Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2013, Fifth State of the Union Address (February 2013)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2013, Fifth State of the Union Address (February 2013)
Gabriel Iglesias (1976) American actor
I said, "You do know that this is Gabriel Iglesias, right?"
Aloha, Fluffy (2013)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speeches to Ohio Regiments (1864), Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-sixth Ohio Regiment
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Colette, August 10, 1918
1910s
Eden ahbez (1908–1995) American songwriter and recording artist
Tape recording to Joe Romersa
Shadowbox Studio
Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist
<span class="plainlinks"> Foreword, 'Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika', Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DQPD8F4/</span> <br class="br">From Prose
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to the Nation on Immigration (November 2014)
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)
Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement
"I bid you farewell."
Burying the Hatchet - BP Closing Address at the 3rd World Jamboree, Arrowe Park, 12 August 1929
“The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page.”
Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher
Attributed to Augustine in "Select Proverbs of All Nations" (1824) by "Thomas Fielding" (John Wade), p. 216 http://www.archive.org/details/selectproverbsa00wadegoog, and later in the form "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page", as quoted in 20,000 Quips & Quotes (1995) by Evan Esar, p. 822; this has not been located in Augustine's writings, and may be a variant translation of an expression found in Le Cosmopolite (1753) by Fougeret de Monbron: "The universe is a sort of book, whose first page one has read when one has seen only one's own country." <br class="br">Misattributed
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
On the assassination of John F. Kennedy, quoted in New York Times (2 December 1963) "Malcolm X Scores U.S. and Kennedy" http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0812FE35541A7B93C0A91789D95F478685F9. p. 21.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1900s, A Square Deal (1903)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speeches to Ohio Regiments (1864), Speech to the One Hundred Sixty-fourth Ohio Regiment
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
First Annual Address, to both House of Congress (8 January 1790)
1790s
Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor
As quoted in MarilynManson.com (6 February 1999).
1990s
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speech to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio (1861), Commercial version
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
St. 8 <br class="br"> Song: Rarely, Rarely, Comest Thou http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Percy_Bysshe_Shelley/17889 (1821)
Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front
'Then I can be going home right away,' retorts Tjaden, and we all laugh.
Source: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Ch. 9
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1854/mar/31/war-with-russia-the-queens-message in the House of Commons (21 March 1854). <br class="br">1850s
Lewis Carroll book Sylvie and Bruno
Source: Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), Chapter 19: A Fairy Duet
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Lillian D. Clark (29 March 1926), quoted in Lord of a Visible World: An Autobiography in Letters edited by S. T. Joshi, p. 186
Non-Fiction, Letters
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Statement on ISIL (September 2014)
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
The Crisis No. XIII
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer
1970s, BOBBY FISCHER SPEAKS OUT! (1977)
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Quote in Monet's letter from Etretat to his second [future] wife Alice Hoschedé, 1883; as cited in: K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 51
1870 - 1890
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall (April 2014)
Cristoforo Colombo (1451–1506) Explorer, navigator, and colonizer
12 October 1492; This entire passage is directly quoted from Columbus in the summary by Bartolomé de Las Casas
Journal of the First Voyage
Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher
Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1961), pp. 95-96
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Repentance before forgiveness is a provision of the Christian system, and on that condition alone will the Republicans grant his forgiveness. <br class="br">Regarding his debate with Judge S. A. Douglas, in his Springfield address (17 July 1858), published in The Life, Speeches, and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln: Together with a Sketch of the Life of Hannibal Hamlin: Republican candidates for the offices of President and Vice-President of the United States (1860), p. 50 <br class="br">Lincoln was alluding to the words of Jesus in Luke 15:7 http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%2015%3A7 <br class="br">1850s
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2016, United Nations Address (September 2016)
Whoopi Goldberg (1955) American actress
Best Supporting Actress of 1990 Acceptance Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyHo8LyroI4, for Ghost <br class="br">Oscar speech
José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist
Open letter to Barrantes on the Noli, published in La Solidaridad (15 February 1890)
“The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.”
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States
Harper's (August 1958)
“I sit at home by myself with my headphones in Randy world, and thats it.”
Randy Blythe (1971) American musician
During the musical writing process.
Making of Sacrament DVD
Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist
Muslim Separatism – Causes and Consequences (1987)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2013, Brandenburg Gate Speech (June 2013)
Chris Rea (1951) English singer-songwriter
"Driving Home for Christmas"
Song lyrics, New Light Through Old Windows (1988)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Floor Statement on President's Decision to Increase Troops in Iraq (19 January 2007)
2007
Hiromu Arakawa (1973) award winning Japanese manga artist
Interview with mobuta.com (2004)
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (1924)
Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer
My Twisted World (2014), Pastimes
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1910s, The World Movement (1910)
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to James F. Morton (January 1931), in Selected Letters III, 1929-1931 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 253
Non-Fiction, Letters, to James Ferdinand Morton, Jr.
Sam Cooke (1931–1964) American singer-songwriter and entrepreneur
You Send Me
Song lyrics, Sam Cooke (1957)
Fernando Pessoa book Mensagem
<p>Original: Triste de quem vive em casa,<br>Contente com o seu lar,<br>Sem que um sonho, no erguer de asa,<br>Faça até mais rubra a brasa<br>Da lareira a abandonar!</p><p>Triste de quem é feliz!<br>Vive porque a vida dura.<br>Nada na alma lhe diz<br>Mais que a lição da raiz-<br>Ter por vida a sepultura.</p> <br class="br">Poem "O Quinto Império" http://www.inverso.pt/Mensagem/Encoberto/QuintoImperio.htm, lines 1–10 <br class="br">Message
Lana Del Rey (1985) American singer-songwriter
"PM's favourite singer Lana Del Rey ignores the abuse", Evening Standard (24 January 2012), p. 13
“Dickens, as you know, never got round to starting his home page.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
alt.fan.pratchett (8 August 1997) http://www.lspace.org/ftp/words/pqf/pqf <br class="br">Usenet
Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series
As quoted in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, on Newsnight, as quoted in 'Harry is a lot, lot, lot angrier in this book' in The Telegraph (20 June 2003) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/fictionreviews/3596993/Harry-is-a-lot-lot-lot-angrier-in-this-book.html) <br class="br">2000s
Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church
Section 288
2010s, 2013, Evangelii Gaudium · The Joy of the Gospel
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Speeches to Ohio Regiments (1864), Speech to One Hundred Forty-eighth Ohio Regiment (1864)
“I usually have to be home by 10 o'clock and my mom takes my computer away at 10.30pm every night.”
Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
Quoted in Stv entertainment "Justin Bieber's strict mother" http://entertainment.stv.tv/showbiz/176908-justin-biebers-strict-mother/, May 2010
Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church
Section 127
2010s, 2013, Evangelii Gaudium · The Joy of the Gospel
Thaksin Shinawatra (1949) Thai politician
Interview with World Policy http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2016/04/21/interview-thaksin-shinawatra-thailand
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
" The Higher Life of American Cities http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/treditorials/o151.pdf", in The Outlook (21 December 1895), p. 1083-1085 <br class="br">1890s
Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) French philosopher, playwright, music critic and leading Christian existentialist
Source: Man Against Mass Society (1952), p. 116
Sam Cooke (1931–1964) American singer-songwriter and entrepreneur
yeah
Bring It On Home to Me (1962)
Song lyrics, Singles
Ted Bundy (1946–1989) American serial killer
1989 interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LYL1PTrtXo with James Dobson
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Press conference http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/07/obama_cambridge.html addressing Henry Louis Gates's arrest by the Cambridge, MA police. (22 July 2009) <br class="br">2009
Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality
Variations of this piece have been misattributed to Andy Rooney, George Carlin, and Woody Allen. The original source is a variation on a piece by Sean Morey. ( "snopes.com: Andy Rooney on Everything", Snopes.com, 2012-09-09 http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/rooney3.asp, ) <br class="br">Misattributed
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, "If Slavery Is Not Wrong, Nothing Is Wrong" (1864)
Alice Cooper (1948) American rock singer, songwriter and musician
"Only Women Bleed" (co-written with Dick Wagner) - Lyrics online http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3929. <br class="br">Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) <br class="br">Context: Man's got his woman to take his seed<br>He's got the power — oh<br>She's got the need<br>She spends her life through pleasing up her man<br>She feeds him dinner or anything she can.<br>She cries alone at night too often<br>He smokes and drinks and don't come home at all.<br>Only women bleed...
Voltaire book Letters on the English
"Lettre XII: sur M. Pope et quelques autres poètes fameux," Lettres philosophiques (1756 edition)
Variants:
He looked on everything as imitation. The most original writers, he said, borrowed one from another. Boyardo has imitated Pulci, and Ariofio Boyardo. The instruction we find in books is like fire; we fetch it from our neighbour, kindle it as home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
Historical and Critical Memoirs of the Life and Writings of M. de Voltaire (1786) by Louis Mayeul Chaudon, p. 348
What we find in books is like the fire in our hearths. We fetch it from our neighbors, we kindle it at home, we communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
As translated in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2008), by James Geary, p. 373
Context: Thus, almost everything is imitation. The idea of The Persian Letters was taken from The Turkish Spy. Boiardo imitated Pulci, Ariosto imitated Boiardo. The most original minds borrowed from one another. Miguel de Cervantes makes his Don Quixote a fool; but pray is Orlando any other? It would puzzle one to decide whether knight errantry has been made more ridiculous by the grotesque painting of Cervantes, than by the luxuriant imagination of Ariosto. Metastasio has taken the greatest part of his operas from our French tragedies. Several English writers have copied us without saying one word of the matter. It is with books as with the fire in our hearths; we go to a neighbor to get the embers and light it when we return home, pass it on to others, and it belongs to everyone
Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States
Timebends : A Life (1987)
Context: The Crucible became by far my most frequently produced play, both abroad and at home. Its meaning is somewhat different in different places and moments. I can almost tell what the political situation in a country is when the play is suddenly a hit there — it is either a warning of tyranny on the way or a reminder of tyranny just past.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Canto I
Source: 1840s, My Childhood's Home I See Again (1844 - 1846)
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
"I create gods all the time - now I think one might exist" (2008)
Context: Belief was never mentioned at home, but right actions were taught by daily example.
Possibly because of this, I have never disliked religion. I think it has some purpose in our evolution.
I don't have much truck with the "religion is the cause of most of our wars" school of thought because that is manifestly done by mad, manipulative and power-hungry men who cloak their ambition in God.
I number believers of all sorts among my friends. Some of them are praying for me. I'm happy they wish to do this, I really am, but I think science may be a better bet.
“Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
"To Helen", st. 1-2 (1831).
Context: p>Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.</p
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien book On Fairy-Stories
On Fairy-Stories (1939)
Context: I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.
“From the sweet thoughts of home
And from all hope I was forever hurled.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
Guilt and Sorrow, st. 41 (1791-1794) Section XL
Context: From the sweet thoughts of home
And from all hope I was forever hurled.
For me—farthest from earthly port to roam
Was best, could I but shun the spot where man might come.
Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot
Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 8, Supplemental image at randi.org http://www.randi.org/images/122801-BlueDot.jpg <br class="br">Context: Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<br>The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.<br>Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<br>The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.<br>It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer
Novalis (1829)
Context: It depends only on the weakness of our organs and of our self-excitement (Selbstberuhrung), that we do not see ourselves in a Fairy-world. All Fabulous Tales (Mahrchen) are merely dreams of that home world, which is everywhere and nowhere. The higher powers in us, which one day as Genies, shall fulfil our will, are, for the present, Muses, which refresh us on our toilsome course with sweet remembrances.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Source: 1860s, Second State of the Union address (1862)
Context: That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States is well adapted to be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and its variety of climate and productions are of advantage in this age for one people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united people.
Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher
Context: How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know the way home? Lady Li was the child of a border guard in Ai. When first captured by the state of Jin, she wept so much her clothes were soaked. But after she entered the palace, shared the king's bed, and dined on the finest meats, she regretted her tears. How do I know that the dead do not regret their previous longing for life? One who dreams of drinking wine may in the morning weep; one who dreams weeping may in the morning go out to hunt. During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense! You and Confucius are both dreaming, and I who say you are a dream am also a dream. Such is my tale. It will probably be called preposterous, but after ten thousand generations there may be a great sage who will be able to explain it, a trivial interval equivalent to the passage from morning to night.
“I'm in it to win it and No Limit is my home (for life for life).”
Snoop Dogg (1971) American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
"Get Bout It & Rowdy", Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told (1998).
Context: So if you got your chrome, you need to stay in the zone
And get a vest for your mutha fuckin dome
Cause it's on like a dog with out his bone
I'm in it to win it and No Limit is my home (for life for life).
Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist
"Los Angeles" p. 162
Exhumations (1966)
Context: An afternoon drive from Los Angeles will take you up into the high mountains, where eagles circle above the forests and the cold blue lakes, or out over the Mojave Desert, with its weird vegetation and immense vistas. Not very far away are Death Valley, and Yosemite, and Sequoia Forest with its giant trees which were growing long before the Parthenon was built; they are the oldest living things in the world. One should visit such places often, and be conscious, in the midst of the city, of their surrounding presence. For this is the real nature of California and the secret of its fascination; this untamed, undomesticated, aloof, prehistoric landscape which relentlessly reminds the traveller of his human condition and the circumstances of his tenure upon the earth. "You are perfectly welcome," it tells him, "during your short visit. Everything is at your disposal. Only, I must warn you, if things go wrong, don't blame me. I accept no responsibility. I am not part of your neurosis. Don't cry to me for safety. There is no home here. There is no security in your mansions or your fortresses, your family vaults or your banks or your double beds. Understand this fact, and you will be free. Accept it, and you will be happy."
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1900s, Seventh Annual Message (1907)
Context: A heavy progressive tax upon a very large fortune is in no way such a tax upon thrift or industry as a like would be on a small fortune. No advantage comes either to the country as a whole or to the individuals inheriting the money by permitting the transmission in their entirety of the enormous fortunes which would be affected by such a tax; and as an incident to its function of revenue raising, such a tax would help to preserve a measurable equality of opportunity for the people of the generations growing to manhood. We have not the slightest sympathy with that socialistic idea which would try to put laziness, thriftlessness and inefficiency on a par with industry, thrift and efficiency; which would strive to break up not merely private property, but what is far more important, the home, the chief prop upon which our whole civilization stands. Such a theory, if ever adopted, would mean the ruin of the entire country — a ruin which would bear heaviest upon the weakest, upon those least able to shift for themselves. But proposals for legislation such as this herein advocated are directly opposed to this class of socialistic theories. Our aim is to recognize what Lincoln pointed out: The fact that there are some respects in which men are obviously not equal; but also to insist that there should be an equality of self-respect and of mutual respect, an equality of rights before the law, and at least an approximate equality in the conditions under which each man obtains the chance to show the stuff that is in him when compared to his fellows.
George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general
Speech to the Third Army (1944)
Context: Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916) <br class="br">Context: This "I" of mine toils hard, day and night, for a home which it knows as its own. Alas, there will be no end of its sufferings so long as it is not able to call this home thine. Till then it will struggle on, and its heart will ever cry, "Ferryman, lead me across." When this home of mine is made thine, that very moment is it taken across, even while its old walls enclose it. This "I" is restless. It is working for a gain which can never be assimilated with its spirit, which it never can hold and retain. In its efforts to clasp in its own arms that which is for all, it hurts others and is hurt in its turn, and cries, "Lead me across". But as soon as it is able to say, "All my work is thine," everything remains the same, only it is taken across.<br>Where can I meet thee unless in this mine home made thine? Where can I join thee unless in this my work transformed into thy work? If I leave my home I shall not reach thy home; if I cease my work I can never join thee in thy work. For thou dwellest in me and I in thee. Thou without me or I without thee are nothing.
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2012, Remarks at Clinton Global Initiative (September 2012)
Context: Now, I do not use that word, "slavery" lightly. It evokes obviously one of the most painful chapters in our nation’s history. But around the world, there’s no denying the awful reality. When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape -- that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving -- that’s slavery. When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that’s slavery. When a little girl is sold by her impoverished family -- girls my daughters’ age -- runs away from home, or is lured by the false promises of a better life, and then imprisoned in a brothel and tortured if she resists -- that’s slavery. It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world.
Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot
Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 8, Supplemental image at randi.org http://www.randi.org/images/122801-BlueDot.jpg <br class="br">Context: Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<br>The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.<br>Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<br>The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.<br>It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
“I have become a queer mixture of the East and the West … Out of place everywhere, at home nowhere.”
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India
As quoted in Ambassador's Report (1954) by Chester Bowles, p. 59
Context: I have become a queer mixture of the East and the West … Out of place everywhere, at home nowhere. Perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is called Western than Eastern, but India clings to me, as she does to all her children, in innumerable ways … I am a stranger and alien in the West. I cannot be of it. But in my own country also, sometimes I have an exile's feeling.
Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist
Light (1919), Ch. XV - An Apparition
Context: I think of myself, of all that I am. Myself, my home, my hours; the past, and the future, — it was going to be like the past! And at that moment I feel, weeping within me and dragging itself from some little bygone trifle, a new and tragical sorrow in dying, a hunger to be warm once more in the rain and the cold: to enclose myself in myself in spite of space, to hold myself back, to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)
Context: We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism. The home that all too many Americans left was solidly structured idealistically; its pillars were solidly grounded in the insights of our Judeo-Christian heritage. All men are made in the image of God. All men are brothers. All men are created equal. Every man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth. Every man has rights that are neither conferred by, nor derived from the State — they are God-given. Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. What a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious and healthy place to inhabit. But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has brought only confusion and bewilderment. It has left hearts aching with guilt and minds distorted with irrationality.