Bill Watterson, comic strip artist (b. 5 Jul 1958) [Calvin & Hobbes] 

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. 

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer (4 Jul 1804-1864) 

The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery. 

~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799) 

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 (30 Jun 1911-2004) 

Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures - in this century, as in others, our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (29 Jun 1900-1944) 

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? 

~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and author (28 Jun 1712-1778) 

There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another. 

~ Emma Goldman, social activist (27 Jun 1869-1940) 

History is a vast early warning system. 

~ Norman Cousins, editor and author (24 Jun 1915-1990) 

Love is the whole thing. We are only pieces.

~ Rumi

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. 

~ Richard Bach, writer (b. 23 Jun 1936) 

I feel we are all islands - in a common sea. 

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (22 Jun 1906-2001) 

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat. 

~ Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (21 Jun 1905-1980) 

Who thinks little, errs much. - Leonardo da Vinci

The ultimate sense of security will be when we come to recognize that we are all part of one human race. Our primary allegiance is to the human race and not to one particular color or border. I think the sooner we renounce the sanctity of these many identities and try to identify ourselves with the human race the sooner we will get a better world and a safer world. 

~ Mohamed ElBaradei, diplomat, Nobel laureate (b. 17 Jun 1942) 

H. sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. 

~ Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 16 Jun 1938) 

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man than his children? 

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)