...irony

Only the stupid steal from the rich. 

The clever steal from the poor. 

The law usually protects the rich. 

-Carsten Jensen, author (b. 24 Jul 1952)

...can begin anything

We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. 

-Karl Popper, philosopher and professor (1902-1994)

....a resource

A writer -- and, I believe, generally all persons -- must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. 

-Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986)

Belief vs Fact

No amount of belief makes something a fact.
-James Randi, magician and skeptic (1928-2020)

..different forms of intelligence

Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami [2004], when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills. 

-B.R. Myers, author (b. 21 Aug 1963)

Leader is...

This is not...

...quicksilver

Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.
-Dorothy Parker, author (1893-1967)

decisions....

The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take. 

-C. Northcote Parkinson, author and historian (1909-1993)

...unkempt

I dreamt that my hair was kempt. Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it. 

-Ogden Nash, poet (1902-1971)

No borders...

Dreams heed no borders, the eyes need no visas.
With eyes shut I walk across the line in time.
All the time. 

-Gulzar, poet, lyricist, and film director (b. 18 Aug 1934)

Spend enough time

..terrible things

Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.
-Russell Baker, columnist and author (1925-2019)

first step...

Trust is the first step to love. 

-Premchand, novelist and poet (1880-1936)

Received and give...

What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give. 

-P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James), novelist (1920-2014)

..only in the anticipation

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. 

-Alfred Hitchcock, film-maker (13 A899-1980)

...becoming an educated person

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is to be educated. 

-Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (1867-1963)

...idealism of people

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people. 

-Herbert Hoover, 31st US President (1874-1964)

...kind of religion?

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched. 

-Guy de Maupassant, short story writer and novelist (1850-1893)

Life in the eyes

When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the truth,
And taken in exchange -- my youth.
-Sara Teasdale, poet (1884-1933)

...the homeless

Give me your tired, your poor, /
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, /
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. /
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, /
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
-Emma Lazarus, poet and playwright (1849-1887)
[from a poem written to raise funds for building the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty]

...brilliance continues

There are stars whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is dark. They light the way for humankind. 

-Hannah Senesh, poet, playwright, and paratrooper (1921-1944)

...conquer ourselves

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. 

-Edmund Hillary, mountaineer and explorer (1919-2008)

capacity for sacrifice

The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed. 

-Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)

student needs someone...

Every student needs someone who says, simply, "You mean something. You count." 

-Tony Kushner, playwright (b. 16 Jul 1956)

...may grow

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer.
-Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel laureate (1905-1961)

With & Without AI

Human Brain

...as possibilities

Literature encourages tolerance -- bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them, also, as possibilities. 

-Northrop Frye, writer and critic (1912-1991)

Strength & inspiration

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others."

~ Plato

...can open doors

"Kindness can open doors where doors were thought not to exist."

~ Erica Wilson

Smile with your...

"Smile with your lips, smile with your eyes, smile with your heart and your soul and your life."

~ Terri Guillemets