The mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (29 Aug 1809-1894)

There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action. 

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (28 Aug 1749-1832)

To stay is to exist but to travel is to live. 
- Gustave Nadaud, French songwriter (1820-1893)

Art should be like a holiday: something to give a man the opportunity to see things differently and to change his point of view. 

- Paul Klee, painter (18 Dec 1879-1940)

I would encourage people to look around them in their community and find an organization that is doing something that they believe in, even if that organization has only five people, or ten people, or twenty people, or a hundred people. And to look at history and understand that when change takes place it takes place as a result of large, large numbers of people doing little things unbeknownst to one another. And that history is very important for people to not get discouraged. ... History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place. 

- Howard Zinn, historian, playwright, and social activist (24 Aug 1922-2010)

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays in the palm; clutch it, and it darts away. 

- Dorothy Parker, author (22 Aug 1893-1967)

Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by reason. 

- James Randi, magician and skeptic (b. 7 Aug 1928)

We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. 

- J.K. Rowling, author (b. 31 Jul 1965)

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. 

- Haile Selassie, regent of Ethiopia (23 Jul 1892-1975)

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as the headlights, but you make the whole trip that way. 

- Cory Doctorow, author and journalist (b. 17 Jul 1971)

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest. 

- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (12 Jul 1817-1862)

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management. 

- E.B. White, writer (11 Jul 1899-1985)

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? 

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

I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood, and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand, and touch another person.

- Virginia Satir, psychotherapist and author (26 Jun 1916-1988)

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. 

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

If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. 

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

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. 

- William Styron, novelist (11 Jun 1925-2006)

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world, I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary, and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair, and disrespect. 

- Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor (b. 7 Jun 1943)

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind. 

- Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (6 Jun 1913-1983)

As I have not worried to be born, I do not worry to die. 

- Federico García Lorca, poet, playwright, and painter (5 Jun 1898-1936)