“The act of writing the book was painful at times, but it was easier than talking to someone.”
Piper Laurie (1932) actress
About writing her memoir. Theodore P. Mahne, "Actress Piper Laurie charms audience, interviewer at Tennessee Williams Festival" (25 March 2012), Times-Picayune at nola.com (New OrleansNet) http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2012/03/actress_piper_laurie_charms_au.html
Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer
Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1964)
Context: I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Context: I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory
Freeman (1948), p. 163
Variant: The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures. There are some men who are masters of cities but slaves to women.
William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
Source: The Negro's Complaint (1788), Lines 49-52
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist
Introductory Remarks
Thoughts on African Colonization (1832)
Context: Is Error, though unwittingly supported by a host of good men, stronger than Truth? Are Right and Wrong convertible terms, dependant upon popular opinion? Oh no! Then I will go forward in the strength of the Lord of Hosts — in the name of Truth — and under the banner of Right. As it is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God, that great moral changes are effected, I am encouraged to fight valiantly in this good cause, believing that I shall "come off conqueror, and more than conqueror" — yet not I, but Truth and Justice. It is in such a contest that one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Part I, p. 45.
The Autobiography (1818)
Context: My Parents had early given me religious Impressions, and brought me through my Childhood piously in the Dissenting Way. But I was scarce 15 when, after doubting by turns of several Points as I found them disputed in the different Books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some Books against Deism fell into my Hands; they were said to be the Substance of Sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an Effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them: For the Arguments of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much Stronger than the Refutations. In short I soon became a thorough Deist.
Paul Hinder (1942) Roman Catholic bishop, Capuchin Friar
Yemen: Bishop Hinder describes humanitarian crisis http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2015/04/13/yemen_bishop_hinder_describes_humanitarian_crisis/en-1136382 (13 April 2015)
Dejan Stojanovic book Circling: 1978-1987
”New Vandals,” p. 65
Circling: 1978-1987 (1993), Sequence: “A Warden with No Keys”
“The only thing more painful than being an active forgetter is to be an inert rememberer.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated
Variant: The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know you are sad.
Source: Everything Is Illuminated
“To lose the thing we love is greater pain
Than to desire and never to obtain.”
Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet
Che lasciar quel che s'ama, e peggio assai
Che disiarlo, e non averlo mai.
XVII, 6
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato
“For the Devil, the presence of learned one is by far more painful than a thousand worshipers.”
Ali al-Rida (770–818) eighth of the Twelve Imams
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.2, p. 16.
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, Religious
